Current Fellows

The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Science History Institute is pleased to announce our 2022–2023 class of fellows.

Hailing from a diverse list of local, national, and international institutions, our incoming fellows will use our collections to study a wide range of topics in the history and social studies of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the life sciences.

In addition to our postdoctoral, dissertation, distinguished, and short-term research fellows, this year’s class also includes a cohort of two-year curatorial fellows, the first of its kind at the Institute. Scholars from this new fellowship program will assist with ongoing projects as staff members, expanding and exploring interpretive programs for our library and museum.

Fellows, 1987 to Present

The Beckman Center has hosted over 350 scholars from around the world. See a list of our fellows, along with their research topics and affiliation at the time of their stay.

Curatorial Fellows

Sheu, outdoors, smiling, wearing glasses, white-on-navy polka dot shirt and blue blazer

Sherri Sheu

Price Curatorial Fellow
Museum Interpretation

Shuko in museum, wearing glasses and a shirt with a bird pattern

Shuko Tamao

Cain Curatorial Fellow
Oral History

Postdoctoral Research Fellows

Armel in museum wearing pale yellow collared shirt over black shirt

Armel Cornu

Price Postdoctoral Fellow
Uppsala University

The Transmission of Sensory Knowledge in 18th-Century Chemistry

Louis, outdoors, smiling, wearing light blue button down shirt

Louis Gerdelan

Haas Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard University

Catastrophic Knowledge: The Investigation of Disaster in the British, Spanish and French Atlantic Worlds, ca.1605–1780

Bono Shih

Cain Postdoctoral Fellow
Virginia Tech

Engineering at the Crossroads of Chemistry and Industry: Developing Ideas of Chemical Engineering, 1880–1980

Meagan S. Allen

Cain 80/20 Postdoctoral Fellow
Roger Bacon’s Medical Alchemy: Occult Remedies and the Quest to Prolong Life

George Borg

National Science Foundation SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellow
The Instrumental Revolution in Geochemistry

Dissertation Fellows

Rebecca L. Jackson

Doan Dissertation Fellow
Indiana University

Measuring “Well:” Clinical Measuring Practices and Philosophy of Measurement

Miriam F. Lipton

Cain Dissertation Fellow
Oregon State University

Bacteriophages and Antibiotics: The History of Cold War Politics of Antibiotic Resistance

Rohini Patel

Haas Dissertation Fellow
University of Toronto

Chemical Modernities: Politics of Production, Waste, and Empire in Elmira, Ontario, 1940–2000

Gustave in museum wearing black and smiling

Gustave Lester

Dissertation Fellow in Residence
Harvard University

Mineral Lands, Mineral Empire: Mapping the Raw Materials of U.S. Industrial Capitalism, 1780–1880

Distinguished Fellow

Alice Lovejoy

Cain Distinguished Fellow
University of Toronto

Cinema’s Militant Chemistry: Film and its Raw Materials

Cain Conference Fellows

Science in Humanities, Humanities in Science: Embedded Connections

Jeremy A. Green grayscale headshot

Jeremy A. Greene

Johns Hopkins University

outdoor headshot of Dolly Jørgensen

Dolly Jørgensen

University of Stavanger, Norway

outdoor headshot of Victoria Lee

Victoria Lee

Ohio University

Amy Slaton studio portrait wearing glasses and black scarf

Amy Slaton

Drexel University

Short-Term Fellows

Nicholas Allred

Allington Fellow
Rutgers University

Cinema’s Militant Chemistry: Film and its Raw Materials

Kerri Arsenault headshot

Kerri Arsenault

Ullyot Scholar
Independent Scholar

Body of Evidence: A New Biography of Rachel Carson

Marcus Carrier

Cain Fellow
Bielefeld University

Chemistry without Substance: The History and Epistemic Status of Computational Chemistry

Matthew Crawford

Matthew Crawford

Cain Fellow
Kent State University

Where Was the Enlightenment? Silver Mining, Technology, and Expertise in Late Colonial Peru, 1780–1820

David Dunning

David Dunning

Herdegen Fellow
University of Oxford

To Program Language: A History of What We Talk with in the Age of Computing

Deborah Garwood

Otlet Fellow
Drexel University

Exploring Collaborative Documentary Practices for Science History Institute’s Oral History Collection

Susannah Glickman

Susannah Glickman

Cain Fellow
Columbia University

Quantum, “Tech,” and the New Central Planning

Daniel Graham

Daniel Graham

Mistry Fellow
Slippery Rock University

Structures of Change in a Chemical Age

Sarah in museum wearing glasses and colorful top

Sarah Hijmans

Doan Fellow
Université de Paris

Between the Scientific and the Domestic: Anna Sundström’s Work in Berzelius’s House, 1819–1835

Sofiya Kamalova

Seidel Fellow
University of Valencia

The Making of Toxic Ignorance in Occupational Health: The Ardystil Syndrome, a Collective Intoxication at the Workplace in Late 20th-Century Spain

Margaret Maurer

Allington Fellow
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Everyday Alchemy

Odinn Melsted

Cain Fellow
Maastricht University

Chemical Perspectives: The Oil Industry, Geochemical Exploration Techniques, and Alternative Fuels Research in the 1970s

Edoardo Pierini

Allington Fellow
University of Geneva

Chemical Medicines and Dangerous Drugs: Sources and Impact of Angelo Sala’s Opiologia

Rosalind Powell

Rosalind Powell

Haas Fellow
University of Bristol

Bodies of Knowledge: Discourses of Self-Experimentation in the Long 18th Century

Shoshana Simons

Cain Fellow
University of California Berkeley

The Digitization of Chemistry and Computing

Geert Somsen

Röhm and Haas Fellow in Focus
Maastricht University
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

Why Gather? Reflections on the History (and Future) of Scientific Conferences

Gina Surita

Haas Fellow
Princeton University

The Currency of the Cell: Energy Cycles and the Remaking of Metabolism, 1900–1970

Qinyan Wu in museum, wearing black shirt

Qinyan Wu

Presidential Junior Fellow
University of Pennsylvania

Controlling Systems and Controlling Legacies: Barbara McClintock’s 1961 Conversation with Two Bacterial Geneticists

Science History Institute Research Fellow

Mary Ellen Bowden

Senior Research Fellow

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