Department News and More

The department has just learned that two affiliated undergraduate researchers won awards at the 2012 Undergraduate Research Day. Marcus Autry received the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Research for his presentation, “Science Blogging: An Analysis of its History, Current State, and Trends for the Future.” His faculty sponsor was Professor Katherine Pandora. Jared Curran received a Distinction in Undergraduate Research Award for his presentation, “Lullian Circles and Methodology.” Jared’s faculty sponsor was Professor Steven Livesey. Congratulations, Marcus and Jared!

Adrian Lucy has been awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship on the basis of his potential and intent to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.

Lucy, a sophomore majoring in astrophysics and the history of science, technology and medicine, is from Blue Bell, Pa. He is working with Karen M. Leighly, OU associate professor of physics and astronomy, as a research assistant on quasars, extraordinarily luminous objects powered by the whirling in-fall of matter onto supermassive black holes. Specifically, he studies clouds of light-absorbing gas that emerge from these objects at thousands of kilometers per second, and that may influence the evolution of galaxies. Last summer, he participated in a Research Experience for Undergraduates internship and has presented his research at an American Astronomical Society conference. Currently, he is working on a paper to be submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. This summer, Lucy will work as an intern for the Undergraduate Student Research Program at NASA Goddard in the X-ray galaxies group with Ann E. Hornschemeier and Bret Lehmer. Upon graduation, he plans to pursue a doctoral degree in astrophysics and develop a career in research.

Lucy has a 3.84 grade-point average and is a student in the Joe C. and Carole Kerr McClendon Honors College at OU. He is co-founder and president of the OU chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, has participated in the Sooner Elementary Engineering and Science outreach program and has served on the History of Science Department Student Advisory Committee. A National Merit Scholar, Lucy’s honors and awards include the J. Clarence Karcher Scholarship for academic merit in physics, a third-place award in the 2011 History of Science Undergraduate Essay Contest, and listing on the President’s and Dean’s honor rolls.

This winter Professor Stephen Weldon published his tenth volume of the Isis Bibliography. It was physically the largest bibliography that Weldon has produced to date, stretching to 360 pages, well over last year's page count. Much of the credit for this achievement must go to Weldon's two graduate assistants, John Stewart and Jared Buss. They deserve special commendation, not only because of their record-breaking achievement, but also because they managed this during the same year that each of them became a new father!

The Isis Bibliography is the oldest continuously published resource of its kind in our field, looking toward its centennial year in 2013. Much has changed in the intervening years. In particular, it is now available in several digital formats, some of which are free. Most research libraries around the country have a subscription to the "History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Database" where the annual Isis data accumulates. (If you are logged into the OU server, you can get this link at http://libraries.ou.edu/access.aspx?id=1656.) This information can also be accessed through the WorldCat.org service--a freely available resource. Finally, PDFs of individual bibliographies at least one year old can be retrieved from the History of Science Society's website for no charge. (You can find links to these resources at http://www.hssonline.org/publications/current_bibliography_oclc.html.)

Nearly 200 people squeezed into the auditorium to listen to Piers Hale, history of modern science professor, celebrate Darwin’s 203rd birthday with a lecture entitled “Reconsidering Darwinian Ethics: from the ‘Origin of Species’ to the ‘Descent of Man.’”  Read more at oudaily.com/news/2012/feb/12/impact-darwins-theory-examined-during-lecture-sund/

Marilyn B. Ogilvie (Curator Emeritus, History of Science Collections; Professor of Bibliography Emeritus; Professor Emeritus, Department of the History of Science) was honored on Tuesday, January 31, as her portrait was officially unveiled in the department’s “Wall of Fame,” commemorating notable former members of the program. Marilyn retired from the University of Oklahoma at the end of 2008. The Ogilvie Graduate Fellowship was endowed in her honor in 2009.

The already-small number of museums specifically devoted to the history of science may soon be further depleted. The Leiden Boerhaave Museum for the History of Science and Medicine is presently in danger due to new measures imposed by the Dutch government. Unless the state-funded museum raises 700,000 euros (approx. US $1,000,000) from private sources by 2012, it will be forced to close its doors after next year.  In his lead article in the October 2011 Newsletter of the History of Science Society, Professor Rienk Vermij discusses what can be done to save this precious institution.  Read more in the HSS Newsletter....

Kathleen Crowther’s book, Adam and Eve in the Protestant Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 2010), was awarded the Gerald Strauss Prize at the Annual Meeting of the Sixteenth-Century Society, held in Fort Worth, October 27-30. The Strauss prize is awarded by the Sixteenth Century Society to the author of the outstanding book on a German Reformation History topic published in English in the previous calendar year. The prize includes a $1000 award. The Gerald Strauss Book Prize is named in honor of Gerald Strauss, the influential scholar of the German Reformation and long-time Distinguished Professor of History at Indiana University. Author of eight books, including such well-known titles as Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century (1966), Luther’s House of Learning (1978), and Law, Resistance, and the State (1986), Strauss was a meticulous researcher. His works were pioneering and sometimes controversial, but they continue to engage scholars and students of the German Reformation.

Several members of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine Program will be involved in this year’s History of Science Society Annual Meeting in Cleveland (November 3-6). Among them are:

• Piers J. Hale, who organized the session “Linking the Past and the Present: A Discussion of Collaboration Between Historians and Practitioners in the Classroom, the Field and the Laboratory (Committee on Education sponsored roundtable)” [Friday, November 4, 9:00-11:45 am] and who will speak on “Collaborative Teaching in the Classroom and in the Field: Teaching Evolution and Its History from the Galapagos to the Rainforest.”


• Suzanne Moon, who organized and will chair the roundtable session “Engaging with Asia--Responsibilities and Opportunities in the History of Science and Technology” [Friday November 4, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.] SHOT and HSS co-sponsored


• Henry Zepeda, who will deliver a paper on “ ‘A Difficult Figure’: Ptolemy’s Menelaus Theorem in the Middle Ages,” in a session on “Early Astronomy and Astrology” [Friday November 4, 4:00-6:00 p.m.]
  
  
• Peter Barker, who will present a paper on “Why Was Copernicus a Copernican?” in a session on “Robert S. Westman’s The Copernican Question (2011),” which he and Carolyn Merchant organized [Saturday November 5, 9:00-11:45 a. m.]


• Katherine Pandora, who will present a paper on “The Politics of Experiential Reality and the Piety of the Laboratory” in a session titled “Contesting Objectivity from Within in Mid-Twentieth-Century America” [Saturday, November 5, 4:00-6:00 p.m.]


• Steven Livesey, who will chair a meeting of history of science, technology and medicine program directors [Saturday, November 5, 12:00 – 1:15]

A complete program of the meeting can be found at the Society’s website.

The Department is delighted to host Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Deborah Blum on Wednesday, September 21st for her public lecture on "The Poisoner's Handbook: Chemistry, Public Health, and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz-Age New York City." The lecture takes place at 4:00 p.m. in Dale Hall 211.  more info on her talk

Blum is active as a leader in the field of science writing, serving as the North American board member of the World Federation of Science Journalists, as a program chair of the World Conference of Science Journalists (Cairo, 2011), and is a past president of the National Association of Science Writers. She addresses a range of issues on her blog, Speakeasy Science, and is the author of a much-praised series of books on topics in the history of science written for the general public. For more on her work, see her website and descriptions of her books.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Science FOCAS Lectures, the office of the VPR, and the Department of Chemistry. For information on this event, contact Associate Professor Katherine Pandora by email or at 325.3427.

September 30, noon-1:00 pm: Paul Starr (Princeton University), “An Unexpected Crisis: The News Media in the United States and Other Post-Industrial Democracies” Gaylord Auditorium

October 10,  7:00 pm: Susan Douglas (University of Michigan), “Enlightened Sexism” location tba

November 10, 7:00 pm: Marc Rotenberg (Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center), “The Surveillance State in Film” location tba

November 19, time tba: Jeff “Swampy” Marsh (Creator of the Phineas and Ferb Show on Disney), “Telling Animated Stories: Phineas and Ferb” Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

December 6, 7:00 pm: Adrian Johns (University of Chicago), “Piracy” location tba

Download a pdf flyer listing the speakers for this fall's History of Media Dream Course.  For a list of all public events, click the "Events Calendar" link in the left sidebar.