Council & Committees

About Us

The British Society for the History of Science

Founded in 1947, the BSHS is Britain’s largest learned society devoted to the history of science, technology and medicine. Current members include lecturers, writers, students, teachers, museum curators and private individuals. We aim to bring together people with interests in all aspects of the field, and to publicise relevant ideas within the wider research and teaching communities and in the media.

The BSHS is registered as a charity and as a private company limited by guarantee. We are governed by President, Vice-president and Council appointed by the members, as well as an Executive Secretary and a number of permanent and ad-hoc committees who manage specific activities.

If you have any questions, visit our contacts page to find out how to get in touch with us.

 

Mission Statement

The British Society for the History of Science aims:

  1. To be the generalist society of primary affiliation for all academics working in HSTM in these islands.
  2. To foster HSTM internationally
  3. To maintain BJHS as a leading learned journal in the discipline.
  4. To arrange a number of learned meetings in the discipline.
  5. To promote the discipline in higher education.
  6. To lobby the relevant agencies in support of the discipline, its resources and artefacts
  7. To promote awareness of HSTM in other areas of higher education (e.g. science faculties, general history departments)
  8. To promote awareness of, and encourage the teaching of, HSTM at all levels and in all areas of education.
  9. To foster understanding of the role of STM in the development of modern society.
  10. To increase the number of activities aimed at a variety of non-academic audiences.
  11. To encourage the exchange of ideas relating to HSTM between academic practitioners, teachers, scientists, government agencies and other relevant bodies.
  12. To raise the profile and increase the membership of BSHS on these islands and overseas.

BSHS Council

Executive Secretary

Advisory Members of Council

Ordinary Members of Council

Conference Committee

Finance Committee

Grants Committee

International Advisers

HSTM Network for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour

Policies and Procedures

List of BSHS Presidents

BSHS Council

Council is the elected governing body of the BSHS. It consists of five Officers and nine Ordinary Members, who meet three times a year to discuss and approve Society business. Terms of office are as laid out in the Policies and Procedures (available to members by a request to the execsec@bshs.org.uk.) Nominations for successors to outgoing members of Council are sought from the whole membership each spring; new members of Council are elected at an Extraordinary General Meeting, held in the summer of each year and open to all BSHS members.

Chiara Ambrosio

Chiara Ambrosio

President
Chiara Ambrosio is a Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science at the Department of Science and Technology Studies (UCL). Her research focuses on representation across art and science, with a specific focus on nineteenth and twentieth century visual culture. Her published works combine philosophical accounts of representation with historical investigations into particular modes of image-making, such as diagrams and photographs, and the debates around their epistemological status at the turn of the century. The conceptual framework underpinning her research draws substantially on the pragmatist philosophy of Charles S. Peirce, and she is currently working on Peirce’s history and historiography of science.
Amanda Rees

Amanda Rees

Editor of BJHS
Amanda Rees, Reader in Sociology at the University of York, is a historian of science primarily interested in the history of the field sciences, of human/animal relationships and of the future. Her published research, from 2009’s The Infanticide Controversy: the Art of Field Science to 2019’s forthcoming edition of Osiris, Presenting Futures Past: Science Fiction and the History of Science (co-edited with Iwan Rhys Morus), reflect these broad-ranging interests. She has previously edited various journal special issues, including the second volume of BJHS THEMES (Animal Agents, 2017), and has also written widely for the popular press.
Rebekah Higgit

Rebekah Higgit

Vice-President
Dr Rebekah Higgitt is Principal Curator of Science at National Museums Scotland, having previously been a senior lecturer at the University of Kent and Curator of History of Science at Royal Museums Greenwich. Her research focuses on history of astronomy, institutional knowledge cultures and scientific instrument makers. She was Co-I or PI on ‘The Board of Longitude 1714-1828: Science, innovation and empire in the Georgian world’, ‘Tools of Knowledge: Modelling the creative communities of the scientific instrument trade, 1550-1914’ and ‘Metropolitan Science: Places, objects and cultures of practice and knowledge in London, 1600-1800’, and is author or co-author of Recreating Newton, Finding Longitude, Maskelyne: Astronomer Royal, Metropolitan Science and The Board of Longitude.
Alice White

Alice White

Secretary
Alice White is a Digital Editor at English Heritage. Her job involves commissioning and writing articles about history and making ideas and collections accessible to as many people as possible. She has previously worked at Wellcome Collection as an editor and Wikimedian; as a freelance researcher on projects including a government inquiry, and a history of science fiction fandom; and as a secondary school teacher. Her doctoral research examined the history of human relations in mid-Twentieth Century Britain.
Ben Marsden

Ben Marsden

Treasurer
Ben Marsden is a Senior Lecturer in History of Science and Technology at the University of Aberdeen. After long periods spent as Head of the History Department he is now a Director of Postgraduate Studies. His research relates to the cultural history of engineering, broadly construed, in the long nineteenth century. His book Engineering empires (co-written with Crosbie Smith) has recently been translated into Chinese. He has published on the history of engineering in British universities, on the literary strategies of engineers, and on the connections between science and music, among other topics. He continues to explore the biography of academic engineer and poet W. J. M. Rankine. He is the co-director of the Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Aberdeen.
Adam Mosley

Adam Mosley

Editor of BJHS
Adam Mosley is Associate Professor in the Department of History, Heritage, & Classics at Swansea University. He is a historian of early modern science, with a particular focus on astronomy, cosmology, and cosmography, and wider interests in book history, scientific communities, instruments, collections and museums. His publications include Bearing the Heavens: Tycho Brahe and the Astronomical Community of the Later Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 2007). He has previously been an Ordinary Member of BSHS.

Executive Secretary

Contact: office@bshs.org.uk

Society administration in general is dealt with on a paid basis by the Executive Secretary, who plays a crucial role in the running of the Council, and attends its meetings.

The Executive Secretary also supports the work of the Committees as appropriate.

Ordinary Members of Council

Ordinary Council Members are elected for two years to broaden the scope of the Council, serve on committees, and support the BSHS’s core activities. If you are interested in standing for election, we would be pleased to hear from you.

Jon Topham

Jon Topham

University of Leeds
Jonathan Topham is Professor of History of Science at the University of Leeds, UK. His research relates mainly to the history of printed communication in science, and to science and religion, in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain. Jon’s recentmonograph, Reading the Book of Nature: How Eight Best Sellers Reconnected Christianity and the Sciences on the Eve of the Victorian Age (Chicago University Press, 2022) was awarded the 2023 academic book prize of the International Society for Science and Religion. He is currently working on a project, funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant, re-examining the epoch-making programme of cheap publishing of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1826–46).
Nathan Bossoh

Nathan Bossoh

Southampton University & London Science Museum
Dr Nathan Bossoh is a History Research Fellow at Southampton University. His main research intersects around the themes of science, medicine, museums, environment, and African Studies from 1750 to the present. Between September 2022 and September 2023, he was the African Collections Research Curator at the (London) Science Museum, where he now remains a Research Associate.
Rebbecca Martin

Rebbecca Martin

Pitt Rivers Museum
Rebecca (Becky) Martin is an early career researcher who specialises in the history of colonial medical education, anatomical models, and race science. As well as co-editing the increasingly popular undergraduate textbook Women in the History of Science, she also co-authored the 2023 Colonial History Report for the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. In her postdoctoral roles, she has researched topics from the systematisation of healthcare in late-colonial Nigeria to the creation of positive research culture in the present-day biosciences. Becky recently held a Caird Fellowship at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, exploring the colonial history and photography of the HMS Challenger expedition and is currently part of the AHRC-funded ‘Making the Museum’ project at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. She previously helped to organise elements of the 2018 BSHS/ESHS joint conference in London.
Brigitte Stenhouse

Brigitte Stenhouse

The Open University
Brigitte Stenhouse is a Lecturer in History of Mathematics at the Open University, UK, where her research focuses on mathematics in Britain and Europe during the long nineteenth century. Her doctoral research mobilised the extensive collection of letters and manuscripts of Mary Somerville (1780-1872) to investigate what it meant for Somerville, as an upper-class woman, to access mathematical knowledge and cultivate a reputation for herself within a scientific community. Stenhouse was the co-leader of a project on collaborative couples in mathematics, which sought to understand the roles played by domesticity and gender in the construction of mathematical identities and careers. She is currently leading the Contextualising the Curriculum project at the OU, building an online, interactive database of primary sources selected to demonstrate the global development of mathematics. Stenhouse is an active member of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, holding the position of Meetings Coordinator.
Michael Barany

Michael Barany

University of Edinburgh
Michael Barany is Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Edinburgh, where he researches the history and culture of modern science and mathematics. He has valued being a part of the BSHS community since first coming to the United Kingdom on a Marshall Scholarship for postgraduate study. He currently leads the UKRI Horizon guarantee project Situating International and Global Mathematics (https://sigma.mathsworlds.org), on the institutional and infrastructural globalisation of modern professional mathematical research. He is also interested in collaborative and open approaches to undergraduate and postgraduate history of science teaching (https://study.histsci.scot).
Adam Mosley

Adam Mosley

Editor of BJHS
Adam Mosley is Associate Professor in the Department of History, Heritage, & Classics at Swansea University. He is a historian of early modern science, with a particular focus on astronomy, cosmology, and cosmography, and wider interests in book history, scientific communities, instruments, collections and museums. His publications include Bearing the Heavens: Tycho Brahe and the Astronomical Community of the Later Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 2007). He has previously been an Ordinary Member of BSHS.

Advisory Members of Council

### Information Text ###

Conferences Committee Chair: Dr Sam Robinson, University of York

Communications Officer: Dr Alexander Stoeger, Saarland University (website & social media)

Viewpoint Editor: Dr Joseph Holloway, University of Exeter

Archivist: Dr Alexander Aylward, University of Oxford

Postgraduate Representative: Elena Morgana, University of Oxford

Conference Committee

The Conferences Committee organises the Society’s conferences, colloquia, seminars and other events, and liaises with other societies and institutions on joint and co-located programme activities. 

  • Chair: Dr Samuel Robinson, University of York
  • Secretary: Dr Samuel Robinson, University of York
  • Programme Co-Ordinator: Frank James, Royal Institution/UCL
  • Postgradaute Member: Sebestian Kroupa, Cambridge
  • Dr Sabine Clarke, University of York

Finance Committee

Contact: office@bshs.org.uk

The Finance Committee meets three times each year. It scrutinises the Society’s annual accounts and the management of its investments, and it provides general advice to the Treasurer. It is chaired by the Treasurer, and includes the following members:
  • Dr Ben Marsden (BSHS Treasurer and Chair)
  • Professor Chiara Ambrosio, University College London
  • Professor James Secord, University of Cambridge
  • Professor Jonathan Topham, University of Leeds
  • Dr Rebekah Higgitt, National Museums Scotland
  • Dr Alice White, English Heritage
  • Dr Erin Beeston, University of Manchester
  • Dr Brigitte Stenhouse, The Open University

Grants Committee

Contact: oec@bshs.org.uk

  • VP of BSHS (Chair): Dr Rebekah Higgitt, National Museums Scotland
  • President of BSHS: Professor Chiara Ambrosio, UCL
  • Treasurer of BSHS: Dr Ben Marsden, University of Aberdeen

International Advisers

Please contact vicepresident@bshs.org.uk if you would like to apply to join them.

The BSHS is committed to remaining a global organisation, and we have recruited a panel of International Advisors (IAs) to strengthen our presence throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Their role includes commenting on our policies (especially with respect to external affairs), outlining ways in which we could firm up our links with other countries, exchanging ideas and information, and suggesting potential collaborative ventures.

The IAs are appointed on a two-year rolling basis. They are on the Council mailing list, and are encouraged to attend Council when possible. At present, we have eleven, but we should very much like to recruit more, up to a maximum of sixteen. 

International Advisers’ roles & responsibilities include:
  • Publicising BSHS activities and publications in their area;
  • Reciprocally informing Council of HPS activities in their area, including a short annual report;
  • Promoting membership in their area, including distribution of Viewpoint;
  • Investigating reciprocal membership of national societies in their countries;
  • Commenting on Society policies (especially with respect to external affairs);
  • Outlining ways in which we could develop our links with other countries;
  • Exchanging ideas and information;
  • Suggesting collaborative ventures, including, potentially, conferences, exchange schemes, and research projects.
  • Writing a ‘Perspective’ piece for the BJHS on the state of the discipline in their country

Benefits of being an International Adviser include:

  • Reduced or waived fees for annual conferences;
  • The right to propose to Council initiatives that promise to encourage history of science in their territory;
  • The right to attend Council meetings when in the UK;
  • Permission to use the phrase ‘BSHS International Advisor’ in their CV, etc;
  • Occasional, specifically internationally themed, communications from the President

General Principles of Appointment:

  • Wherever there are ten or more BSHS members in any country or region, Council will solicit appointment of an IA; individuals recommended by Council members will be approached. Individuals may also apply. All will be asked to submit a CV and proposed action plan;
  • Where there are fewer than ten members in a country, people may apply to the Vice President to become an IA on the basis of a CV and proposed action plan;
  • An international sub-committee of Council (President, Vice President and two others) will receive applications once per year and recommend specific appointments to Council;
  • The normal period of appointment will be three years, renewable once by mutual agreement;
  • There will not normally be more than 24 IAs;
  • Communication will be the responsibility of the Vice President working with the Executive Secretary;
  • The Vice President will normally initiate the new cycle of appointments at the first Council meeting of the calendar year, and conclude it at the second;
  • As they are appointed rather than elected, IAs will not have any privileged access to Council papers;
  • The IA scheme will be reviewed for effectiveness every five years, first in 2022. This will be the responsibility of the Vice President.

Become a Member

Join the BSHS, gain access to our publications, events and grants and help us support the history of science.

Join the BSHS or extend your Membership

HSTM Network of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour

Contact: Dr Mirjam Brusius, mbrusius@cantab.net

The unprecedented attendance of many scholars from the Global South at the 2020 BSHS festival, as well as the discussions on the meaning of the Black Lives Matter movement in academic structures, gives us reasons both to celebrate and to reflect. What is the future of the field, increasingly concerned as it is with questions of decolonization; and what role can we, as scholars of colour, play? We run regular networking events aimed at BIPoC/BAME colleagues in History and Philosophy of Science, Science and Technology Studies, and related disciplines, and will provide a safe space to debate current directions, obstacles and opportunities in the field. We meet three to four times a year. The summer meeting will always take place as part of the BSHS annual meeting. Meetings will be announced on the Website, the Mersenne List and Social Media.

Policies and Guidelines

Policies & Prodecures
Equality & Diversity Statement
Climate Policy
Social Media Policy
Guidance for Speakers
Guidance for Chairs

Archive

Complete list of BSHS Presidents

1947-49 C. Singer
1949-51 J. R. Partington
1951-53 F. Sherwood Taylor
1953-55 H. Hamshaw Thomas
1955-57 H. Dingle
1957-62 E. Ashworth Underwood
1962-64 T. Martin
1964-66 A. C. Crombie
1966-68 A. R. Hall
1968-70 G. J. Whitrow
1970-72 W. P. D. Wightman
1972-74 J. A. Chaldecott
1974-76 M. P. Crosland
1976-78 D. W. Waters
1978-80 W. H. Brock
1980-82 R. Fox
1982-84 J. B. Morrell
1984-86 G. L’E. Turner
1986-88 C. A. Russell
1988-90 R. G. W. Anderson
1990-92 H. S. Torrens
1992-94 G. N. Cantor
1994-96 D. M. Knight
1996-97 J. H. Brooke
1998-99 Prof. Ludmilla Jordanova
2000-01 Dr. Jim A. Bennett
2002-03 Prof. E. Janet Browne
2004-05 Prof. Peter J. Bowler
2006-07 Prof. Frank A. J. L. James
2008-09 Dr. Jeff Hughes
2010-11 Dr. Sally Horrocks
2012-13 Prof. Hasok Chang
2014-16 Prof. Greg Radick
2016-18 Dr. Patricia Fara
2018-20 Dr. Tim Boon
2020- 22 Prof. Charlotte Sleigh
2022-24 Prof. James A. Secord
2024- Prof. Chiara Ambrosio