Job at Science History Institute: assistant director

The Science History Institute is recruiting for the full-time position of Assistant Director, Center for Historical Research. The Assistant Director will collaborate with the Director of the Center for Historical Research to administer the international fellowship program of the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry; maintain local, national and international contacts and collaborations; organize scholarly workshops, symposia and conferences; and draft grant proposals. The Assistant Director will also oversee communications with the Beckman Center alumni network; conduct research projects in the history of the modern physical or biological sciences, broadly construed, that make use of the Institute’s collections; and develop the historical research culture of the Institute, building an international reputation in the process.

The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications:

  • Doctoral degree.
  • Research expertise in the history of modern physical or biological science/technology.
  • Demonstrated experience in the field of research, to include evidence of scholarly achievement, preferably through peer-reviewed publications.
  • Demonstrated record of success in their ability to work collaboratively as well as independently, in research and administrative roles.
  • Superior research skills, including qualitative data analysis and archival research.
  • Demonstrated organizational aptitude and ability to prioritize multiple projects.
  • High level of scientific and technical literacy, curiosity and aptitude.
  • Strong oral and written communication skills.
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
  • Ability to attend evening and occasional weekend events.
  • Ability to travel domestically and internationally.

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.

To be considered for this position, please send cover letter, CV/resume, a recent publication, and the contact information for 3 professional references to:

Assistantdircfhr [AT] sciencehistory.org

Deadline for Applications is: Saturday, March 7, 2020

  • Science History Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer –

About the Organization

The Science History Institute collects and shares the stories of innovators and of discoveries that shape our lives. We preserve and interpret the history of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the life sciences. Headquartered in Philadelphia, with offices in California and Europe, the Institute houses an archive and a library for historians and researchers, a fellowship program for visiting scholars from around the globe, a community of researchers who examine historical and contemporary issues, an acclaimed museum that is free and open to the public, and a state-of-the art conference center.  For more information, visit sciencehistory.org.

Conference: Women and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe

On Friday, 20 March, the University Library in Leiden (Netherlands) organises a one-day conference on “Women and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe.”

More information and the programme can be found here.

To attend the conference, please send an e-mail to Sajed Chowdhury (s.a.chowdhury [AT] hum.leidenuniv.nl) by 28 February.

Out now: Winter Issue Chemical Intelligence!

The latest issue of Chemical Intelligence is now available! It includes lots of information on upcoming events organised by the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry and by other organisations (including two on women and chemistry!); announces the opening of the Award Scheme for New Scholars and for various organisational activities; and contains many reports about past SHAC meetings. You can download the latest issue here.

Women in their Element

Tuesday 11 February 2020, Knowledge Centre, British Library, 13.00 to 17.00

SHAC is supporting a British Library and World Scientific Publishing Company Event, Women in their Element, which is part of the WISE Festival, celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

The co-editors and contributors of the recently published Women in Their Element provide a fresh perspective on the unsung contributors to science in this half-day seminar on women and the Periodic Table.

Published in the International Year of the Periodic Table, 2019, Women in their Element offers an original viewpoint on the history of the Periodic Table: a collective volume with short illustrated papers on women and their contributions to the building and the understanding of the periodic table and of the elements themselves. Edited by Annette Lykknes and Brigitte Van Tiggelen, this book will help make historical women chemists more visible, as well as shed light on the multifaceted character of the work on the chemical elements and their periodic relationships.

For further details and information on how to book a British Library event please visit the British Library website here.

Chemical Intelligence July 2019

The new Issue of Chemical Intelligence, the first one edited by our new CI-editor Karoliina Pulkkinen, is now online! It includes reports of conferences and awards, information about the Partington Prize and upcoming conferences, and more! The issue can be downloaded here.

SHAC Postgraduate Workshop

This year’s SHAC Postgraduate Workshop will be held from 28-30 November, 2019 at the Ritman Library, Amsterdam.

The programme can be downloaded here.

Registration is possible via studentrep [AT] ambix.org

The program

SHAC Autumn Meeting and AGM

This year marks the centenary of the death of William Crookes. Journalist, chemist, photographer, spiritualist, businessman, sometime Secretary of the Royal Institution and President of the Royal Society of London, Crookes was a key figure in the science of the second half of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth. This meeting, organised by the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, the Historical Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Institution, which is part of the ChemFest celebrations of the sesquicentenary of the periodic table, will examine various aspects of Crookes’s extraordinary career and his place in science.

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry’s AGM will also be held at this meeting and further details about this will be sent to members in the autumn.

Programme

13.15   SHAC AGM
13.30   Registration for Crookes Meeting
13:45   Welcome and Introduction: Frank James, (Royal Institution and Chair of SHAC)

First Session Chair: Anna Simmons (UCL)
13.50   Richard Noakes (Exeter University)
‘Two Parallel Lines’? The Trajectories of Physical and Psychical Research in the Work of William Crookes
14:30   Kelley Wilder (De Montfort University, Leicester)
William Crookes, a life in Photo-Chemistry
15.10   Refreshment Break

Second Session Chair: Peter Morris (Chair of RSCHG) 15.30   Frank James (Royal Institution and UCL)
William Crookes and Michael Faraday
16.10   Paul Ranford (UCL)
Crookes’s “Invisible Helper” – George Gabriel Stokes (1819-1903)
16.50   William Brock (University of Leicester)
The key to the deepest mystery of nature: Crookes, periodicity and the genesis and evolution of the elements
17.30   Close of meeting

There is no charge for this meeting, but prior registration is essential. Please email Robert Johnstone (robert.johnstone.14 [AT] ucl.ac.uk) if you would like to attend. If having registered, you are unable to attend, please notify Robert Johnstone.

The meeting will take place at Saturday 19 October 2019, at the Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4BS