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The American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics have selected Stephen G. Brush, past president of the HSS, to receive the 2009 Abraham Pais Prize for the History of Physics for his pioneering, in-depth studies in the history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century physics.
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Table of Contents
Notes from the Inside
From the President
First Person: Darwin in a Different Voice
Engines of Ingenuity
Playing with Dolphins
The Perils of Publicity
Profile: Leeds University
Patenting Jefferson
Michigan State University
SPACEWORK:HSS/NASA Fellowship
2009 Preliminary Program
Koyré Medal, Telescopes,
Southern Host,
Latest News,
In Memoriam, Jobs, Conferences, Grants
Joshua Blu Buhs’ Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend (The University of Chicago) was published this year. With Bigfoot, Joshua Blu Buhs traces the story of America’s favorite homegrown monster. Buhs delves deeply into the trove of lore and misinformation that has sprung up around Bigfoot. Buh’s focus is on understanding why Bigfoot has inspired drama and devotion. What does our fascination with this monster say about our modern relationship to wilderness, individuality, class, consumerism, and the media?
David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley, has been elected President-Elect of the Organization of American Historians, and will become President of that 9,000-member professional association in March of 2010.
The Society for History in the Federal Government (SHFG) presented the first Annual Roger R. Trask Award to Roger D. Launius, Senior Curator in the Space History Division of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and SHFG President from 2003-2004. The award is given in recognition of his commitment to federal history at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and for his promotion of the mission of the society and his generous mentoring of colleagues.
York University’s Bernard Lightman, recently received a $306,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for his latest research venture, the John Tyndall correspondence project. The objective is to publish the collected correspondence of prominent British physicist John Tyndall (1820-1893).
William R. Newman, Ruth N. Halls Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, received the title of Distinguished Professor on 27 March 2009.
Jahnavi Phalkey won the 2008 Sardar Pate Award for the best dissertation submitted at any American university on the subject of modern India. “Science, State-Formation And Development: The Organization of Nuclear Research In India” is a history of the beginnings of nuclear research and education in India, between 1938 and 1959, traced through the trajectories of particle accelerator building activities at three institutions: the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; the Palit Laboratory of Physics, University Science College, Calcutta, later (Saha) Institute of Nuclear Physics; and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. John Krige, Georgia Institute of Technology, was Phalkey’s supervisor.
The Adler Planetarium’s Webster Institute for the History of Astronomy announces the publication of Eastern Astrolabes by David Pingree. More information can be found at http://www.adlerplanetarium.org.
Volume 11 of the Papers of Joseph Henry, edited by Marc Rothenberg, won the 2009 Thomas Jefferson Prize of the Society for History in the Federal Government for outstanding documentary edition. For further information, go to http://www.shfg.org.
Nicolaas Rupke has been elected to a Lower Saxony Research Professorship in the History of Science. Rupke is one of the first half dozen to be offered a Lower Saxony Chair and the only humanities scholar among them.
The American Council for Learned Societies names Nancy Sirasi, Distinguished Professor, Hunter College, City University of New York (retired), as the 2010 Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecturer. The lecture will take place on 7 May at the 2010 ACLS Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. For more information, http://www.acls.org/news/Default.aspx?id=4198.
Jeffrey Sturchio takes up his new position as President and CEO of the Global Health Council on 1 August. For details, see http://www.globalhealth.org/news/article/11138. He previously worked as President of the Merck Company Foundation and Vice President, Corporate Responsibility. He continues as Chairman of the Corporate Council on Africa and as a Visiting Scholar, Institute for Applied Economics and the Study of Business Enterprise, The Johns Hopkins University.
C. Michele Thompson has been promoted to Full Professor in the Department of History at Southern Connecticut State University. She was also named the 2008-09 Connecticut State Trustees Research Scholar of the Year for Southern Connecticut State University.
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