Creating a scientific peak: How Boulder, Colorado became a world center for space and atmospheric science, 1945-1965

In this work, I investigate how Boulder, Colorado became an international center for the production of scientific knowledge about the processes that connect sun and earth. I show that local scientific entrepreneurs and other elements of the Boulder community exploited the opportunities presented by the changing policy landscape for US science in this era to make Boulder a world center for sun-earth studies. This occurred despite the city's original lack of attributes that might suggest such a rapid development. This work argues that solar astronomer Walter Orr Roberts and others in the city created a horizontally integrated "Marshallian District" for sun-earth studies in the post-Second World War era that enabled the emergence of Boulder as a major site for US science.