History of Science Society -- Distinguished Lecture

HSS Distinguished Lecture Speakers

The History of Science Society's series of Distinguished Lectures began in 1981 at the annual meeting in Los Angeles, California. In planning for that meeting, and in response to the proliferation of parallel sessions, program co-chairs David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers decided to create a plenary forum featuring a historian of science at the height of his or her career. Over the past 20 years this "Society Lecture" has evolved into a highlight of the annual meeting, drawing by far the largest attendance of any session. Through the generosity of Joseph H. Hazen, the renamed HSS Distinguished Lecture has been endowed, allowing the Society to cover the lecturer's expenses and honorarium.

1981 Charles C. Gillispie, "Image and Reality: The Montgolfiers and the Invention of Aviation"

1982 Charles E. Rosenberg, "Science in American Society: a Generation of Historical Debate"
1983 Richard S. Westfall,
1984 I. Bernard Cohen, "Idea, Object, and Image in the Development of Scientific Thought"
1985 Frederic L. Holmes, "Scientific Writing and Scientific Discovery"
1986 John L. Heilbron, "Applied History of Science"
1987 David C. Lindberg, "What Shall We Do with the Middle Ages?"
1988 Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, "Parlors and Primers: Education in Science in the Nineteenth Century"
1989 Jacques Roger, "Man in Eighteenth-Century Natural History"
1990 Owen Hannaway, "The Middle Ground: Finding a Place between Science and History"
1991 Loren Graham, "The Case of Gorbachev and the Ghost of the Executed Engineer"
1992 Daniel J. Kevles, "The Enemies Without and Within: Cancer and the History of the Laboratory Sciences"
1993 Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs, "Newton as Final Cause and First Mover"
1994 David Hollinger, "Science as a Weapon in Kulturkämpfen in the United States During and After World War II"
1995 A. I. Sabra, "Situating Arabic Science: Locality versus Essence"
1996 Allen G. Debus, "The Chemists, the Physicians, and the Scientific Revolution"
1997 Thomas L. Hankins, "Blood, Dirt, and Nomograms: A Particular History of Graphs"
1998 Martin Rudwick, "The First Historical Science of Nature"
1999 Charles C. Gillispie, "The Past as Prologue"
2000 Mary Jo Nye, "The Cultural and Political Sources of Science as Social Practice"

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