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The Partington Prize 2023
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2023 Partington Prize is Dr Armel Cornu of the Science History Institute for her entry “Senses and utility in the New Chemistry.”
Armel Cornu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. She majored in chemistry and history before graduating with a masters degree in the history of science at Université Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris. She obtained her doctorate at the University of Uppsala in 2022 with a dissertation centring on the market, regulation, and science of mineral waters in eighteenth-century France. Her research is characterised by a social and economic approach to the development of chemistry throughout the Enlightenment. She currently works on the uses of sensorial impressions in the practice and perception of eighteenth-century chemistry.
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry established the Partington Prize in memory of Professor James Riddick Partington, the Society’s first Chairman. It is awarded every three years for an original and unpublished essay on any aspect of the history of alchemy or chemistry. The prize-winning article will appear in the Society’s journal, Ambix, in due course.
Previous Winners
Below can be found an overview of previous winners. All past prize-winning entries are available to download here.
2020
- Mike A. Zuber, “Alchemical Promise, the Fraud Narrative, and the History of Science from Below: A German Adept’s Encounter with Robert Boyle and Ambrose Godfrey”, Ambix, 68 (2021), 28-48.
2017
- Stephen T. Irish, “The Corundum Stone and Crystallographic Chemistry,” Ambix 64 (2017), 301-325.
2014
- Winner: Evan Hepler-Smith, ‘“Just as the Structural Formula Does”: Names, Diagrams, and the Structure of Organic Chemistry at the 1892 Geneva Nomenclature Congress’ Ambix, 62 (2015), 1-28.
- Highly commended: ‘Joel Klein, Daniel Sennert, the Philosophical Hen, and the Epistolary Quest for a (Nearly-)Universal Medicine’, Ambix, 62 (2015), 29-49.
2011
- Dr Marcos Martinon-Torres, ‘Inside Solomon’s House: An archaeological study of the Old Ashmolean chymical laboratory in Oxford’ Ambix, 59 (2012), 22-49.
- Dr Evan Ragland, ‘Chymistry and taste in the seventeenth century: Franciscus Dele Boe Sylvius as a chymical physician between Galenism and Cartesianism’, Ambix, 59 (2012), 1-21.
2008
- Jennifer Rampling, ‘Establishing the Canon: George Ripley and his Alchemical Sources’, Ambix, 55 (2008), 189-208.
- Georgette Taylor, ‘Tracing Influence in Small Steps: Richard Kirwan’s Quantified Affinity Theory’, Ambix, 55 (2008), 209-231.
2005
- Dane T. Daniel, “Invisible wombs: Rethinking Paracelsus’s concept of body and matter”.
Published as: Dane T. Daniel, ‘Invisible Wombs: Rethinking Paracelsus’s Concept of Body and Matter’, Ambix, 53 (2006), 129 – 142.
2002 (no award)
1999
- Tara E. Nummedal, “Alchemical reproduction and the strange career of Maria Zieglerin”.
Published as: Tara E. Nummedal, ‘Alchemical Reproduction and the Career of Anna Maria Zieglerin’, Ambix, 48 (2001), 56 – 68.
1996 (no award)
1993
- Katherine D. Watson, “The chemist as expert. The consulting career of Sir William Ramsay”.
Published as: Katherine D. Watson, ‘The Chemist as Expert: The Consulting Career of Sir William Ramsay’, Ambix, 42 (1995), 143 – 159.
1990
- Marco Beretta, “The history of chemistry in the eighteenth century”.
Published as: Marco Beretta, ‘The Historiography of Chemistry in the Eighteenth Century: A Preliminary Survey and Bibliography’, Ambix, 39 (1992), 1 – 10.
1987
- T. D. Moy, “A chemical mediator. Emil Fischer’s role as liaison during the First World War”.
Published as Timothy D. Moy, ‘Emil Fischer as “Chemical Mediator”: Science, Industry, and Government in World War One’,Ambix, 36 (1989), 109 – 120.
1984
- T. M. Luhrman, “An interpretation of the Fama Fraternitas with respect to Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica”.
Published as: T. M. Luhrman, ‘An Interpretation of the Fama Fraternitas with Respect to Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica’, Ambix, 33 (1986), 1 – 10.
1981
- William Newman, “Thomas Vaughan as an interpreter of Agrippa van Nettesheim”.
Published as William Newman, ‘Thomas Vaughan as an Interpreter of Agrippa von Nettesheim’, Ambix, 29 (1982), 125 – 140.
1978
- Reinhard Low, “The progress of organic chemistry during the period of German RomanticNaturphilosophie, 1795-1825”.
Published as Reinhard Löw, ‘The Progress of Organic Chemistry during the Period of German Romantic Naturphilosophie’,Ambix, 27 (1980), 1 – 10.
1975
- P. C. Barratt, “Speculative chemistry in the 1880s – Prout’s legacy for the chemical elements”.
