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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,
Member News
In Memoriam, Jobs, Conferences, Grants
Arizona State University Welcomes HSS to Phoenix
When you arrive in November, the weather should be perfect. It might rain a little, so bring a sweater or jacket at night, but we promise no snow or ice or sleet or hail. You are much more likely to need sunscreen. And be prepared for some great food. We’ll post information about local eateries, drinkeries, activities, and possible excursions for those of you who care to stay on for a little vacation, as the meeting is the week before the U.S. Thanksgiving. There are great hikes within a 30-minute drive of Phoenix, and some terrific hotels and resorts as well. A bit farther afield lie Sedona; the excellent Museum of Northern Arizona; the mining town of Jerome; the Grand Canyon and Tucson; Saguaro National Monument; the Globe-Bisbee mining area; and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
The program that co-chairs Cathryn Carson and Jessica Riskin have put together looks great, and we understand they regretted having to turn away quite a number of outstanding proposals. The conference will feature some innovations with receptions and suchlike.
There will be cash bar options in the hotel, there are many informal places within walking distance and others easily accessible by light rail for those who want to arrange alternative get-togethers, and we are planning a big event on Saturday night.
For other evenings, take advantage of being downtown. Across the street from the hotel are the Herberger Theater and the Arizona Opera (http://www.azopera.com/), which offers Salome that weekend. The Desert Botanical Garden, not far from ASU’s Tempe campus, is a world-class attraction, and well worth the short trip (there’s even a zoo next door). There are also sporting venues, including the US Airways Center, where the Phoenix Suns basketball team will be active during our meeting. The downtown Arizona State campus offers occasional events as well. Rather than fill this message with more Web links that are not yet fully updated, we’ll maintain a Web site with local information as we learn more. For those who would like to know about opportunities for birding, field trips, and other outdoor activities, Matt Chew (matt.chew@asu.edu) and Andrew Hamilton (ahamilton@asu.edu) are prepared to help you learn more.
Instead of the usual hotel dinner with its choice of rubbery chicken and such, we had the option to go off site. We have chosen the excellent Heard Museum, one of the finest anthropological museums anywhere, and which allows guests to tour the museum during the evening. We will have outdoor drinks (cash bar) and entertainment, then a reception-style buffet featuring Southwest foods for dinner and dessert. This lovely site is an easy ride on the light rail or a short cab ride. We will help provide transportation for anyone with special needs. The opportunity to hold this event at this very popular museum site comes thanks to the Center for Biology and Society in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State, which is serving as host and sponsor.
We also want to highlight another innovation for this dinner. One of the first two Biology and Society graduates from ASU is Melanie Hunter, a long-time HSS member. Melanie will be coordinating the graduate-student volunteers at the meeting. She has also donated $1000 to allow us to hire Native American musicians to entertain us during the evening. She offers this as an invitation to others: get involved, help out where you can, with donations or volunteering. She notes that we could have naming opportunities, with sponsors helping to make possible receptions or other events. We look forward to others following Melanie’s inspiring lead.
Just a quick note about your hosts. The local arrangements team comes from Arizona State University, where we do things a little differently in our “New American University.” Yes, we have first-rate historians and graduate opportunities through the new School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies, where Monica Green, Paul Hirt, and Hoyt Tillman lead the way in history of science. We have historians of science on the brand new campus of the Barrett Honors College that is part of the ASU Tempe Campus, and others in the School of Evolution and Social Change. The formal History and Philosophy of Science Program resides in the School of Life Sciences, and is directed by Richard Creath, with lively graduate programs directed by Andrew Hamilton and Karin Ellison. That group coordinates closely with the Bioethics, Policy, and Law Program directed by Jason Scott Robert and the Consortium for Science Policy and Outcomes led by Dave Guston and Dan Sarewitz. These programs all connect with the new Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology Program directed by Clark Miller. Paul Hirt, Ben Minteer, Steve Pyne, and others offer opportunities in environmental history and ethics. The new medical school collaboration in downtown Phoenix brings together scholars from the University of Arizona and Arizona State, and Jason Scott Robert directs the Medicine and Society theme there.
There are even more portals through which graduate students, undergraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty members come together in scholarship across diverse areas related to the history of science. The Center for Biology and Society coordinates many research projects, including the Embryo Project, Carnap Project, Theoretical Biology Project, and History and Philosophy of Systematics Project. All of these offer training opportunities for graduate students and postdocs.
(See http://cbs.asu.edu/ for graduate, research, and other opportunities.)
We are fortunate to be supported by great administrators who are also intellectual colleagues. Robert Page is the Director of the School of Life Sciences and has attended two of the Marine Biological Laboratory Seminars on the History of Biology (now MBL-ASU), and our Senior Vice President and Dean Quentin Wheeler has a current Focus Section essay (with Andrew Hamilton of the School of Life Sciences) in Isis. As you can see, this is a tremendously friendly place for our field. We invite you to come visit when you are in Phoenix; we now enjoy being able to say, “it’s just a light rail ride away.”
– by Jane Maienschein
From your Local Arrangements Committee
Rick Creath, Chair
With Melanie Hunter, Graduate Student Coordinator
Jessica Ranney, Center for Biology and Society , Program Coordinator
Felicity Snyder, Center for Biology and Society, Program Manager
Brad Armendt
Matthew Chew
Karin Ellison
Andrew Hamilton
Manfred Laubichler
John Lynch
Jane Maienschein
Jason Scott Robert
David Steffes
Jamey Wetmore
Michael White
Grant Yamashita
Graduate Students
Melissa Baker
Jennifer Brian
Lijing Jiang
Matthew Laubacher
Cera Lawrence
Steve Elliott
Mark Ulett
Karen Wellner
Johnny Winston