Kelsey Bjornsgaard who graduated with a Major in International Relations and a Minor in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in 2011 has been accepted into the graduate programme of King’s College London, to study for a Masters degree in International Conflict Studies.

 Jared Curran, who expects to graduate with a double major in History of Science, Technology and Medicine, and Philosophy in 2012 will be among the first students to graduate with an undergraduate Major from our program.

Jared has been accepted into the graduate program in the Department of the History of Science here at the University of Oklahoma where he will pursue his interest in the history of the philosophy of science.

Ramez Maluf completed his PhD in the History of Science in 1985, with a dissertation, “Jean Antoine Nollet and Experimental Natural Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century France.” Since that time, he has been an active journalist and author, as well as a faculty member in the Communication Arts Department of Lebanese American University. His observations about issues in the Middle East can be heard regularly on National Public Radio, including:

• Mideast View On The Proposed Islamic Center (September 02, 2010)

• Shoe-Throwing Incident Still Has Legs (December 18, 2008)

• Media Skepticism Greets Bush in the Middle East (January 10, 2008)

• Hezbollah Portrayed as Victor in Lebanon Conflict (August 15, 2006)

Professor Maluf’s interest in history of science continues. In November 2009, as Chair of the Communication Arts Department, he organized a three-hour discussion of Darwin’s evolution theory and its social, religious and philosophical implications, part of world-wide commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. The next month, he participated in an international conference at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, delivering a presentation on Arab media reporting on Darwin during the anniversary.

 Natalie Peck (MA/MLIS 2002) reports that she and her husband, Colin Read, have opened The Champlain Wine Co. in Plattsburgh, NY. On 40 acres in Mooers, near the Canadian border, they have a vineyard of 4000 cold-hardy vines and a winery. Natalie says, “the rigors of graduate school helped prepare me for the trials in my vineyard and with making wine.” When she is not making and selling wine, she is Director of Development Information and Research at SUNY Plattsburgh’s Office of Institutional Advancement. To read more about the winery and business, see the recent article in the Press-Republican.

Watch this space for news about alumni.  If you are an alumnus/alumna of the program, please send news to slivesey@ou.edu.

In recognition of his outstanding achievements as an exceptional alumnus of the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Donald R. Baucom was selected as a 2010 Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Arts and Sciences. This honor is bestowed each year on four graduates of the college who represent respectively the humanities, professional schools, natural sciences and social sciences. Dr. Baucom was recognized during the annual Focus on the College of Arts and Sciences (FOCAS) week, February 22-26, 2010. On Thursday, February 25, he presented a lecture, “Hitting a Bullet with a Bullet: The Emergence of Kinetic Energy Interceptors,” and on Friday, February 26, he was one of the guests of honor at the Kaleidoscope Evening, attended by students, faculty, alumni and friends of the college. Proceeds from the evening provide funds for the college’s scholarship program.

Donald R. Baucom is a 1962 graduate of the USAF Academy, who earned his Ph.D. in the History of Science from the University of Oklahoma in 1976. During twenty-eight years in the Air Force, he served tours as a communications-electronics officer in Spain and Thailand, taught history at the Air Force Academy, taught strategy and history at the Air War College, and served as the editor of the Air University Review, professional journal of the Air Force. In May of 1987, he was detailed to the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization in the Pentagon where he established the official history program for President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. Upon retirement from the Air Force in 1990, he returned to federal service as the civilian historian for DOD’s missile defense program. His book, The Origins of SDI, was awarded the 1994 Leopold Prize by the Organization of American Historians. He has published numerous articles on military history and the profession of arms and reviewed books for a number of historical and professional military journals. In addition to the Leopold prize, he has received several other awards for his professional writing, including a George Washington Medal presented by Freedom's Foundation at Valley Forge (1986) and an article of the year award (2008) from the Air Force Historical Foundation.
Dr. Baucom retired from the Department of Defense in June 2003 and now lives in El Prado, NM, just north of Taos. His military decorations include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, and various campaign and service awards. He has been married for forty-seven years to the former Margaret Rivers. They have three children and six grandchildren.

Forest Sharp

January 30, 1983 - July 3, 2011 Forest Dayne Sharp, 28, of Norman, Oklahoma, passed away in Vega, Texas on July 3, 2011. He was born on January 30, 1983 in Oklahoma City to Gretchen Evans and Karey Sharp. Forest graduated from Shawnee High School in 2002 and from the University of Oklahoma in 2007 with a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology.  At the time of his death he was preparing a thesis for his Master's degree in the History of Science. Forest was the president of the OU Animation and Manga Society, which he helped to organize for many years. He was also highly involved in organizing video game tournaments in Oklahoma, both individually and as part of HXC LAN Center and OKgamers.

Alexander M. Ospovat (1923–2010)

Alexander Meier Ospovat died 21 December 2010, at Stillwater, Oklahoma. He was a member of the History Department at Oklahoma State University from 1962 until his retirement in 1988.

Born in 1923 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Ospovat spent most of his childhood in Memel, Lithuania. In 1940 his family fled, first to Mexico, then to the US. Ospovat earned a degree in civil engineering at the University of Oklahoma in 1945. Following several years of employment as an engineer, he returned to school and earned his PhD in 1960. He was the first to complete the OU doctoral program in history of science.

At Oklahoma State Ospovat taught history of science and medicine, and early modern European history. His research focused primarily on the development of geology in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He is particularly well known for his research on the geological career and thought of Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817). His was a pioneering voice in revising the negative judgments on Werner that had been taken in most British and American histories of geology since the time of Charles Lyell. In recognition of his contributions to the history of geology Ospovat received an honorary doctorate from the Bergakademie Freiberg (1990).

Ken Taylor, University of Oklahoma

from the History of Science Society Newsletter, April 2011

Ken Taylor has published a more extended éloge published in Earth Sciences History.