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The Papers of Michael P. Barnett

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Held at: Science History Institute Archives [Contact Us]315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Science History Institute Archives. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Michael P. Barnett was born on March 24, 1929. He was educated at Baines' Grammar School and King's College where he studied under Charles A. Coulson. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics in 1952. He was employed by the Royal Radar Establishment and IBM in England but moved to the U.S. at the invitation of Joseph O. Hirschfelder to teach in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in 1957. The following year he moved on to MIT to work with John Clarke Slater's Solid State and Molecular Theory Group. He also served as Director of the Cooperative Computing Laboratory. He returned to England in 1964 to the University of London's Institute of Computer Science. By now he was moving away from his early interest in Quantum Chemistry to tackle problems associated with computer generated printing and composition. He returned to the U.S. and taught at Columbia University (1975-1977) and the City University of New York (CUNY) from which he retired as Emeritus Professor in 1996. Michael P. Barnett died in Princeton, NJ on March 13, 2012.

For a more detailed inventory, please view this record in our library catalog: https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/record=b1070830~S6

Of particular interest is the file of correspondence between Barnett and his early mentor Charles Coulson when Barnett was active in the field of Quantum Chemistry.

Arranged into five series: Series I. Biographical; Series II. Reprints; Series III. Day Books; Series IV. Conferences & Symposia; Series v. Examples of computer generated typesetting & composition/ Miscellanea.

This is a small collection of papers and reprints mostly covering the later portion of Barnett's career in the U.S. working in the computer printing and composition.

Source of acquisition--Barnett, Michael P.. Method of acquisition--Gift;; Date of acquisition--2011..

Publisher
Science History Institute Archives

Collection Inventory

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