ISSN 0739-4934 Newsletter HISTORY OF SCIENCE VOLUME 35 NUMBER 2 April 2006 SOCIETY Who Is the HSS? ne of the happy byproducts of development work is on dozens of committees; we Olearning more about our members. The 2,500 award prizes for superior individuals in the History of Science Society come from scholarship and teaching; and, around the globe, representing a wide variety of most importantly, we foster research institutions, fields of education, and profes- interest in the history of sci- sions. A quarter live outside the United States, 16% are ence. In short, the HSS is students, with an equal percentage classified as retired. much more than Isis. The bulk of our members, some 64%, are regular But even with a wide members, with the remaining percentages designated array of services, the HSS, like as family members, sponsored scholars, or life mem- many academic societies, has bers (life memberships are no longer available). experienced a gradual decline But when we look closer at our group, more ques- in membership over the past tions emerge than answers. We do not know how many 10 years (see graph). Most of us are on the cusp of retirement, we do not know humanities societies report where many of us received our training, and we do not similar drops and the HSS is know what many of our members think of HSS servic- actually doing better than es. The major reason behind these gaps in knowledge many other sister societies in retaining members. For stated in her piece in the last Newsletter, we are look- is that the HSS has a tendency to track its members those who regularly attend the annual meetings, the ing to our members for specific ideas, and we have from the point of view of a subscription service, that is, overall trend in membership numbers may come as a instituted a long-range planning committee that will we look at individuals as subscribers to Isis rather than surprise. Long-time members will remember annual consider these ideas for implementation. With this as members of a professional society. This outlook can meetings where 350 attendees was the norm (older new-found knowledge, with our eyes on development, be traced back to the History of Science Society’s estab- members will remember conferences where everyone we hope to serve you better and provide the kinds of lishment in 1924. In order to insure the viability of Isis, fit in a modest-sized room). But the attendance trend programs that will help you in your own personal and which had struggled for survival since its inception in over the past ten years has been upward, with over professional development. 1912, George Sarton and others founded the HSS. The 600 registrants for the 2005 meeting in Minneapolis, strategy worked – Isis is now the most-respected jour- a positive sign that an increasingly higher percentage –Jay Malone nal in our field – but during its 82 years the HSS of members are coming to our conferences. evolved to provide its members with more than a copy But we must do more to serve our whole member- Contents of Isis. We publish a separate Current Bibliography as ship and to do that we need information from our a fifth issue of Isis, an annual issue of Osiris, the quar- members. To that end, the HSS has launched a short HSS Candidates 3 terly Newsletter, and many occasional publications; we online survey of our group, and I hope that you will News and Inquiries 7 host a Web site that lists information on jobs, confer- take a few minutes to answer the questions (please Jobs 8 ences, news, awards and prizes, graduate programs, click on the survey link at hssonline.org). We want to Awards, Honors, and Appointments 8 Grants, Fellowships, and Prizes 9 and other areas of interest in the field; we give mem- know when and where you received your degrees, when Future Meetings 10 bers access to the history of science, technology and you joined the HSS, where you work, and what the HSS Dissertations 11 medicine bibliographic database; we offer discount should be doing (or not doing). Our Committee on Donors 12 subscriptions to history of science journals, such as Research and the Profession is working on a longer, Isis Books Received 13 Annals of Science; we host an annual meeting; we detailed survey, and we hope that the current quick Ballot Form 16 provide members back issues of Isis and Osiris through assessment will help us generate better questions for a JSTOR; we coordinate hundreds of volunteers who serve more expansive effort. As HSS President Joan Cadden History of Science Society Newsletter April 2006 History of Science Society Newsletter April 2006 The American History of Science Society Executive Office Council and Nominating Committee Candidates 2006 Philosophical Society Library Postal Address Physical Address PO Box 117360 3310 Turlington Hall Council University of Florida University of Florida Douglas Allchin, Program in History of Science Pamela O. Long, Independent Historian. Ph.D. Gainesville, FL 32611-7360 Gainesville, FL 32611 Library Residentnt and Technology, University of Minnesota, University of Maryland, 1979. HSS and Pro- Research Fellowships Minneapolis, MN. Ph.D., University of Chicago, fessional Activities: Isis Editorial Board (1997- Phone: 352-392-1677 1991. HSS and Professional Activities: 99); Osiris Editorial Board (2004-2006). Editorial Fax: 352-392-2795 Committee on Education (1993-95, 2003-2007); Advisory Board, Nuncius (2004-present); Executive The American Philosophical Society Library offers E-mail: [email protected] Program Chair, ISHPSSB (2001); Editorial Board, Council, SHOT, (2000-2003); Editorial Committee, short-term residential fellowships for conducting research Web site: http://www.hssonline.org/ Science Education (2002-present); AAAS Section L SHOT (1995-99). Awards: Getty Scholar, Getty in its collections. The Society’s Library is a leading interna- Member-at-Large (2006-2010). Selected Pub- Research Institute (2005-06); Davis Fellow, tional center for historical and anthropological research Subscription Inquiries: ISIS and HSS Newsletter lications: An Introduction to the History of Princeton University (2005); Rome Prize Fellow, with over 8 million manuscripts, 250,000 printed volumes, Please contact the University of Chicago Press directly, at: Science in Non-Western Traditions (co-editor, American Academy in Rome (2004-05); Morris D. and thousands of maps and prints. Among its more [email protected]; 877-705-1878/877-705-1879 1999); Doing Biology (co-author, 1996); “Phlogiston After Oxygen,” Ambix Forkosch Prize for the best first book in intellectual history (2001); Abbort prominent collections are the papers of Benjamin Franklin, (phone/fax), toll free for U.S. and Canada. 39(1992): 110-116; “To Err and Win a Nobel Prize: Paul Boyer, ATP Synthase and Payson Usher Prize (T&C article Prize, 1993). Select Publications: Open- Or write University of Chicago Press, Subscription Charles Darwin, Charles Davenport, and Franz Boas; and the Emergence of Bioenergetics,” Journal of the History of Biology 35(2002): ness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Fulfillment Manager, PO Box 37005, Chicago, IL is noted for the depth and importance of its collections in: 149-172; “Scientific Myth-Conceptions,” Science Education 87(2003): 329-351; Antiquity to the Renaissance (2001); Technology, Society, and Culture in Late 60637-7363. History of science, technology, and medicine; “Efraim Racker,” Dictionary of Scientific Biography (forthcoming). Medieval and Renaissance Europe, 1300-1600 (2000); Technology and Anthropology, particularly American Indian history, cul- Society in the Medieval Centuries: Byzantium, Islam and the West, 500- ture, and languages; Early American history and culture to Moving? 1600; (co-editor and co-director), The Book of Michael of Rhodes: A Fifteenth- 1840. The Library does not hold materials on philosophy John Beatty, Professor of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Century Maritime Manuscript, 3 vols. (forthcoming); co-author, Obelisk: A in the modern sense. Please notify both the HSS Executive Office and the Ph.D., History and Philosophy of Science, 1979, Indiana. HSS and Professional History (forthcoming). The fellowships, funded by a number of generous University of Chicago Press at the above addresses. Activities: HSS Council (1990-1992), Isis Editorial Board (1991-1994), AAAS benefactors, are intended to encourage research in the Committee on Council Affairs (1998-2000), AAAS Council (1997-2000), AAAS Section Library's collections by scholars who reside beyond a 75- L Chair Elect/Chair/Retiring Chair (2002-2005), NSF STS Panel (1994-1997), PSA Elizabeth Green Musselman, Associate Professor mile radius of Philadelphia. The fellowships are open to HSS Newsletter Governing Board (1994-1996), Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of of History and Chair of Feminist Studies, Southwestern both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals who are holders of Science Advisory Board (2003-present), Co-Director Dibner Seminar in the History of University, Georgetown, TX. Ph.D., Indiana University, the Ph.D. or the equivalent, Ph.D. candidates who have Editorial Policies, Advertising, and Submissions Biology (1990-present). Selected Publications: Gigerenzer et al. The Empire of 1999. HSS and Professional Activities: Co-chair passed their preliminary examinations, and independent Chance (Cambridge, 1989); “Dobzhansky and the Biology of Democracy,” in Adams of HSS Women’s Caucus (2005-2006); Co-local scholars. Applicants in any relevant field of scholarship The History of Science Society Newsletter is published in January, April, (ed.), The Evolution of Theodosius Dobzhansky (Princeton, 1994); “Origins of the organizer of HSS Annual Meeting (2004); Co-organiz- may apply. July, and October, and sent to all individual members of the Society; those U.S. Human Genome Project: Changing Relationships between Genetics and er of North Eastern Workshops on Southern Africa The stipend is $2,000 per month, and the term of the who reside outside of North America pay an additional $5 annually to cover National Security,” in Sloan (ed.), Controlling Our Destinies (Notre Dame, 2000); (2004-present).