The History of Science Society

Vol. 40, No.3, July 2011
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HSS News

HSS Executive Committee Meets at Notre Dame

HSS Executive Committee

The HSS Executive Committee—plugged in and ready. Left to Right: Bernie Lightman, Editor; Lynn Nyhart, Vice President; Paul Farber, President; Marsha Richmond, Secretary; Adam Apt, Treasurer. (Photo by Jay Malone, HSS Executive Director)

For its biannual meeting this past May, the HSS Executive Committee came to the University of Notre Dame and the home of the HSS Executive Office. During the site visit to Notre Dame in 2009, the projected space for the HSS Office was an empty shell. That space was still being developed when the Executive Office moved from the University of Florida to the University of Notre Dame in August 2010. After setting up in temporary space, the HSS Office moved to its new permanent location on the 4th floor of Geddes Hall, in the central part of the campus. The new Office features conference space (pictured here) and a project center for graduate students. We have been treated well by our Notre Dame hosts and look forward to a long collaboration.

Some people may ask what the Executive Committee does when it meets twice a year. The EC, as it is called, monitors HSS business, makes recommendations, and reports to Council. These activities require constant attention. So, for example, in addition to overseeing Isis, the CB, Osiris, and other HSS publications, Society Editor, Bernie Lightman, is involved in policy development, in selecting committee members for standing committees and prize committees, in providing feedback to the Executive Office, as well as numerous other duties. The time commitment for all of the officers is substantial, and we are grateful for their willingness to take on these duties.

HSS Re-Joins COSSA

Recognizing that the HSS can always use more friends, the Executive Committee recently voted to rejoin the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA). The HSS is already a member of the National Humanities Alliance, an important advocacy group for the humanities in the US, especially as regards funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright-Hayes, and other humanities programs, but we were lacking a voice in the increasingly vocal field of the social sciences.

Consortium of Social Science Associations

COSSA is heavily involved in National Science Foundation (NSF) activities and regularly testifies to the US Congress about the importance of funding the NSF. As many members know, our NSF travel grants have helped hundreds of graduate students and independent scholars attend the HSS annual meeting, as well as the meetings of PSA, SHOT, and 4S. We look forward to our association with COSSA and hope that it provides our members information that will help their careers.

HSS Editor Search: Preliminary Proposals Due 1 March 2012

The Society's Editor, Bernie Lightman, will be finishing his term at the end of 2013. The next editor is to be elected by the History of Science Society Council shortly after the November 2012 annual meeting of the History of Science Society, for a term from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2018. (The year after the new editor is elected is designed to allow for a smooth transition.)

In accordance with HSS procedures, the search for the new editor will be undertaken by the Committee on Publications (CoP). The Committee requests that expressions of interest in the position of Society Editor be sent to: Paula Findlen, Chair of the Committee on Publications (pfindlen@stanford.edu); Lynn Nyhart, Vice-President and Executive Committee Representative to the Committee on Publications (lknyhart@wisc.edu); or Jay Malone, HSS Executive Director (jay@hssonline.org). Further information about the requirements of the position can be found below.

Since 2004, Bernie Lightman and his team have maintained the highest standards for Isis, and York University has provided a wonderful home for the editorial offices of the Society. We now once again seek someone with an excellent reputation as a research scholar in the history of science who is at an institution that can offer support for the Editorial Office.

Information for potential candidates to be Society Editor and Editor of Isis.

This position has a five year renewable term.
The next Editor of Isis will be recommended by the HSS Committee on Publications, consisting of five members appointed by the Executive Committee serving staggered terms of five years, plus the Vice President, serving ex officio. Discussions with potential Editors and their institutions will take place throughout the fall of 2011 and winter of 2012. Preliminary written proposals for staffing and financing of the Editorial office should be submitted to the Committee on Publications by potential Editors and their associate editors and institutions by 1 March 2012. The Committee on Publications will review preliminary proposals in April 2012 and send out queries to potential candidates during April and May 2012. Revised proposals need to be submitted by 1 September 2012. Site visits by a subcommittee of the Committee on Publications to finalists' institutions will take place in September/October 2012. The Committee on Publications will interview finalists during the 15–18 November 2012 HSS meeting in San Diego, CA and decide on their recommendation at this meeting. The HSS Council will evaluate the recommendation and make its final decision within a month of the HSS annual meeting in order to have the HSS Executive Committee announce the selection of the new Society and Isis Editor in the January 2013 HSS Newsletter.
It is anticipated that Isis during the term of the next Editor will be published for the Society by the University of Chicago Press, to which the journal was moved in the spring of 1991. A Memorandum of Agreement covers the relations of the History of Science Society and the University of Chicago Press with regard to the publication of Isis. This contract will be subject to review during the term of the new Editor.
The Editor of Isis is an Officer of the History of Science Society, and, as such, a member of the Council, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Council and serves ex officio on the Committee on Publications. As an Officer, the Editor of Isis is expected to attend Council meetings and Committee on Publications meetings held at the annual meeting and also Executive Committee meetings which, in recent years, have occurred twice a year, once before the annual meeting of the Society and a second time, approximately 6 months after the annual meeting. The Executive Committee also acts ad interim during the course of the year, proposes the budget, etc. As Society Editor, the Editor of Isis also oversees Osiris and the annual bibliography, as well as any other publications produced by the Society. The new Editor would also be expected to work with the Society Web Editor, a new position currently under discussion by the Executive Committee but not yet formally defined or advertised.
The Editor of Isis is expected to recommend Isis Advisory Editors to three year terms (with possible renewal), the numbers and expertise of such editors to be determined by the Editor and ratified by CoP. There will be Advisory Editors in office who continue from Bernard Lightman's term as Editor into the next term.
The History of Science Society expects to be able to support the editing of Isis by providing funding for the salaries of a Managing Editor, a Manuscript Editor, for office supplies, and for part of the course release for the Book Review Editor. The Editor's institution, in turn, is expected to support the Isis editorial office to a significant degree. Candidates will need to submit a tentative budget and can obtain the current budget from Jay Malone (jay@hssonline.org).

2011 Election Results

Our thanks to the 379 members who voted—one of our highest turnouts. The response rate reflects the wonderful slate of candidates for the 2011 election. Each one of the candidates has my gratitude for agreeing to run. The quality of the slate was reflected in the results, with the Council race seeing just four votes separating 4th and 7th place. Our thanks to the Nominating Committee of Deborah Coen, Florence Hsia, Bob Richards, Judith Johns Schloegel, and chaired by Ken Alder, for their work on the 2011 election. And congratulations to our new officers! We are grateful for your service.

HSS Vice President

Angela Creager, Princeton University, (term begins 1 Jan 2012 and runs through 31 Dec 2013. Then President from 1 Jan 2014 to 31 Dec 2015)

Council (term runs from 1 Jan 2012 to 31 Dec 2014)

Daniela Bleichmar, University of Southern California
Sander (Sandy) Gliboff, Indiana University
Tania Munz, Northwestern University
Carla Nappi, University of British Columbia
Zuoyue Wang, California State University, Pomona

Nominating Committee from Council (assembles the 2012 election slate)

John Carson, University of Michigan
Vassiliki (Betty) Smocovitis, University of Florida

Nominating Committee at Large (assembles the 2012 election slate)

Mark Barrow, Virginia Tech
Robert Brain, University of British Columbia
Fa-ti Fan, State University of New York at Binghamton

A New Look for HSSOnline.org

Since the HSS's web site is the Society's largest window, allowing the world to look in, we are always thinking of ways to improve our web presence. But the web site is more than just a window to the outside, if offers many opportunities for HSS committees and officers to conduct Society business, for members to maintain contact with each other, and the chance to further the work of our members. And because our members are the main reason we do anything, we will be overhauling the site in the upcoming months, thanks to the generous help of Mott Greene at the University of Puget Sound. After careful consideration, we will be rebuilding the site in Sharepoint, a Microsoft product that is well adapted for intranet functions. Although open source content management systems continue to be popular, they can be surprisingly hard to modify and a system such as Sharepoint will guarantee a pool of expertise.

To coincide with the site's renewal, we will be exploring the possibility of a Society web editor to manage the Society's web presence. This would be an academic appointment like the editors of Isis and Osiris and reporting to the Society's Editor. There are many possibilities on the web for raising the degree and quality or interactions among members, increasing the visibility of the organization, reaching new members, and liaising with other groups and given such potential, it makes sense to create a position that will help oversee these important functions.

The Committee on Publications will be discussing the web editor's role in the upcoming months, and welcomes comments and suggestions for this position. If you are interested in the job, please contact Jay at jay@hssonline.org.

Graduate Program Survey

So as to understand the slow but continuous fall in HSS membership, the Executive Office will be conducting a survey of graduate programs in the US in the upcoming months. The purpose of the survey, in its simplest form, will be to determine why professional historians of science (and their students) are members of the HSS or why they are not members. Please encourage your colleagues to participate in the survey.

News from HSS Committees, Forums and Caucuses

The HSS standing committees, forums, and caucuses carryout HSS functions on an ongoing basis. So as to provide members with a view of what these volunteers are doing, we offer this synopsis of HSS activities:

Committee on Publications:

In addition to conducting a search for the new Society Editor, CoP, chaired by Paula Findlen, will continue to evaluate which parts of Isis should be available on the Isis web site so as to attract new members; investigate ways to have Isis listed in the Science Citation Index; and will oversee the rebuilding of the HSS web site—a cooperative venture with the University of Puget Sound. CoP will also help with the recruitment of individuals who can serve as managing editors for the Newsletter and for the web site.

Committee on Meetings and Programs

CoMP, chaired by Rachel Ankeny, has kept up a drumbeat of activity as the committee continually looks for ways to improve the annual conference, the most important activity overseen by the Executive Office. Over the past six months the committee has discussed meeting sites for 2014 and beyond, has chosen an HSS representative (and co-program chair) for the 2012 three-society meeting (Angela Creager), has examined policies on program appearances and related issues (particularly regarding individuals who do not attend the annual meeting without serious, extenuating circumstances and who send a proxy to read their paper, deciding the use of a proxy in such situations was not permissible and re-wrote policies accordingly); continued monitoring of the prize ceremony/reception format; continued discussion of formalizing policies for site selection; made recommendations for possible program chairs for 2012; and helped constitute the local arrangements committee for 2012, the San Diego meeting.

Committee on Honors and Prizes

CoHP, chaired by Helena Pycior, examined the nomination language for the Sarton Medal. The committee encourages HSS members who send in Sarton nominations to consider the history of science in all its diversity, in the geographic regions, time periods and scientific disciplines studied, in the approaches and viewpoints taken, and in the backgrounds and institutional affiliations of its practitioners. The committee was asked to consider the possibility of posting the short lists for all the book prizes and concluded that publication of the short lists would have more potential to offend people than to promote the profession. CoHP was asked to think about alternative ways of promoting the history of science and outstanding books in the area. Suggestions centered on identifying and promoting books in the history of science that had (1) been reviewed in such major general publications as the TLS and the New York Review of Books or (2) won awards sponsored by groups other than HSS. Links to the reviews of such books, award citations, etc. could be offered on the HSS web site. After some discussion at the November 2010 meeting, committee members decided that such promotional activities fall outside CoHP's purview. CoHP also considered language for HSS's Citation for "Outstanding Service." The current language reads: "From time to time the Committee on Honors and Prizes may also recommend to the Executive Committee the honoring of a member of the Society for outstanding service to the discipline not covered by the regularly established awards, prizes, and medals." At its 2009 meeting CoHP briefly considered new language: "…honoring of a member of the Society for truly extraordinary service to the discipline…." At the November 2010 meeting CoHP decided against recommending any new language. Committee members, however, suggested that the HSS web site should display a list of scholars who have received HSS citations for "outstanding service." (Members who have been recognized with this award are asked to contact the Executive Office at info@hssonline.org to make sure that their service is acknowledged on the web site.)

Committee on Education

The CoE sponsored a booth at the USA Science and Engineering Festival held 23–24 October 2010 on the Mall in Washington DC. The CoE also sponsored the plenary session at the November meeting in Montreal. Titled "The Challenges and Opportunities of Interdisciplinary Teaching," the session was co-organized by Kristin Johnson and John Lynch and was co-sponsored by the PSA. Presenters were: Hanne Anderson (U. Aarhus), Melinda Gormley (U. Puget Sound), Andrew Hamilton (Arizona State U.) and Kristin Johnson (U. Puget Sound). The session was well attended and a fruitful discussion occurred. Piers Hale submitted a proposal for a CoE session at the November 2011 meeting in Cleveland titled "Linking the Past and the Present: A Discussion of Collaboration Between Historians and Practitioners in the Classroom, the Field and the Laboratory." CoE plans to resurrect the "Innovations in Education" series in the HSS Newsletter.

Committee on Research and the Profession

CoRP has been looking at their role, in cooperation with the Women's Caucus and GECC, with the job survey); access by independent scholars to digital media resources; and guidelines for stands on issues of public concern.

Forum for the History of Science in America by Ham Cravens

Last year's FHSA speaker was Vassiliki (Betty) Smocovitis, University of Florida (I am proud to say that I recruited her and she is grateful to the University of Florida Alumni Fund for travel expenses to Montreal—she was UF Alumni Professor for two years, 2009–2011). She spoke before a crowded room of approximately 75-80 people, all appreciative and all of whom gave her a standing ovation—which she richly deserved. The title of her talk was "The Good Earth: Masuo Kodani, Émigré Networks, and Wartime Genetics."An article that was related to this talk has been published as "Genetics behind Barbed Wire: Masuo Kodani, Émigré Geneticists, and Wartime Genetics Research at Manzanar Relocation Center," Genetics vol. 187 (February 2011): 357-366. The word on the street is that Betty is working on a short book expanding on her sterling talk and article.

Graduate and Early Career Caucus

GECC has been busy! We have several events planned for the upcoming annual HSS meeting in Cleveland, including:

Mentorship Program: On Thursday night of the Cleveland conference there will be an opportunity for interested graduate students and early career professionals to interact with select senior scholars in a reserved, and less hectic, space. If you're interested in participating, either as a mentor or a mentee, please contact us at our mentorship program at HSSmentorship@gmail.com. Furthermore, if you are interested in participating in the mentorship program, as a mentor or mentee, but you can't make it to the meeting in Cleveland, please contact us and we will help connect you with other scholars.

Author Workshop: On Friday during lunch, GECC is sponsoring an author workshop in which prominent publishers will discuss the ins and outs of today's publishing world. Topics may include how to get published in a scientific journal, author rights and responsibilities, how to review a paper, measuring journal and research prestige, and a basic introduction to scholarly publishing. The session's topics are still being resolved and we would love to hear what our members would like to learn about these important issues. Please contact our session coordinator Christine Manganaro (mang0084@umn.edu) if you have any suggestions.

GECC Saturday Morning Session: On Saturday morning our GECC sponsored session "Bringing Science to the Public: What Can the Science Studies Scholar Do?" will be held from 9:00–11:45 a.m. Panelists include Mark Largent, Naomi Oreskes, Ed Larson, Jane Maienschein and Marcia Bartusiak. This will be a lively group and the format will emphasize a long question and answer period. We hope you all can make it!

GECC Business Meeting: The GECC Business meeting will be held immediately following our Saturday morning session. Light refreshments will be provided. GECC is an excellent way to add service to your CV and even more importantly, it is a great way to become more involved in the profession. What events do you want to see at future conferences? What needs do you have that are not being met? Come to the business meeting and let us know!

GECC Sponsored Raffle and Mixer: Worried about the expense of HSS this year? Well, this year GECC is raffling off a free room at the conference hotel for the duration of the conference! With a purchase of a $5 raffle ticket (or buy five for $20!) you will be entered to win this valuable prize. Any HSS member can buy a raffle ticket and we'll have the drawing two weeks before the annual meeting, giving you ample time to cancel any existing reservations without penalty. Proceeds will partly go to funding a Friday night mixer for graduate and early career professionals. Support the GECC and its programs by buying raffle tickets online at our web site http://hssgecc.wordpress.com. We will also be selling raffle tickets at ISHPSSB in July. If you would like more information about the raffle or the mixer, please contact us at hss.gecc@gmail.com.

GECC uses Facebook to announce funding opportunities, prize competitions, calls for abstracts, conferences, etc. It is a resource for graduate students, post-docs, early careerists, and mentors of graduate students and early career scholars. Please "like" our Facebook group "History of Science Society Graduate and Early Career Caucus" and stay up-to-date with all of our activities and promotions. Of course, you can always find more information about all our activities, mission, and officers at our webpage http://hssgecc.wordpress.com.

Women's Caucus

After the 2010 annual meeting, outgoing WC co-chair (2008–10) Susan Rensing created a Facebook Group for the Women's Caucus to which members of the group can post. The group currently has 25 members, so is certainly not reaching our entire constituency, but is a helpful central location for some. During summer 2011, a subcommittee of WC members (including Jay Malone) will be working on strategic planning, through which we plan to determine the future goals and priorities of the Caucus (especially in re: HSS more broadly). Jay Malone consulted with his counterpart in AHA who has agreed that the HSS Employment Survey can be 'piggybacked' onto the AHA Employment Survey. We are currently in the process of consulting to make sure questions about gender and diversity are preserved in this transition.

News from the Profession

Dissertations in the History of Science and Technology

The latest group of recent doctoral dissertations pertaining to the history of science and technology can be viewed at the following URL: www.hsls.pitt.edu/guides/histmed/researchresources/dissertations/index_html.

This list is created from the hard copies of Dissertation Abstracts on a bimonthly basis and is intended for interested scholars world-wide. We are grateful to Jonathon Erlen of the University of Pittsburgh for making this list available.

Film Screening Highlights Oral History of Navajo Uranium Contamination

Monument Valley

Photo by Wolfgang Staudt

In April, the American Society for Environmental History hosted a screening of the film, The Return of Navajo Boy, which explores the human fallout of uranium contamination in the American Southwest. The screening was part of a larger project to connect historians with people contaminated by uranium resource extraction, and to hear them in their own voices. Speakers at the screening included tribe elders, whose contributions were translated from the traditional Diné language.

Similar workshops will be held in October at four Oregon universities: Southern Oregon University, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and Portland State University. For more information on these workshops, contact Linda Richards, PhD Candidate at Oregon State University. A webisode describing the project may be found at http://navajoboy.com/25553/environmental-historians-applaud-elsie-perry-and-navajo-boy/.

IHPST Newsletter

The latest International History and Philosophy of Science Teaching Group newsletter is available on the web at: http://ihpst.net/newsletters/.

Cuban Society on the Web

The Cuban Society for the History of Science and Technology now has its own web site, www.schct.sld.cu, containing general information about the Society and its activities. It also includes the most recent newsletters published as well as other texts and references in Spanish and/or English. Comments from visitors to the web site are welcome, especially if they convey useful suggestions for the improvement of its present modest format.

Penn Libraries to Launch New Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies with $20 Million Manuscript Collection Gift

The Penn Libraries have received a major collection of 280 Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, valued at over $20 million, from long-time benefactors and Library Board members Lawrence J. Schoenberg (C'53, WG'57, PAR'93) and Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg. To promote the use of this and other manuscript collections at Penn, the Libraries will create the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies. The full press release is here: http://www.library.upenn.edu/docs/publications/SchoenbergMssCollection.pdf

First Issue of HOPOS Now Available—Free from U. Chicago Press

The University of Chicago Press is pleased to announce the publication of HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science.

The digital edition of the inaugural issue (Spring 2011) is now available free for a limited time to all visitors to the journal's home on the web: www.journals.uchicago.edu/hopos.

With no other current publication addressing the history of philosophy of science, the HOPOS journal will have its own place in a growing area of research. HOPOS will draw upon the multiple methods of philosophy and history to study the development, functioning, applications, and social and cultural engagements of the sciences.

The journal situates understanding of individual sciences within their historical settings and against the backdrop of mainstream issues in philosophical thought relevant to the growth of our knowledge of the world and of human nature.

"Our aim is a journal that provides an outlet for interdisciplinary work that is not often easy to publish in existing journals," said HOPOS editor Rose-Mary Sargent of Merrimack College. "Both subject matter and length restrictions in existing journals do not allow for the extensive bibliographical references so often required in works that are of both a philosophical and a historical nature. HOPOS provides an important new venue for this kind of scholarship."

The journal is available in both print and electronic formats. Each issue will contain a minimum of four articles and ten to fifteen book reviews. Articles are blind reviewed by two or three referees. The first issue is dedicated to the memory of Ernan McMullin, one of the founders of the discipline who died unexpectedly while the issue was in press.

In The First Issue:

Major Articles:

Ernan McMullin, "Kepler: Moving the Earth"
James G. Lennox, "Aristotle on Norms of Inquiry"
Thomas Uebel, "Beyond the Formalist Criterion of Cognitive Significance: Philipp Frank's Later Antimetaphysics"
Warren Schmaus, "Science and the Social Contract in Renouvier"
Eric Schliesser, "Newton's Challenge to Philosophy: A Programmatic Essay"

Individuals receive access to the journal through their membership in the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science. For membership information, go to the journal's web site, www.journals.uchicago.edu/hopos, or the society's web site, http://www.hopos.org/. For additional information, email subscriptions@press.uchicago.edu or call 877-705-1878 (outside the U.S. and Canada, call 773-753-3347).

History of Science Society