Dr. Ton van Helvoort

I am an independent scholar in the history of science (main period: 20th century). After my PhD dissertation on the history of virus studies in the 20th century, my interest moved to the history of cancer research and of (bio)chemistry. I have a book in press (in Dutch) on the Dept of Chemistry of the University of Groningen. Here I reconstruct and analyse the impact of the American model of higher education on the way chemical research and education was organized at the University of Groningen. At this moment I am commissioned to write a, university wide, history of the computer center in Groningen. Special attention will be devoted to the impact of computing facilities on disciplinary research and education, e.g. the mathematisation of the social sciences, the development of computer graphics and simulaton in the natural sciences and computer aided instruction. Other topics of interest are the impact of computers on the library and on university administration. Over half a century digital computers were stimuli for the centralization of the university as a unified institution but also stimulated decentralization, leading to independent disciplines, laboratories and institutes.