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Arturo Russo Reports on the 2009 Alexandre Koyré Medal
The International Academy of the History of Science (IAHS) decided to award the prestigious Alexandre Koyré medal for 2009 to the European Space Agency History Project. The official ceremony is scheduled for September 4th at the Agency’s Headquarters in Paris, in the presence of the Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain, and the members of the Study Team who carried out the project: John Krige, Arturo Russo and Lorenza Sebesta. The event will also include a dinner in honor of Reimar Lüst, a former Director General who initiated the project and then chaired the ESA History Advisory Committee.
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Table of Contents
Notes from the Inside
From the President
First Person: Darwin in a Different Voice
Workspace: John Lienhard
Playing with Dolphins
The Perils of Publicity
Profile: Leeds University
Michigan State University
SPACEWORK:HSS/NASA Fellowship
Patenting Jefferson
2009 Preliminary Program
Telescopes,
Southern Host,
Latest News,
Member News,
In Memoriam, Jobs, Conferences, Grants
During the 1989 International Congress of History of Science in Hamburg, John Krige and I decided to contact Professor Lüst to make a case for a project to write the history of the joint European space effort. His answer was extremely encouraging: not only did he approve the idea, but he also offered to support the project. It took one year to carry out a feasibility study and set up a proper institutional framework. Eventually, the project was based at the European University Institute in Florence and realized by the History Study Team under the supervision of an Advisory Committee including renowned European science historians and space pioneers.
During the 1990s the ESA History Project helped to establish an important European scholarship in space history, and eventually it produced two important follow-ups. First was the ESA support to historical studies of national space programs in European countries, whose results are now being published under the aegis of the IAHS. Second was the award of the first HSS/NASA fellowship to support my study of the history of ESA planetary missions. Within the framework of the ESA History Project, in fact, I had studied the history of the ESA Science Programme. Therefore, it was an obvious move for me to apply for the first HSS/NASA fellowship, in order to pursue my study beyond the time framework covered by the ESA History Project (1960-1987). I decided, in particular, to focus my new research program on the history of ESA planetary missions. Two main reasons motivated this decision. Firstly, the invitation by Roger Launius to contribute to his planned book on the history of planetary exploration, and I thought that the European effort in this field deserved a chapter in this book. Secondly, the consideration that ESA’s major involvement in planetary research started only in the second half of the 1980s, within the framework of its long-term scientific program Horizon 2000. It was an honor for me to be eventually selected as the first recipient of the HSS/NASA fellowship, and I think that decision was not only a recognition of my professional record, but also a tribute to the high standard of the whole of the ESA History Project, which is now confirmed by the Koyré medal.
– Arturo Russo
Dipartimento di Fisica e
Tecnologie Relative
University of Palermo, Italy
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