Crombie Annexe,
Meston Walk,
King's College,
University of Aberdeen,
Old Aberdeen,
AB24 3FX
Room: Crombie Annexe 204
Senior Lecturer
Personal Details
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Biography
BA (MA) Hons in Mathematics, University of Cambridge (1987); Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics (Mathematical Tripos Part III), University of Cambridge (1988); PhD in History, Philosophy and Social Relations of Science, University of Kent at Canterbury (1992); British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Leeds (1993-1995); Royal Society - British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in History of Science, University of Kent at Canterbury (1995-1999) and University of Aberdeen (1999-2000); Lecturer in Cultural History, University of Aberdeen (2000-2009); Senior Fellow, Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, MIT/Harvard (2005-2006); Senior Lecturer in History of Science and Technology (2009-present); Deputy Head of School of Divinity, History and Philosophy (2009-2011)
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Research Interests
Science and technology in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century culture, especially the cultural history of engineering and technology in Britain; the humanitarian movement and veterinary professionalization; the historical relationship between science and music; literary engineering. Selected publications have addressed: the history of engineering education (esp. of W. J. Macquorn Rankine), in the British Journal for the History of Science (1992) and in Crosbie Smith and Jon Agar (eds.), Making space for science (Macmillan, 1998); technological success and failure in History of Science (1998); the history of energy and the relationship between science and music in Hessenbruch (ed.), Readers' guide to the history of science (Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000); and the reading practices of I. K. Brunel in Marsden, O'Connor and Hutchison (eds.), Uncommon contexts (forthcoming). His account of James Watt and the separate condenser appeared as Watt's perfect engine: steam and the age of invention (Icon, 2002; Columbia, 2004). He has also contributed extensively to the new Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004). With Crosbie Smith he has written Engineering empires: a cultural history of technology in nineteenth-century Britain (Macmillan, 2005 (hbk), 2006 (pbk)). The first part of an interdisciplinary study of the relationship between the mechanical analysis, architectural history and comparative anatomy of Cambridge professor Robert Willis was published in the British Journal for the History of Science (2004). He revisited the history of heat engines, especially those using air as a working substance, in Transactions of the Newcomen Society (2006). He contributed a new entry on meteorologist John Aitken to the new edition of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography (2007); and his study of attitudes towards the engineering science of naval architecture at the British Association for the Advancement of Science appeared in a thematic volume of the Journal for European Administrative History (2008). A further paper on John Aitken's 'outdoor physics' has appeared in a Norwegian journal of cultural history (2009); and a study of perceptions of French technological culture amongst British artisans in the early ninteenth century has appeared in a volume edited by Liliane Hilaire-Perez (2010). He is currently completing the first major biography of Macquorn Rankine for Ashgate (projected 2013).
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Current Research
He is currently: completing the first book-length study of W. J. M. Rankine and the origins of academic engineering science in nineteenth-century Britain (for Ashgate); preparing an extended study of the Falkirk meteorologist John Aitken; and re-visiting Brunel's interactions with cultures of reading and writing for Marsden, O'Connor and Hutchison (eds.), Uncommon contexts (forthcoming), a volume on literature and science.
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Collaborations
He has worked closely with Crosbie Smith on the AHRC-funded project on the cultural history of the ocean-going steamer in nineteenth-century Britain; he maintains close links with staff at the National Museum of Scotland (Science and Technology Division); he is planning a workshop collaboratively with staff at the University of Aarhus on literary engineering.
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Research Grants
He received a major grant from the Diber Institute of the History of Science and Technology, MIT/Harvard (2005-2006).
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Teaching Responsibilities
HS2003: History and Philosophy of Science I
HS2503: History and Philosophy of Science II
CU3012/CU3512: Science & Religion
HI2012: Birth of Modernity (contributor)
CU4026: Cultures of Victorian Science and Technology
EL40BL: Literature and Science: From Frankenstein to Einstein
MLitt in Visual Culture (contributor)
MLitt in History and Philosophy of Science (co-ordinator)
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External Responsibilities
Include, or have included: Council, British Society for the History of Science (2000-2003); Book Reviews Editor and Editorial Board Member, British Journal for the History of Science (2000-2005); Advisory Editor, Isis (2009-2011)
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Admin Responsibilities
Founding Director of the CASS Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine
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Media Work
Contributor to: 'Engineering an Empire: Britain' (History Channel, 2006); 'James Watt' (Arte, c. 2008).
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Publications
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