The Society: The George Sarton Medal
Sarton Medal Acceptance Speech
History of Science Society meeting, Washington DC, 3 Nov. 2007
When I heard I'd be receiving the Sarton Medal this evening, I was of course utterly delighted, but also very surprised. I joined the Society exactly one-third of a century ago, and ever since then I've looked up to the successive Sarton medallists with huge admiration, but without any expectation that I'd ever be considered to belong in the same league. However, beyond any personal feelings of that kind, I also didn't think I was qualified for this immensely prestigious award. I had three reasons for thinking so; and as they all have broader implications I think it's worthwhile to explain them, here and now, even if it means keeping you (and me) fromour dinner for a few more minutes.
My first reason for surprise was that I'm a European (although for many years the INS did class me as a "resident alien": a foreign body landed from outer space, as it were). Like many of our Society's loyal non-American members, I'd vaguely got the impression that the Sarton was now an honour given to distinguished American scholars. When I checked this against the list on the Society's Web site, I found that the most recent Sarton medallist not based in the US was Mirko Grmek back in 1991, sixteen years ago. What surprised me more was to see that in the previous sixteen years there had been no fewer than eight Europeans and one Russian. Now it may well be that this dramatic change reflects a real shift in the geographical centre-of-gravity of scholarly excellence in our field; and certainly there can be no doubt about the outstanding calibre of all the recent Sarton medallists. Nonetheless I think there must be a nagging query, whether our Society has found the right balance between its very proper role as the U.S. national body for the history of the sciences, and its equally important historic role – which Sarton himself exemplified long ago – as the world's premier society in our field. Anyway, I think that all our members not based in the U.S. will take heart from seeing that this year's medallist is a European, because it proves beyond doubt that our Society is not in fact paralleling the catastrophic unilateralism of the current occupant of the White House.
My second reason for thinking I wasn't likely to be considered for the Sarton Medal was that I've focussed most of my historical research on the history of the earth sciences. Looking at the list of previous awards confirmed my impression that no previous Sarton medallist has worked primarily in this field. I emphasise this not out of personal pride, but rather to welcome this recognition by the Society that the earth sciences are as valuable as any others, as fruitful material for historical research. Certainly it's a strikingly under-cultivated field, if you measure it against the enormous importance of the earth sciences themselves in the modern world. I think the history of the earth sciences is packed with enticing under-explored research topics, ranging in time from Antiquity to very recent history, and ranging in possible approaches all the way from the most deeply technical to the most subtly cultural, to suit all historiographical tastes. I do think that graduate students who are casting around for a good research topic would be well advised – literally, by their advisers – to look a bit more closely at the earth sciences. So I hope the great personal honour I feel at receiving this Sarton Medal may be matched by a higher profile in future for all of us who work in this strangely neglected field.
My third and last reason for surprise was that I had the impression that Sarton Medals were given for "a lifetime's achievement in the history of science" or some such wording. So I never thought I could possibly qualify, having spent almost two decades of my adult lifetime--not to mention my teenage years--as a scientist. But since I have been chosen for this award, I'd like to take it as a tacit recognition by our Society that my first incarnation as a palaeontologist was in effect an integral part of my "lifetime of scholarly achievement". I'm pleased to know that my first career has not been treated as a disqualification. But I'd like it to be recognised as a positively desirable qualification for a historian of any of the sciences. It's now exactly forty years since I switched departments at Cambridge, from Geology to History and Philosophy of Science; but I'm still continually reminded how much my ongoing historical work owes to what I did in my first career. I'm convinced there's no substitute for hands-on experience of scientific research, as a training for historical research in the sciences. Nothing else can give one so much of the feel for both the empirical material and the style of discourse of the relevant figures in the past.
Of course I was lucky to get into the history-of-science before the boundary fences of professionalisation became as high and daunting as they now are. But even now, I think there's much to be said, for example, for the scientific internships that we at UCSD introduced as a requirement for our graduate students—including our historians – when we set up our Science Studies Program. I must say I'm worried at the increasing tendency in recent years for historians of the sciences to cosy up to other kinds of historian, at the expense of cultivating good relations with scientists. I know there are strong reasons for doing this, in terms of job opportunities; but to some extent that's surely a self-fulfilling policy. I think it would be worthwhile for some people in our Society to rethink our policies: not to weaken our links with other historians, but to get a better balance between them and our potentially valuable colleagues in the sciences.
Some of these remarks may strike you as biting the hand that's just given me this wonderful and unexpected honour. But my criticisms – if they are taken to be criticisms – are those of a deeply committed historian of the sciences and a loyal member of this Society. I'm immensely grateful to the History of Science Society for its institutional support throughout the years of my second career, and now for the supreme honour of the Sarton Medal.
Martin Rudwick