Archived 2010 Postings
UPDATED Call for Participation: Chemical Weather and Chemical Climate: Body, Place, Planet in Historical Perspective The Gordon Cain Conference on the history of atmospheric chemistry will take place at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from March 31-April 1, 2011. The 2011 Gordon Cain Conference seeks papers and posters that present original research, examine historiographical issues, and/or pursue historical syntheses in the field of atmospheric chemistry (broadly defined). Further details. Please send your paper or poster title, an abstract of 250 words or less, and a 2-page c.v. to Professor James R. Fleming, Colby College no later than November 15, 2010.
Postdocs and PhD Positions at Aarhus University Aarhus University, Denmark seeks 1 postdoc position in the history of science, 1 postdoc position in science communication studies, and 1 PhD position in the history of science. Further details.
Weather and Climate related events at the History of Science Society Annual Meeting in Montreal:
Thursday, Nov. 4
6:00 pm, Jim Fleming, Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control, McGill University Interdisciplinary Seminar, Leacock Building, Room 219, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T7
Friday, Nov. 5
9:00-11:45 am Predicting the Unthinkable: Sciences of Natural and Social Crisis
Chair and Commentator: Matthias Dorries, University of Strasbourg
Organizer: William Deringer, Princeton University
1. The Taming of the Volcano and the Conquering of Climate, Karen Holmberg, Brown University
2. Enumerating Mischiefs: The Mathematics and Politics of Financial Prediction During the 1720 South Sea Bubble, William Deringer, Princeton University
3. Typhoon Warning and Local Politics in Shanghai’s Inter-Port Meteorological Scheme, 1869-1882, Marlon Zhu, The State University of New York, Binghamton
4. The Productivity of Weather and Climate Prediction, Samuel Randalls, University College London
1:30-03:10 pm Climate Change in the 20th Century
Chair: Jim Fleming, Colby College
1. Caught Between Absolutist Capitalism and Blind Environmentalism?, Nils Randlev Hundebøl, University of Aarhus, Denmark
2. Helmut E. Landsberg: “Foremost Climatologist” within Early Debates of Global Climate Change Science, 1950-1985, Gabriel Henderson, Michigan State University
3. Producing Arctic Climate Change: Hans Ahlmann’s ‘Polar Warming’ Theory in the Field and in the Media, 1920 to 1960, Sverker Sörlin, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
4. Carbon, Oceans and the Future, ca 1900-1957, Maria Bohn, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Friday evening TBA, Palgrave Studies in History of Science and Technology series launch featuring the following books:
Confronting the Climate: British Airs and the Making of Environmental Medicine by Vladimir Jankovic.
Globalizing Polar Science: The International Polar and Geophysical Years in Historical Perspective by Roger Launius, James Fleming, and David Devorkin, eds.
Saturday, Nov. 6
9:00-11:45 am The Science, Politics, and Publics of Climate Change
Chair and Organizer: Jessica O'Reilly, UCSD and Princeton University
Commentator: Keynyn Brysse, Princeton University
1. Climate Science, Truth, and Democracy, Evelyn Fox-Keller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2. Neo-liberalism, Resistance to Climate Science, and the Legacy of the Cold War, Naomi Oreskes, University of California, San Diego
3. The Public Role of Climate Scientists, Michael Oppenheimer, Princeton University
4. The History of a Typo: Himalayan Glacier Predictions and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Jessica O'Reilly
3:30-5:30 pm The Development of Biology in a Model Technocracy: Science and the Soviet Union
Chair: Bruno Strasser, Yale University
...2. Differing Scientific Visions Approach Climate Change: The Development of the Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature, Stephen Brain, Mississippi State University
Sunday, Nov. 7
10:00-12:00 pm Knowledge and Politics of Climate in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Chair: Miruna Achim, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico
Organizer: Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, Harvard University
Commentator: Jean-François Gauvin, McGill University
1. Climate, Biopolitics and the Environmental Reflexivity of Modernity (18th and 19th Centuries France), Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, Harvard University
2. Hippocratism and Urban Reform: Mexico City and Lima, Late 18th Century, Miruna Achim, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
3. Deforestation, Climate Changes and the Environmental Heritage of the French Revolution, Fabien Locher, Centre national de la recherché scientifique, Paris
Roger Turner (University of Pennsylvania) successfully defended his dissertation, "Weathering Heights: The Emergence of Aeronautical Meteorology as an Infrastructural Science" in February 2010. The dissertation is available for free download here. Congratulations Dr. Turner!
History of Meteorology is looking for papers on the history of meteorology, climatology, and related sciences by October 1, 2010. Further Details available on page v.
Call for Papers: Exploring Ice and Snow in the Cold War This workshop is interested in new research projects at the interface of environmental history, military history and the history of science and technology to contribute to the discussion on the scientific perception and constitution of nature in the Cold War. The workshop is supported by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany and will take place at the Deutsche Museum from January 27-29. Travel and accommodation costs will be met by the organizers. Applications must be written in English. Abstracts (500 words) and a short c.v. should be submitted by email no later than August 30th 2010 to Dr. Christian Kehrt.
One Year Postdoc at the National Weather Center With funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Systems Research Laboratory (ESRL), the Social Science Woven into Meteorology (SSWIM) Program within the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies at the University of Oklahoma seeks to hire a one-year postdoctoral scientist to conduct ethnographic work on the culture and communication of weather information in the United States. If interested, please visit the ESRL's Global Systems Division laboratory or send any questions to Eve Gruntfest, SSWIM Director.
Call for Applications: Weather and Society * Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) 2010 Summer Workshop The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Societal Impacts Program (SIP) will hold the 2010 Summer WAS*IS workshop from August 5-13, 2010 in Boulder, Colorado. The application deadline is April 30, 2010. Further details.
The Royal Meteorological Society will hold their National Summer Meeting from July 18-20, 2010 at the University of Exeter. Further Details.
UPDATED Graduate Fellowship: The American Meteorological Society announces its 2010 Graduate Fellowship in History of Science. Applications are due 1 March 2010 for this US$15,000 fellowship to support doctoral research and writing. (Note: Candidates must be U.S. citizens or hold permanent resident status and must be pursuing a degree at a U.S. institution.) Further Details.
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs) Climate Change first issue now launched. Further details.
Graduate Fellowship: History of Science Society Fellowship in the History of Space Science. The History of Science Society Fellowship in the History of Space Science, supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) History Division, funds a nine-month research project that is related to any aspect of the history of space science, from the earliest human interest in space to the present. The program is broadly conceived and includes the social, cultural, institutional and personal context of space-science history. Applications are due 3 March 2010. Further Details.
Graduate Fellowship: The American Geophysical Union announces its 2010-2011 Graduate Fellowship in the History of Science. Applications are due 15 February 2010 for this US$5,000 fellowship to support doctoral research. (Note: Applicants must be U.S. citizens or hold permanent resident status, and must be pursuing a degree at a U.S. institution.) Further Details.
Post-Doc: The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is seeking a Postgraduate (post- doctoral) Scientist to conduct research on the socioeconomic aspects of weather and the communication, use, interpretation, and value of weather forecasts and warnings. The scientist will join a multidisciplinary team of researchers in NCAR’s Mesoscale and Microscale Division, Integrated Science Program, and Collaborative Program on the Societal Impacts and Economic Benefits of Weather Information. Deadline: 5 February 2010. More Information (pdf file).
"Environmental History of the Sky," essays sought for an edited volume. Deadline: 8 January 2010. Full Announcement.