Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Science, Office of the Dean records
Scope and Contents of the Collection
This collection contains the records of the Office of the Dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science. Records received in 1980, box 1, 1951-1976, contain minutes of meetings, proposals, and memoranda about Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty involvement with the Boston Museum of Science Education Committee, 1967-1978; information about the MIT Education Research Center; grant proposals for the National Science Foundation; correspondence about the Consortium of Marine Sciences; a report from the Committee on Faculty Responsibility; and correspondence about the Harry B. Huggins professorship. Records received in 1982, boxes 2-26, 1967-1983, contain correspondence, memoranda, and reports from the departments and research laboratories and centers which report to the dean of the school. There is correspondence with the MIT Corporation about visiting committees, and information about MIT committees, including the Commission on MIT Education, the Committee on Curricula, the Committee on Radio Astronomy, and the Committee on MIT Research Structure, and records about budgets, fund raising, and long range planning. There is information about experimental educational programs and the MIT Joint Program in Oceanography with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Correspondence and reports document student and faculty protests against the military and the Vietnam War, and about the safety of recombinant DNA research. There is correspondence with organizations including the National Science Foundation, the National Research Council, and the George R. Wallace Geophysical Observatory. Also included are personnel records for faculty and research staff, and teaching and research assistants. Records received in 1985, boxes 27-30, 1971-1983, contain personnel records for faculty and research staff. There are also Science Council agendas and minutes, 1980-1982. Records received in 1997 and 1999, boxes 31-33, are unprocessed.
Dates
- 1951 - 1983
Creator
Access note
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Conditions Governing Use
Access to collections in the Department of Distinctive Collections is not authorization to publish. Please see the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy for permission information. Copyright of some items in this collection may be held by respective creators, not by the donor of the collection or MIT.
Historical note
The School of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was established in 1932 as part of the reorganization of the Institute recommended by President Karl Taylor Compton. The departments that became part of the School of Science were: Biology and Public Health (which in 1942 became the Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, and in 1945 the Department of Biology); Chemistry; Geology (which in 1952 became the Department of Geology and Geophysics, in 1969 the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and in 1983 the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences); Mathematics; Physics; and Military Science and Tactics (which in 1933 became part of the Division of Humanities). The Department of General Science and Engineering was part of the School of Science from 1933 until it was discontinued in 1959.
In 1945 the Program in Food Technology was separated from the Department of Biology and Biomedical Engineering and became the Department of Food Technology (in 1960 the name changed to the Department of Nutrition, Food Science, and Technology, in 1963 to the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, and in 1985 to the Department of Applied Biological Sciences). In 1988 the department was disbanded. In 1957 the Department of Meteorology moved from the School of Engineering to the School of Science (in 1981 it became the Department of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, and in 1983, part of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences). In 1994 the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences was moved from the Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology to the School of Science.
For more information about the departments in the School of Science, see agency histories under their individual names.
The deans of the School of Science include Samuel C. Prescott, 1932-1942; George Russell Harrison, 1942-1963; Jerome Bert Wiesner, 1964-1967; Robert Arnold Alberty, 1967-1982; John M. Deutch, 1982-1985; Gene M. Brown, 1985-1991; Robert J. Birgenau, 1991-2000; Robert J. Silbey, 2000-2007; and Marc Kastner, 2007-Present.
Extent
30.3 Cubic Feet (29 record cartons, 2 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Location
Materials are stored off-site. Advance notice is required for use.
Other Aids to the Collection
An index to material in boxes 31 to 33 (accessions 1988-31 and 2002-80) is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections for staff use.
Processing Information note
Some collection descriptions are based on legacy data and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. Description may change pending verification. Please contact the MIT Department of Distinctive Collections if you notice any errors or discrepancies.
- Bates Linear Accelerator Center
- George R. Wallace, Jr. Geophysical Observatory
- Harvard--MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology
- M.I.T./W.H.O.I Joint Program
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- History Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Arteriosclerosis Center
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Cancer Research
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for the Earth Sciences
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nutrition and Food Science
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Interdisciplinary Science Program
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Fusion Center
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Science. Office of the Dean
- academic departments Subject Source: Thesaurus for Use in College and University Archives
- administration of employees Subject Source: Thesaurus for Use in College and University Archives
- administration of students Subject Source: Thesaurus for Use in College and University Archives
- deans Subject Source: Thesaurus for Use in College and University Archives
Creator
- Title
- Preliminary Inventory to the Records of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science Office of the Dean
- Status
- Preliminary Inventory
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections Repository
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries
Building 14N-118
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02139-4307 US
distinctive-collections@mit.edu