The SHAC Award Scheme for 2020 funded seven applicants.

Six Research Awards were made.

Georgiana Hedesan, Independent Scholar, research trip to the University of Glasgow to explore Alchemy in Antonio Neri’s manuscript Il Tesoro del Mondo (1598-1600).

Joris Mercelis, John Hopkins University, research trip to Rochester New York to study written and visual sources in the Kodak Historical Collection.

Luis Moreno-Martinez, University of Valencia, research trips for “A transnational approach to chemistry pedagogy through the biography of Antonio García-Banús (1888-1955).”

Silvia Perez Criado, PhD Student, University of Valencia, archival research for dissertation “DDT during Franco’s regime in Spain (1939-1977).”

Zoe Screti, PhD Student, University of Birmingham, archival research trip for dissertation “The Impact of the Reformation on the study of alchemy in Early Modern England.”

Robert Van Den Berg, Independent Scholar, image reproduction costs for biography of the Dutch Physical Chemist, J.H. van’t Hoff.

In addition, one Subject Development Award for conferences or the like was approved as follows: 

Peter Forshaw, University of Amsterdam, workshop on Rosicrucian and Masonic Alchemy.

The next SHAC online Seminar Meeting will take place on 18 February, 2021. Megan Piorko will give a talk about “The Long Life of Fasciculus Chemicus: Early American Reception of Seventeenth-Century Alchemical Texts.” All are welcome to attend, but please sign up soon by sending an e-mail to: meetings [AT] ambix.org.

On 23 March, Simon Werrett will give a talk during the following SHAC Seminar Meeting.

The latest issue of Chemical Intelligence is out now! As always, it contains lots of information for SHAC’s members, including about upcoming Seminar Events, Mike Zuber’s Partington Prize winning essay, information about the Morris Award and SHAC Awards Scheme, the next Annual Postgraduate Workshop and much more!

Check it out here!

We are excited to kick off this year’s Society for the History of
Alchemy and Chemistry on-line seminar series, which we are running due
to the continuing Covid crisis, with a talk from Dr Georgiana ‘Jo’
Hedesan, University of Oxford, on ‘The Promise of an Alchemical
Panacea: Francis Anthony (1550-1623) and his English Potable Gold.’

The seminar will run live on Zoom on Thursday 21 January 2021 beginning
at 5.00pm GMT (6.00pm CET, 12 noon EST, 9.00am PST). The format will be
a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an
hour. Anyone, member of SHAC or not, may register to attend the seminar
by e-mailing meetings [AT] ambix.org; a link to the seminar will be sent the
day before. (If having registered you do not receive a link please check
your junk folder).

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry invites submissions for its 12th Annual Postgraduate Workshop. The theme will be “Secrets of Matter, Matters of Secrecy: Concealing (al)chemical Knowledge from Ciphers to the Military Industrial Complex.”

The workshop will be held on 3-4 June, 2021.

Please submit your proposal, together with your CV, to: studentrep [AT] ambix.org by 15 February, 2021.

More info can be found here.

The Science History Institute is organising a conference on “The applied Arts of Alchemy.” The conference will take place virtually on 20-21 May 2021.

To apply, please submit a 150-250 word proposal for individual 10-minute presentations or a 250-350 word proposal for a collaborative round table or workshop. The deadline for submissions is 15 December, 2020.

More information can be found here and on the website of the Science History Institute.

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, which we are running due to the continuing Covid crisis, will be given by Dr Carolyn Cobbold, University of Cambridge, on ‘A Rainbow Palate’. 

This will be live on Zoom on Tuesday 3 November beginning at 5pm GMT (6pm CET, 12 noon EST, 9am PST). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour. Anyone, member of SHAC or not, may register to attend the seminar by e-mailing meetings@ambix.org; a link to the seminar will be sent the day before. (If having registered you do not receive a link please check your junk folder). 

A Rainbow Palate – chemists, colour and consumption  

Carolyn Cobbold 

Drawing from research for her recently published book A Rainbow Palate – How Chemical Dyes Changed the West’s Relationship with Food, SHAC’s Carolyn Cobbold will discuss how dye and food producers sought public support and approbation from chemists for the widespread use of synthetic chemicals in food, despite concern among some chemists that their new chemical substances had not been created for use in food.     

You may be interested to know that recordings of the previous two seminars in this series are now available of the Society’s YouTube channel. You can watch them using the following URLs:

Alchemy Behind Bars: Practitioners, Patrons, and Prisons in Early Modern England https://youtu.be/j_GN9vnt81Q

Humphry Davy as revealed by his Correspondence https://youtu.be/WYAnjHeBYU0