The working life of scientists: exploring the culture of scientific research through the personal archive of Donald Michie

This project aims to contextualise Donald Michie's life and career alongside works such as Gary Werskey's Visible College. Placing Michie in the broader context of 'red scientists', in particular documenting the fallout from the Lysenko affair and the decline of British scientific trust in the Soviet Union, would also be of interest. The project aims to pursue questions of gender in relation to Michie and his circle, which, as Werskey himself noted, were missing from earlier historiography on scientists of the British Left. Extensive consideration will be given to the Anne McLaren papers, given the centrality of her relationship, both personal and professional, to Michie in his life and work.

The nature of science communication in relation to Michie's developments of machine intelligence will be explored, with the aim of grounding the question of how new scientific developments emerge in terms of their communication. The researcher plans to build on his own first-hand experience of the process of science communication and the research of people such as Secord, particularly noting the on-going process of research and communication of the fields in which Michie worked.

Through researching Michie's papers, there is the opportunity to shed further light on the role of scientists as political actors, for both the benefit of scientists and their publics.