Science History Institute Welcomes 2024–2025 Beckman Center Fellows

The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Science History Institute is pleased to announce our 2024–2025 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, the Beckman Center continues its curatorial fellowship program, which integrates fellows as staff members who will assist with ongoing projects, expanding and exploring interpretive programs for our library and museum.

The Science History Institute is home to the largest private fellowship program in the historical study of science, medicine, and technology in the United States. Researchers travel from all over the world to use our collections and to take part in a vibrant scholarly community.

Curatorial Fellow

• Judith Kaplan
  Focus: Scientific Biographies
  Cain Curatorial Fellow

NEH Postdoctoral Research Fellow

• Samantha Wesner
  Citizens Electric: Electricity and Democracy in the Revolutionary Atlantic World
  NEH Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Postdoctoral Research Fellows

• Cecilio M. Cooper
  South of Heaven: Surface, Territory + the Black Chthonic
  Price-Haas Postdoctoral Fellow
  
  
• Reut Ullman
  A Window to the World: Artisanal Knowledge Regime in the Russian Empire (1500–1750)
  Cain Postdoctoral Fellow

Dissertation Fellows

• Jacob Myers, University of Pennsylvania
  Noxious Life: Figuring Vermin in the Natural Histories of the British Caribbean
  Allington Dissertation Fellow
  
  
• Samantha Nadel, Boston University
  Indigenous Contributions to Colorant Chemistry: The Influence of Mexican Cochineal Production Methods on European Scientists
  Cain Dissertation Fellow

Cain Conference Fellow

• Luis Campos, Rice University
  The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology

Senior Fellows

• Al Coppola, John Jay College, CUNY
  Enlightenment Visibilities
  Otlet Senior Fellow
  
  
• Finn Arne Jørgensen, University of Stavanger, Norway
  Gaming Green Transitions: Petrocultures and Societal Change in Environmental Board Games
  Science History Institute Senior Fellow
  
  
• Melanie Nilsson, McDaniel College
  Broadening the Representation of Chemists Highlighted by National Historic Chemical Landmarks
  Doan Senior Fellow
  
  
• John Powers, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Thermometers and the Senses in 18th-Century Chemistry
  Cain Senior Fellow

Short-Term Fellows

• Sara Bassanelli, University of Pavia, Italy
  The Diplomacy of Standardization: Negotiating International Standards in Physics and Chemistry (1920s–1970s)
  Doan Fellow
  
  
• Leo Chu, University of New South Wales, Australia
  From Green Revolution to Green Chemistry: The Chemical Foundation of Sustainable Agriculture, 1960–2010
  Cain Fellow
  
  
• Jessica Hogbin, Syracuse University
  Innumerable Melancholies: Medicine and Mental Health in Renaissance Italy
  Allington Fellow
  
  
• Bree Lohman, University of Toronto
  Of Fallout and Outfall: National Insecurity, Public Health, and the Partial Containment of Hazards in the Occupied Arctic
  Haas Fellow
  
  
• Alexandra Macdonald, College of William and Mary
  Blue Gold: Indigo in the British World, 1680–1880
  Doan Fellow
  
  
• Alejandra Ruiz-León, Georgia Institute of Technology
  Caged Knowledge: The History of TECNO-ITINTEC, a Pioneering Interactive Science Museum of Latin America
  Haas Fellow
  
  
• Candida F. Sánchez Burmester, Maastricht University, Netherlands
  The Dawn of Nanotoxicology: The Toxic Effects of Nanoparticles in Humans and the Formation of a New Field
  Ullyot Scholar
  
  
• Prerna Srigyan, University of California, Irvine
  Lecture to Lab: Experimental Science Education in Cold War America
  Herdegen Fellow
  
  
• Eleanor Webb, University of Pennsylvania
  Between Studium and Accademia: Science, Medicine, and Education in Early Modern Italy
  Cain Fellow
  
  
• Cheyeun Whang, Harvard University
  Finishing Touch: Cleaning the Modern American Body, 1880–1970
  Mistry Fellow

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Featured image: Fellows conduct research in the Institute’s Othmer Library.