Nathan Reingold Prize: Joy Rohde

The winner of the Reingold Prize is Joy Rohde of the University of Pennsylvania for her essay, “Gray Matters: Social Scientists, Military Patronage, and Disinterested Truth in the Cold War.” Rohde’s case study of SORO, the Special Operations Research Office run by the U.S. Army, explores “the gray area between science and politics.” This essay brought a fresh perspective to enduring questions about professional/scientific autonomy and political/economic/cultural patronage and the conflicts between knowledge and power.  Historiographically sophisticated and finely composed, Rohde’s study challenges received views of Cold War science, breaking new ground in studies of science and the national security state.