Past Long-Term Fellows

Past Gordon Cain Fellows in Technology, Policy, and Entrepreneurship

2006–2007
Jody Roberts
Chemical Heritage Foundation
Jody Roberts earned his B.S. in chemistry from St. Vincent College and his M.S. and Ph.D. in science and technology studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. As Cain Fellow, Roberts expanded his work on the green chemistry movement and explored cases relating to toxicology, regulation, and the class of chemicals known as environmental endocrine disrupters. He hosted the 2007 Cain Conference, "New Chemical Bodies: Biomonitoring, Body Burden, and the Uncertain Threat of Environmental Endocrine Disrupters." The goal of the conference and related projects was to create an opportunity for various interest groups to publicly discuss the diversity of issues related to the molecular sciences/industries and growing public concern over threats to their health and that of the environment. Roberts is currently the program manager of environmental history and policy at CHF.

2005–2006
Christopher Hamlin
University of Notre Dame
Christopher Hamlin received his B.A. from Antioch College and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He is currently a professor in the history and philosophy of science department at Notre Dame, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985. A good deal of Hamlin's recent work has dealt with the natural theology of chemistry in 19th-century Britain. As Cain Fellow at CHF, Hamlin undertook a comparative study of communities of 19th-century urban chemists, exploring patterns of professionalization, and the balancing of entrepreneurship, research, and public service.

2004–2005
Cyrus Mody
Chemical Heritage Foundation
Cyrus Mody's research as Cain Fellow at CHF focused on the history of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the atomic force microscope (AFM), and the ways these instruments were used to weave together disparate disciplines, particularly those under the conceptual umbrella of nanotechnology. He researched the effect of the introduction of STM and AFM on electrochemistry, surface science, and biochemistry; the status of probe-microscopy work at large corporate research laboratories in the 1980s; and sites where instruments manufacturers and customers negotiate the design and meaning of the instrumentation. Mody earned his Ph.D. in science and technology studies at Cornell University.

2003–2004
Donna Rilling
State University of New York, Stony Brook
 
2002–2003
None selected

2001–2002
Arthur Daemmrich
Chemical Heritage Foundation

2000–2001
Christian Simon
University of Basel, Switzerland
 
1999–2000
David B. Sicilia
University of Maryland, Department of History

1998–1999
Stephen B. Adams
Johns Hopkins University

Past Sydney M. Edelstein Fellows

2004–2005
Jan Marontate
Acadia University, Nova Scotia
Jan Marontate completed a case study of innovations in the manufacture of art materials, focusing on the development of synthetic painting media in 20th century North America. The research shows the rich interplay of scientific values, new technologies, artistic practices, theories of art and other ideologies, economic preoccupations, and general social processes.

2003–2004
Nathan Brooks
New Mexico State University

2002–2003
Regina Blaszczyk
Boston University
 
2001–2002
Tara Nummedal
Brown University

2000–2001
Kathryn Steen
Drexel University
 
1999–2000
John K. Smith, Jr.
Lehigh University

1998–1999
Carsten Reinhardt
University of Regensburg, Germany

1997–1998
Pamela H. Smith
Pomona College

1996–1997
Ute Deichmann
Institut fur Genetik/Universitat zu Koln, Germany

1995–1996
Roy MacLeod
University of Sydney, Australia

Sydney M. Edelstein International Studentships

2004–2005
Gabriella Petrick
University of Delaware
Gabriella Petrick's research concerned the role of technology and science in the industrial development of food in 20th-century America.

2003–2004
Rebecca P. Schwartz
Princeton University

2002–2003
Prakash Kumar
Georgia Institute of Technology

2001–2002
Gerard Fitzgerald
Carnegie Mellon University

2000–2001
Jeremiah James
Harvard University
 
1999–2000
John Ceccatti
University of Chicago
 
1998–1999
Richard Hamerla
Case Western Reserve University

1997–1998
John Dettloff
Princeton University

1996–1997
Jonathan Simon
University of Pittsburgh

1995–1996
Leo Slater
Princeton University

1994–1995
Pap Ndiaye
University of Paris, France

1993–1994
James Altena
University of Chicago

1992–1993
Kathryn Steen
University of Delaware

Past Haas Fellows in the History of Chemical Industries

2006–2007
Gerard Fitzgerald
Gerard Fitzgerald's research explored the sensory history of textile worker life in the American south during the dirst six decades of the twentieth century. This research examines the physical creation, cultural construction, and economic evolution of the built environment inhabited by southern textile workers and the health effect manifested by the conditions and boundaries of that environment. Fitzgerald's work as a Haas Fellow also examined shifting concerns about industrial hygiene and the effects of increased mechanization, control of the work environment, and increased exposure to various chemicals on workers' bodies.

Wendy Verhoff
Wendy Verhoff received her Ph.D. in history from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Her research focuses on connections joining industrial chemists and conservationists during the first half of the twentieth century, particularly the extent of their activism and its ideological underpinnings. While at CHF she further explored the role of chemists in conservation and its precedents. She also expanded her research into the ways that nuclear production, particularly the production of nuclear fuels, elicited multilayered responses from industrial chemists, workers, and members of the wider public.

2005–2006
Gwen Ottinger
Gwen Ottinger earned her Ph.D. from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. As Haas Fellow she explored the linkages made by petrochemical companies between local community relations and public relations. Ottinger's project illuminated the central role played by communities neighboring petrochemical plants in establishing the public's opinion and understanding of the industry by showing how chemical companies have, in their appeals to the general public, combined technical information about plant performance with information about local community relations.

2004-2005
Michael Egan
McMaster University

2003–2004
Hugh Gorman
Michigan Technological University
 
2002–2003
Margaret Garber

2001–2002
Leo B. Slater
Johns Hopkins University

Past Price Fellows in Polymer History

2007–2008
Slawomir Lotysz
University of Zielona Gora
Lotysz is a research fellow and lecturer at the University of Zielona Gora in Poland. Lotysz is specifically interested in the history of Kevlar and other materials utilized in the creation of bulletproof vests. During his time at CHF, Lotysz researched the broad impact of this chemical technology and its political and societal influences in the United States and abroad.

2006–2007
Thomas Faith
The George Washington University
Faith is a Ph.D. candidate in United States history at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is currently the history teacher at the U.S. House of Representatives Page School in Washington. His research is related to his dissertation on the relationship between the United States Army Chemical Warfare Service, the civilian chemical industry, and American society in World War I and the 1920s. This relationship was forged in response to the public's opposition to the development of chemical weapons following World War I. Faith spent his time at CHF researching the partnership formed between civilian chemists and the U.S. government. These groups worked together in order to promote war gas research in the interwar period over the objections of many Americans.

2005-2006
Jody Roberts
Roberts is interested in the intersections of chemical practices, technologies, and knowledge. His work on the green chemistry movement has developed into an interest in the relationship between the chemical sciences, chemical industries, and public health/environmental issues. These relationships are particularly important when there appears to be an uncertainty in science, but concern for health. His research as Price Fellow explored the controversy over the regulation of the chemical pesticide Atrazine, part of a series of case studies examining the regulation of specific chemicals in order to understand how uncertainty in science factors into public debate over use, regulation, and health. Roberts is the 2006-2007 Gordon Cain Fellow at CHF.

2004-2005
Gary Patterson
Carnegie Mellon University
While Price Fellow, Gary Patterson, a professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, continued his research for a forthcoming book titled Paradigms in Polymer Science, which explores the history of polymer science as a community of scholars committed to common intellectual frameworks. Polymer science is inherently multidisciplinary, and Patterson also followed the growth and development of coherent research communities within the field. Patterson's completed work includes a history of polymer science for the Mellon Institute.