Victoria Chung

PhD thesis title: Chemical Credibility in Industrial Research: ICI's Corporate Laboratories and the Production of Knowledge in Twentieth-Century Britain, 1926-1990

This project argues that industrial chemical research provides a crucial lens for understanding the formation of British power in the twentieth century. Existing accounts have tended to locate the production and validation of chemical knowledge primarily within universities or government institutions, overlooking industrial laboratories as key sites of knowledge production rather than mere application.

The project centres on Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), which occupied a central position within the national research system alongside universities and state laboratories and was, in key domains, a dominant producer of chemical knowledge. Established in 1926 through the merger of Britain’s leading chemical companies, ICI unified research, manufacturing, and managerial coordination within a single integrated corporate structure. Its laboratory work was directed towards transforming experimental results into reproducible industrial processes, while aligning closely with defence supply and economic planning. By focusing on areas in which ICI played a leading role, the project examines how the firm’s position within the research system enabled it to shape the organisation and credibility of chemical knowledge.