SHAC Autumn 2024 Meeting CfP

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The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC), in collaboration with the Allard Pierson of the University of Amsterdam and the Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP), invites abstract submissions for its Annual Autumn Meeting on  ‘Alchemy, Freemasonry, Hermeticism and Rosicrucianism’, to be held at the Allard Pierson on 11 October 2024. The meeting will be hybrid, although we strongly encourage in-person attendance. In its extensive collections, the Allard Pierson holds the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica State collection of around 4,400 rare manuscripts and printed works relating to the hermetic tradition, assembled by Dutch businessman Joost Ritman.

For this meeting, we invite proposals for papers related to the alchemical material in the collection. The keynote speaker will be Prof. Stephen Clucas (Birkbeck, University of London). There will be an exhibition of some of the highlights of the collection.   

Submissions can be individual presentations, panels with 3 speakers, or roundtable proposals. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes in length. Please submit your abstract of 250-300 words, together with a CV or a paragraph detailing your background, to Peter Forshaw: p.j.forshaw@uva.nl by 22 July 2024. 

Preliminary Timetable:
45-minute Keynote + 12 20-minute papers 
9:00 registration and coffee
9:30 Welcome
Keynote 10:00-11:00
Coffee 11:00-11:15
Session 1 11:15-12:30 
Lunch 12:30-13:30
Session 2 13:30-14:45
Session 3 14:45-16:00
Coffee 16:00-16:15
Session 4 16:15-17:30
Roundtable: 17:30-18:00 

Titles of works in the collection can be found via the University of Amsterdam Library Catalogue (using the search terms Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica and selecting ‘Allard Pierson Depot’ in the Library filter on the right of the screen): Approximately 100 manuscripts from the collection have been digitized: The Allard Pierson can provide an Excel file of all the books and manuscripts in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica State collection. 

Allard Pierson on Google Maps

The 2024 Morris Award goes to Carsten Reinhardt

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The Society for the History of Chemistry wishes to announce that the Morris Award for 2024 has been given to Carsten Reinhardt for his outstanding work on the recent history of chemistry and the history of the chemical industry. He has been an innovator and a leader in the history of modern chemistry and chemical industry from the beginning of his career, exploring the instrumental, theoretical, commercial, industrial, and regulatory dimensions of the field that we call chemistry, while emphasizing the frequent “disappearance” of “chemistry” into other fields, such as molecular biology, materials science, nanotechnology, or environmental science. He has a gift for collaboration and cooperation that has greatly benefitted studies in the history of chemistry and chemical technology.  

Carsten Reinhardt took his PhD on chemical research at BASF and Hoechst between 1863 and 1914 at the Technical University of Berlin in 1996. He became Professor for Historical Studies of Science, University of Bielefeld in 2007 and between 2013 and 2016, Reinhardt was President and CEO, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, USA (now the Science History Institute). From 2017 until 2021, he was the President of the Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, der Medizin und der Technik (GWMT) and is a co-editor of the Mitteilungen der Fachgruppe Geschichte der Chemie.  

The Morris Award honours the memory of John and Martha Morris, the late parents of Peter Morris, the former editor of Ambix and recognises scholarly achievement in the History of Modern Chemistry (post-1945) or the History of the Chemical Industry. The recipient of the award gives the Morris Award Lecture at an appropriate meeting and this is usually published in Ambix. Previous holders of the award are Ray Stokes (2009), Mary Jo Nye (2012), Anthony Travis (2015), Yasu Furukawa (2018) and Ernst Homburg (2021).   With Best Wishes   Frank James

Next online seminar: Discovering elements in the age of radioactivity

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The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Professor Annette Lykknes (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and Dr Brigitte Van Tiggelen (Science History Institute) who will present: Discovering elements in the age of radioactivity – two contrasting stories


This will be live on Thursday, 23 May 2024, beginning at 5.00pm BST (6.00pm CEST, 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.
As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/t-rpdojdx

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/D1w48_ba2tU

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry

Discovering elements in the age of radioactivity – two contrasting storiesAnnette Lykknes and Brigitte Van Tiggelen In a forthcoming edited volume on the nature of element discoveries the authors explore the discovery histories of selected chemical elements. The case studies presented allow to problematize and explore the unfolding of discoveries, how they are reported and what stage is considered as the discovery as well as how predictions and assumptions on what could exist shape these processes in scientific and historical practice. In this talk, we will present two contrasting stories from the context of radioactivity research.The first one is what might be considered as well-known discovery histories, namely those of radium and polonium, the very first new radioactive elements uncovered by Marie and Pierre Curie. But the new radioactive elements proposed by the Curies had not even been separated from the mineral fractions in which they were detected, and the main means of their identification was neither the balance nor the spectroscope which were the accepted ways of detecting elements but rather their characteristic and unique radioactivity.The second story looks at retrospective assessment and assignment of elemental discoveries, focusing on four claimed instances of element 43, before it was produced by nuclear means with a cyclotron and acknowledged by IUPAC and the chemical community as technetium in 1947. Going back in time, historians and scientists identify several “precursors” of technetium and a closer look at masurium, nihonium, davyum and ilmenium provide an opportunity to reflect further on the nature of discovery by taking into account the context of narration.

SHAC Spring Meeting ‘From Antique to Early Modern Alchemy: New Approaches, New Horizons’

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You are invited to attend the SHAC Spring Meeting ‘From Antique to Early Modern Alchemy: New Approaches, New Horizons’ held on 28 and 29 May 2024 at Maison Française d’Oxford.   The meeting will host panels on topics that include ancient perfume making in Egypt and Assyria, alchemical symbolism and imagery, the use of new techniques such as machine learning for the history of alchemy or practical experimentation and furnace reconstructions. Please see programme attached for more information.  

The keynote speaker is Prof Jennifer M. Rampling (Princeton), who will talk on “Alchemical Monsters”.   Attendance is free but registration is required. Please register at the following link: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/t-nogqvop.  

The event will also be hosted in hybrid format. A hybrid link will be provided about a week prior to the event.   Please note the meeting ends at 1pm on 29 May. It is followed up by another related (and free) event, the Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, ‘Meissen Coloration and Pacific Chemical Medicine’, featuring Nicholas Zumbulyadis (Delaware) and Mariana Sanchez (Paris), from 3pm to 5pm at Maison Française d’Oxford.

This is an in-person only meeting.  

SHAC-Spring-Meeting-2024-ProgrammeDownload

Oxford Double Book Launch

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Oxford Double Book Launch 2024Download

We are pleased to announce a double book launch event, to celebrate the
publication of two books by distinguished and long-serving historians of
science and chemistry.


Thomas Garnett: Science, Medicine, Mobility in Eighteenth-Century
Britain (Bloomsbury) by Robert Fox Emeritus Professor of History of
Science, Oxford, published in February 2024.


Carbon: A Biography (Polity), the English translation of Carbone. Ses vies,
ses oeuvres (2018, Ed. Seuil) by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent Emeritus
Professor Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Sacha Loeve
(Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3), to be published in June 2024.


The launch will be held in the Salon at the Maison Française, Norham Rd.,
Oxford, 5-6pm, on Wednesday 22nd May, following the first meeting of the
Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (3pm-5pm
Maison Française), where Bernadette will be delivering a paper entitled
‘Why a Biography of Carbon?’


Organizers: Jo Hedesan (georgiana.hedesan@history.ox.ac.uk)
John Christie (jrrc_@hotmail.com)

Spring 2024 Talks in the Turba series on the history of alchemy

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The Turba series on the history of alchemy is returning this spring with three online (Zoom) meetings scheduled in April and May.

Please join us for one or more of the following:

Friday, 12 April 2024
Antonio Clericuzio (Roma Tre) – ‘Thomas Willis’ Chemical Philosophy’

Friday, 26 April 2024
Matteo Soranzo (McGill) – ‘A Lullian Workshop in Quattrocento Venice: Preliminary Findings on Cristoforo da Parigi/Perugia’

Friday, 17 May 2024
Umberto Veronesi (Vicarte), ‘The Archaeology of Alchemy and Chemistry: Past, Present and Ideas for the Future’

The meetings are held from 6pm UK time, 7pm CET or 1pm ET for up to one hour.

If you are interested and don’t have the Zoom link (the same as last year), please write to johedesan [at] gmail.com

All the best,

Dr Georgiana D. Hedesan

Departmental Lecturer in History of Science

Recheduled SHAC on line seminar and other matters

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We were sorry to have to postpone the on-line seminar two weeks ago due to technical difficulty. These have now been resolved and the seminar has been rescheduled to  25th April.

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Professor Robert Fox (University of Oxford) who will present:

Thomas Garnett: Science, medicine, mobility in eighteenth-century Britain


This will be live on Thursday, 25th April 2024, beginning at 5.00pm British Summer Time (1 hour ahead of GMT). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.


As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/t-dvoggra



The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube

There are two other items that members of SHAC may find of interest.

The first is a call for papers for the History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Mérida, Mexico, 7-10 November 2024

Multidisciplinary approaches to the history of chemistry

Proposed session for History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Mérida, Mexico, 7-10 November 2024; co-sponsored by the HSS Forum on History of Chemistry, the Commission on the History of Chemistry and the Molecular Sciences and the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry.

The aim of the proposed session is to bring historians and practitioners of these multidisciplinary approaches to the history of chemistry together to contrast their results and methods, and to promote a multidisciplinary dialogue for the sake of the history of chemistry. We are, in particular, interested in addressing the following questions:

  • What specific questions can be resolved by the multidisciplinary approaches to the history of chemistry and which cannot?
  • What is the role of formal models in historiographical narratives?
  • What is the appropriate coarse-graining level for the history of chemistry, and to what extent can this level be addressed by different disciplines?
  • Can multidisciplinary approaches help link macrohistory with microhistory?
  • What formal models are most suitable for historiographical research?
  • What are the disciplinary challenges posed by the history of chemistry?

We invite scholars and researchers to submit abstracts addressing any of the aforementioned topics or related areas within the history of chemistry. Submissions may include empirical studies, theoretical frameworks, methodological advancements, or interdisciplinary perspectives. We encourage innovative approaches and welcome contributions from both established academics and early-career researchers.

If you are interested in participating in this session, please send your name, affiliation, email address and the topic of your presentation to Guillermo Restrepo (restrepo@mis.mpg.de) by 8 April 2024. At a later date, organizers will request a title and an abstract, but they are not needed at this stage.

The second is notification of the forthcoming 9th EuChemS Chemistry Congress (ECC-9), to be held in Dublin, Ireland, from 7th – 11th July, 2024.

The Institute of Chemistry of Ireland (ICI) is delighted and honoured to be organising this event.

The 9th EuChemS Chemistry Congress will have an exciting scientific programme with world-leading plenary speakers, invited speakers and short oral presentations, supplemented with a series of poster presentations, focused around eight scientific themes:

·        Advances in Synthetic Organic Chemistry 

·        Catalysis 

·        Chemistry Meets Biology For Health 

·        Education, History, Cultural Heritage, and Ethics in Chemistry

·        Energy, Environment and Sustainability 

·        Nanochemistry/Materials 

·        Physical, Analytical and Computational Chemistry  /AI)

·        Supramolecular Chemistry 

·        The programme will feature dedicated sessions organised by the EuChemS European Young Chemists´ Network of EuChemS (EYCN) and the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland (ICI)

Full Details are at https://euchems2024.org/

Best regards

SHAC officers.