Jeroen van Dongen

This is the homepage of Jeroen van Dongen, Universitair Docent at the Institute for History and Foundations of Science and Descartes Centre at Utrecht University. I am also Editor at the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein and Visiting Associate in History at the California Institute of Technology.

Upcoming events and lectures:

• 27 April: Radio 5 discussion with Theodoor Holman and Max Pam at OBA Live.

• 16-20 May: Seven Pines Symposium XVI on “Analogy and Duality in Physics”, Minnesota Centre for the Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota.  
•  7-8 June: Symposium: “Between Science and History”, Working group “Philosophical Foundations of the Historiography of Science”, University of Leiden.
• 12-14 July: Workshop on “Theoretical Values in Theory Choice”, Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz.
• 1 October, Seminar at the Centre for Science Studies, Aarhus University.  

Interests

My research interests concern mostly topics in history of twentieth century physics, and have lately particularly focused on the science and life of Albert Einstein. I have recently studied such subjects as Einstein’s relation to experiment, his unified field theory program, the reception of relativity in Weimar society and topics in the history of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Teaching

In the Fall term:

• “Worldviews/Wereldbeelden” (with W. Mijnhardt et al.), in the Utrecht History Bachelor.
• “Philosophy of Science” (with D. Dieks), in the Utrecht History and Philosophy of Science Master.

In the Spring term:

• “Einstein” (with A.J. Kox). The course will be located in both Utrecht and Amsterdam. It is included in Utrecht’s HPS master program.
•  “History of Modern Physics” in Utrecht’s Undergraduate Physics Bachelor program.

Course descriptions are found here. More on the HPS Master program is here and here.  

Publications

Monograph:

• Einstein’s Unification. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010 (publisher book site).

Edited work:

• As Editor; with Maria Barnas. Het Zwarte Gat. Special issue of: De Gids 173 (2010) 877-1020 (journal).
• As Editor; with Dennis Dieks, A.J. Kox, and Jos Uffink (eds.). On the history of the quantum. The HQ2 Special Issue. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40 (2009) 277-406 (journal).
• As Associate Editor; with Diana Kormos Buchwald, Ze’ev Rosenkranz, Tilman Sauer, József Illy, Virginia I. Holmes (eds.); Daniel J. Kennefick, A.J. Kox and Osik Moses (assoc. eds.); Rudy Hirschmann, Jennifer Nollar and Carol Chaplin (ed. assists.). The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 12: The Berlin Years. Correspondence 1921. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
• As Associate Editor; with Diana Kormos Buchwald, Tilman Sauer, Ze’ev Rosenkranz, József Illy, Virginia I. Holmes (eds.); Daniel J. Kennefick and A.J. Kox (assoc. eds.); Rudy Hirschmann, Osik Moses and Jennifer Nollar (ed. assists.). The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 10: The Berlin Years. Correspondence May-December 1920 and Supplementary Correspondence 1909-1920. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.

Articles in English: 

• Mistaken Identity and Mirror Images: Albert and Carl Einstein, Leiden and Berlin, Relativity and Revolution, Physics in Perspective, 14 (2012) 126-177 (journal).
• On Einstein’s opponents, and other crackpots. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 41 (2010) 78-80 (journal).
• On the history of the quantum: Introduction to the HQ2 special issue. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40 (2009) 277-279 (with Dennis Dieks, Jos Uffink and A.J. Kox; journal).
• On the role of the Michelson-Morley experiment: Einstein in Chicago. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 63 (2009) 655-663 (journal; arxiv; philsci).
• Emil Rupp, Albert Einstein and the canal ray experiments on wave-particle duality: Scientific fraud and theoretical bias. Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 37 Supplement (2007) 73-120 (journal; arxiv; philsci).
• The interpretation of the Einstein-Rupp experiments and their influence on the history of quantum mechanics. Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 37 Supplement (2007) 121-131 (journal; arxiv; philsci).
• Fame, philosophy and physics. Science 317 (2007) 752-753 (journal).
• Reactionaries and Einstein’s Fame: “German Scientists for the Preservation of Pure Science,” Relativity and the Bad Nauheim meeting. Physics in Perspective 9 (2007) 212-230 (journal).
• On black hole complementarity. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (2004) 509-525 (with S. de Haro; journal).
• Einstein’s Methodology, Semivectors and the Unification of Electrons and Protons. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 58 (2004) 219-254 (journal).
• Einstein and the Kaluza-Klein particle. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33 (2002) 185-210 (journal; arxiv).

Selected publications in Dutch:

• Globaliserende kennis en het Nederlands perspectief. De Gids 174 (2011) 793-795.
• Zwarte gaten werden geboren. De Gids 173 (2010) 940-954 (pdf; link).
• Het zwarte gat en de falende mens. De Gids 173 (2010) 877-881 (with M. Barnas; link).

• Het bekende en onbekende in ons heelal. De Gids 173 (2010) 956-968. Translation of: Our universe: the known and the unknown, J.A. Wheeler, American Scientist, 56, 1, 1968, pp. 1-20.
• Wat is elektriciteit? De Telegraaf, 16 januari 2010.
• Lieve Bobby. Brief aan Charles Darwin. De Volkskrant, 4 April 2009 (link). See also pp. 55-57 in Martijn van Calmthout and Jelle Reumer (eds.), Geachte Darwin. Brieven aan de grondlegger van de evolutietheorie (Amsterdam: Athenaeum, Polak & Van Gennep, 2009).
• Albert Einstein. Man van ruimte en tijd. pp. 128-131 in Robbert Dijkgraaf and Louise Fresco (eds.), De bètacanon (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 2008).
• Tabloid Einstein: oefening in koorddansen. Hypothese. NWO blad voor de wetenschap, nummer 1, jaargang 15, p. 17, 2008. 

• Over lichtemissie: Albert Einstein en de vroege geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Natuurkundige Vereniging. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Natuurkunde 74 (2008) 138-141 (with A. Tauschinsky).

• Einstein. De Volkskrant, 14 July 2007 (link).

• Einstein en Nederland. De rol van de omstreden Nobelprijswinnaar Peter Debye verdient meer. De Academische Boekengids 57 (2006) 9-12 (journal).

• Einsteins Werdegang en zijn Amsterdamse publicaties. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Natuurkunde 69 (2003) 324-328.

More on Volume 10 of Einstein’s Collected Papers is found here, or for some of my comments see the NRC (in Dutch) or El Pais (Spanish). For more on Einstein and Emil Rupp, see also the NRC & de Volkskrant (in Dutch) or New Scientist.

Awards and grants

·        “Andreas Bonn Medal” (for 1998-2002, awarded in 2003) of the Genootschap ter Bevordering van Natuur-, Genees-, en Heelkunde for my Ph.D. thesis (Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2002; advisors A.J. Kox and H.L. Verlinde).

·      NWO Veni grant (2005-2008).

·        FOM grant (2010-2015) for Ph.D. research on institutional history of Dutch physics in post World War II reconstruction.

De Gids

Van 2007 tot en met 2011 ben ik redacteur van literair en algemeen cultureel maandblad De Gids geweest. Iedereen moet dit belangrijke blad natuurlijk lezen. Verkrijgbaar bij de betere boekhandel, of door het nemen van een abonnement.

Locations

Jeroen van Dongen