Dibner Institute Names Resident, Visiting and Postdoctoral Fellows For 1997-1998 The Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology is pleased to announce the appointments of the Dibner Institute Fellows for 1997-1998. The Institute has appointed eighteen Resident, seven Visiting, and seven Postdoctoral Fellows. They come from several nations and pursue many different aspects of the history of science and technology. The following eighteen persons have been appointed as Dibner Institute Fellows: Kirsti Andersen, Associate Professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, is the author of Brook Taylor’s Work on Linear Perspective. A Study of Taylor’s Role in the History of Perspective Geometry, Including Complete Facsimiles of His Two Books on Perspective, 1992. She has also translated several key sources in the history of mathematics into Danish. At the Dibner Institute she plans to prepare for publication her many papers on the history of mathematical theory of perspective, 1435 to the end of the 18th century, and also to begin a study on the history of logarithms. Henk J.M. Bos is Extraordinary Professor in the History of Mathematics at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Following the completion this summer of a large monograph entitled “Descartes and the Early Modern Traditions of Geometrical Problem Solving, he will continue work on a sequel concerning the new mathematics of the period. John K. Brown, Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, has written The Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1831-1915: A Study in American Industrial Practice, published in 1995, and Limbs on the Levee: Steamboat Explosions and the Origins of Federal Public Welfare Regulations, 1817-1852, published in 1989. His project while at the Dibner Institute is titled “The Forges of Industry: Capital Equipment Builders in 19th-Century America.” Alan Chalmers, Associate Professor, University of Sydney, Australia, is the author of Science and its Fabrication and many articles including “Cartwright on Fundamental Laws,” in Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 74 (1996) and “Ultimate Explanation in Science,” Cogito, 9 (1995). At the Dibner Institute he plans to continue work on a broad history of atomism from Democritus to Einstein, tentatively titled “An Epistemological History of Atomism.” Anne Fausto-Sterling, Professor of Medical Science and Women Studies at Brown University, is the author of Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Women and Men. Her next work entitled, “Body Building: How Biologists Construct Sexuality,” will be published in 1997. At the Dibner Institute she will work on a book titled “Edwin Grant Conklin: Embryologist and Eugenicist.” W. Alan Gabbey, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, Barnard College, is the author of “The Principia Philosophiae as a Treatise in Natural Philosophy,” in Descartes: Principia Philosophiae (1644-1994), eds. Jean-Robert Armogathe and Giulia Belgioioso; and “Spinoza’s Natural Science and Methodology” in The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza, ed. Don Garrett, 1996. At the Dibner Institute he will continue work on a book provisionally titled, “Machines and the Spirits Within: Problems of the Mechanical Philosophy in the Early Modern Period.” Yung Sik Kim, Professor in the Program in History and Philosophy of Science at Seoul National University, Korea, is the author of the forthcoming book, “The Natural Philosophy of Chu Hsi (1130-1200).” His most recent articles in English are “Chu Hsi on Calendar Specialists and Their Knowledge: A Scholar’s Attitude toward Technical Scientific Knowledge in Traditional China,” T’oung Pao, 78 (1992) and “Another Look at Robert Boyle’s Acceptance of Mechanical Philosophy: Its Limits and Its Chemical and Social Contexts,” Ambix: International Journal of History of Alchemy and Chemistry, 38 (1991). While at the Dibner Institute he will continue his research on neo-Confucian natural philosophy and natural knowledge. Ursula Klein is a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and at the Max-Planck Institute für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Germany. She is the author of Verbindung und Affinität. Die Grundlegung der neuzeitlichen Chemie an der Wende vom 17. zum 18. Jahrhundert and “The Chemical Workshop Tradition and the Experimental Practice. Discontinuities within Continuities,” Science in Context , 9 (1996). At the Dibner Institute she will explore the introduction of chemical formulas into chemistry. Larry Laudan, Visiting Researcher, Instituto de las Investigaciones Filosoficas, National University of Mexico, is the author, most recently, of The Book of Risks, Beyond Positivism and Relativism, and the forthcoming Italian translation of Science and Relativism. At the Dibner Institute he will continue work on the third section of a book about the relation between theory and evidence, in which he will explore the differences, if any, between observational and experimental evidence. Rachel Laudan is the author of From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science 1650-1830; with A. Donovan and L. Laudan; Scrutinizing Science: Empirical Studies of Scientific Change; and “Natural Alliance or Forced Marriage? Changing Relations Between the Histories of Science and Technology,” Technology and Culture, 36 (1995). In her work at the Dibner Institute she will continue her investigations for a work entitled “Chemistry Applied: Physiology and Dietetics 1650-1800.” Jesper Lützen is Professor of Mathematics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is the author of Joseph Liouville 1809-1882: Master of Pure and Applied Mathematics; “Interactions between Mechanics and Differential Geometry in the 19th Century,” Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 49, (1995); and “Heinrich Hertz and the Geometrisation of Mechanics,” to appear in Heinrich Hertz: Classical Physicist, Modern Philosopher, ed. Baird D. Huges, R.I.G., and Nordmann. At the Dibner Institute he will continue his work on Hertz’s mechanics. Bruce Pourciau, Professor of Mathematics at Lawrence University, is the author of “Reading the Master: Newton and the Birth of Celestial Mechanics,” The American Mathematical Monthly, January, 1997; “Radical Principia,” and “Newton’s Solution of the One-Body Problem,” Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 44 (1992). The projects he will pursue at the Dibner Institute are titled “The Early Mathematical Lemmas of the Principia” and “Intuitionism: A Kuhnian Perspective on a Failed Revolution.” Miklós Rédei is Associate Professor in the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary. He is the author of Introduction to Quantum Logic; “Is there superluminal causation in relativistic quantum field theory” in Perspectives on Quantum Reality: Relativistic, Non-Relativistic and Field Theoretic, and “John von Neumann — der mathematische Physiker,” in Jenseits von Kunst ed. P. Weibel. In his work at the Dibner Institute he will continue his studies for a biography of John von Neumann, the Hungarian-born mathematician and mathematical physicist. He will also edit a collection of essays about von Neumann as well as unpublished papers by him. Silvan Schweber, Professor of Physics and the History of Ideas, Brandeis University, is the author of QED and the Men who Made It: Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga; “La Crisi delle Scienze Fisiche,” Kos X, April (1994), and, with Cathryn Carson, “Recent Biographical Studies in the Physical Sciences,” Isis, 85 (1994). He will continue his work on a biography of Hans Bethe while he is at the Dibner Institute. Hourya Sinaceur is Directeur de recherche de lère classe au CNRS de Paris, France. She is the author of Jean Cavaillès. Philosophie mathématique and Corps et Modèles. Essai sur l’histoire de l’algebre réelle. At the Dibner Institute she will continue her research on Emmy Noether’s influence and contributions in mathematics at Göttingen before her emigration to the United States. Roger Smith, Reader in History of Science, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, is the author of Inhibition: History and Meaning in the Sciences of Mind and Brain and the forthcoming “The Fontana History of the Human Sciences.” His project while at the Dibner Institute is titled “The Ethos of Pure Science and the Conceptual Framework of Anglo-American Brain Science in the Interwar Decades.” Mark Steiner is Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Hebrew University, Israel. He is the author of “Wittgenstein: Mathematics, Regularities, Rules,” in Benacerraf and his Critics, ed. Adam Morton and Stephen Stich; “The Applicabilities of Mathematics,” Philosophia Mathemetica, 3.3 (1995); and the forthcoming book, “The Applicability of Mathematics as a Philosophical Problem.” At the Dibner Institute he will continue his study of purely formal analogies in the history of recent scientific discoveries. David Wilson, Professor of History, Iowa State University, is the author of Kelvin and Stokes: A Comparative Study in Victorian Physics ; “P.G. Tait and Edinburgh Natural Philosophy, 1860-1901,” Annals of Science, 48 (1991); and the editor of the two-volume Correspondence between Sir George Gabriel Stokes and Sir William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs. While at the Dibner Institute he will continue work on a book tentatively titled “Natural Philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment.” The following seven persons have been appointed as Dibner Institute Visiting Fellows, fellows whose appointments are for less than a full academic term: Martin Campbell-Kelly, Reader in Computer Science, University of Warwick, United Kingdom, has written (with William Aspray) Computer: A History of the Information Machine and ICL: A Business and Technical History. At the Dibner Institute he will continue his writing on L.J. Comrie and the early development of volume production of mathematical tables by the company Comrie established in 1937, Scientific Computing Service Ltd. Noah Efron is a Research Scholar at Harvard University. He is the author of the forthcoming article, “Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe: A Review Essay,” Journal for the History of Ideas and, with Menachem Fisch, “Dean Simonton’s ‘Scientific Genius’: A Review, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 13 (1991). At the Dibner Institute he will continue work on a project entitled “Jews, Christians and Natural Philosophy in Early Modern Europe.” Jean Eisenstaedt, Chargé de Recherches at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, is the author of “L’optique balistique newtonienne à lépreuve des satellites de Jupiter,” Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 50 (1996) and “Guido Beck in General Relativity,” Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencas, 67, Supl. 1 (1995). His work while at the Dibner Institute will be on the subject “Arago and the Prehistory of Relativity.” Craig Fraser, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada is the author of Calculus and Analytical Mechanics in the Age of Enlightenment . He will submit for publication in 1997, “Calculus of Variations 1806-1916. Historical Studies.” His project while at the Dibner Institute is titled “The Theory of Elasticity in 19th Century Exact Science.” Donald C. Jackson, Associate Professor of History at Lafayette College, is the author of Building the Ultimate Dam: John S. Eastwood and the Control of Water in the West and Great American Bridges and Dams. While at the Dibner Institute he will continue his research on non-federal dam construction and on the promotion of gravity dams by John R. Freeman. George Saliba, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science, Columbia University, is the author of A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam and the forthcoming “The Final Quest in the Correction of Astronomical Principles, a critical edition of Ibn al-Shatir’s ‘Nihayat al Sul fi Tashih al-’Usul.” His research at the Dibner Institute will be devoted to a work entitled “Arabic Science in Renaissance France: Guillaume Postel and Arabic Planetary Theories.” George Stocking, Jr. is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Conceptual Foundations of Science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of After Tylor, British Social Anthropology, 1888-1951; The Ethnographer’s Magic and other Essays in the History of Anthropology; andVictorian Anthropology. Professor Stocking is founding editor of the annual, History of Anthropology. At the Dibner Institute, he will explore the history of anthropology between World War II and the late 1960s in a project titled “Anthropology Yesterday.” The Dibner Institute has made the following seven Postdoctoral Fellowship appointments. Joseph Dumit has been an NIMH Research Fellow in the Department of Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and a Lecturer in Anthropology at MIT this past year. He was the co-editor, with Gary Lee Downey and Sharon Traweek, of the forthcoming book, “Cyborgs and Citadels: Anthropological Intervents in Emerging Sciences and Technologies” and wrote the chapter, “A Digital Image of the Category of the Person, PET Scanning and Objective Self-Fashioning.” During his appointment he will continue work on an historical study entitled, “Drawing on Circuits: Diagramming Brains, Minds and Computers (1930-1990).” Tal Golan will receive his Ph. D. from the Department of History, University of California at Berkeley in April 1997. The title of his dissertation is “Science on the Witness Stand: Expert Testimony in U.S. Courts, 1870-1923.” At the Dibner Institute he will continue his investigation of the relations between the expanding scientific and legal cultures in late 19th and early 20th century America. Sungook Hong is Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the author of “Styles and Credit in Early Radio Engineering: Fleming and Marconi on the First Transatlantic Wireless Telegraphy,” Annals of Science, 53 (1996) and “Syntony and Credibility: John Ambrose Fleming, Gugliemo Marconi, and the Maskelyne Affair,” Archimedes, 1 (1996). The title of his project while at the Dibner Institute is “A Social History of Radio: From Marconi’s Black-Box to the Triode Revolution, 1890-1920.” David McGee received his Ph. D. from the University of Toronto and is now a Lecturer at Mount Allison University, Canada. He is the author of the forthcoming “Before the Revolution: Building a Historical Model of Design in Technology,” Technology and Culture and “Making up Mind: The Early Sociology of Invention, Technology and Culture, 36 (1995). His research while at the Dibner Institute is titled “The Trouble with Science: Science, Design and Britain’s First School of Naval Architecture.” Jessica Riskin, Assistant Professor, Iowa State University, wrote her dissertation, The Quarrel over Method in Natural Science and Politics during the Late Enlightenment, on the relations of scientific and political thought and culture in the Enlightenment. She is the author of an article entitled “Meaningless Names and Eloquent Things in the Chemistry of the Enlightenment.” Her work at the Dibner Institute will be for a book titled “The Defecating Duck, or Scenes from the Early History of the Idea of Automation.” Dorit Tanay is a Lecturer in the Department of Musicology, Tel Aviv University, Israel. She is the author of “The Image of Music and the Body of Knowledge in the Late Middle Ages: Rhythmical Procedures as Cultural Representation,” Science in Context, 9 (1996) and “Jehan de Meur’s Rhythmic Theory and the Mathematics of the 14th Century,” Tractrix, 5 (1993). Her project while at the Dibner Institute is titled “Music and the Transgression of Boundaries: A Re-evaluation of the Interrelationship between Music and Science in the 17th Century.” James R. Voelkel is Head Teaching Fellow, Department of History of Science, Harvard University. He is the author of “The Importance of Tycho Brahe: A View from America,” in Tycho Brahe Stjärnornas Herre, 1996 and the following contributions to The Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution (in press): “Astronomy,” “Longomontanus, Christian Severin,” “Praetorius, Johannes,” and “Rheticus, George Joachim.” His current project is to publish the findings from his dissertation, The Development and Reception of Kepler’s Physical Astronomy, 1593-1609, in book form as well as to continue working on an annotated translation of the Kepler-Fabricius correspondence. MEMBERSHIP & RENEWAL INFORMATION To join ISHPSSB or renew your membership contact Society Secretary David Magnus or fill out the form on the Society’s Website: http://www.phil.vt.edu/ISHPSSB/member.html Existing members need to renew if the mailing label on the most recent newsletter has 1996 or earlier on the bottom line. If you think the information in the membership files is out of date (e-mail addresses seem especially volatile), please provide the new information. Graduate students qualify for a reduced membership fee – only US$ 10 for two years. Emeritus members pay no fee. Otherwise a regular membership is US$ 35 for two years. All checks must be in US$; payment by Visa/Mastercard is welcome. Credit card payments can be sent electronically. (As far as we understand this is relatively safe – as safe as the postal service, maybe safer – since everything is automatically encrypted.) Receipts for payment will be sent out, but to reduce administrative costs, this will be done only if requested. If paying by credit card, your monthly credit card statement should serve as your receipt. SOCIETY ADDRESSES Mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers for Council members and for all committee chairs are given below. Elisabeth Lloyd ISHPSSB President 1997-99 6350 Arlington Boulevard Richmond CA 94805 USA Phone: (510) 642-4597; Fax: (510) 642-4164 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Peter Taylor, Chair Past-President 1997-99 Swarthmore College Department of Biology Swarthmore, PA 19081 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Richard Burian President-Elect 1997-99 Department of Philosophy Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061-0126 Phone: (540) 231-6760; Fax: (540) 231-6367 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Michael Dietrich Program Chair, 1999 Meetings History and Philosophy of Science Program University of California at Davis Davis, CA 95616-8673 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Ana Barahona Zapate # 6 - 9 Col. Miguel Hidalgo Tlalpan 14410 Mexico E-mail: [log in to unmask] David Magnus Treasurer and Membership Secretary University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics 3401 Market Street, Room 320 Philadelphia, PA 19104 Phone: (215) 898-7136 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Peggy Stewart Secretary 3900 Glengarry Drive Austin, TX 78731 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Karin Matchett Student Representative History of Science and Technology 435 Walter Library University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Chris Young, Newsletter Editor History of Science/Natural Philosophy Mt. Angel Seminary St. Benedict, OR 97373 Phone: (503) 845-3557; Fax: (503) 845-3126 E-mail: [log in to unmask] ISHPSSB WWW Site http://www.phil.vt.edu/ISHPSSB/ ISHPSSB Listserv Listserv Address: [log in to unmask] (Use this address only to subscribe yourself to the list.) List Address: [log in to unmask] Use this address to send mail to list members. CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE SPRING 1998 NEWSLETTER The next issue of the ISHPSSB newsletter will be published in Spring 1998. Please send submissions (preferably via e-mail) to the editor, Chris Young, [log in to unmask] photo captions: Lindsay Farrell, Douglas Allchin, and Paul Farber enjoy the bounty of the Pacific Northwest. Scenes from an interdisciplinary salmon dinner. Gregg Mitman, son Keefe, and wife Deb dine with Past President Chip Burkhardt (left) and Treasurer Ron Rainger (right). Seattle, home of the 1997 ISHPSSB meeting. Clear skies courtesy of local arrangements chair Keith Benson.