Help Build the Center
The Center relies on its individual and institutional partners for financial, intellectual and strategic support. We have accomplished much in our first few years and continue to expand and develop the Center and its programs.
Our supporters appreciate the importance of understanding how changes occur in science, technology and medicine — and how these changes shape our lives. Your contribution will fund research fellowships, public and academic events, and online projects such as our regional calendar and library catalogs search hub.
I invite you to add your name to the list of supporters who are helping build the Center.
Babak Ashrafi
Executive Director
Why support the Center—
Loren Graham
Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University
This Center, in my opinion, is currently the most vigorous focus for the history of science in the United States. We are fortunate in having many excellent university programs across the country in history of science but most of them understandably concentrate on their own institutions. The Philadelphia center is distinguished by its outreach, which now extends along the entire Eastern seaboard and may shortly become a truly national center. It has found a unique function as a coordinating leader and, if the Center can continue to gain financial support, its future is very bright indeed.
M. Susan Lindee
Professor of the History and Sociology of Science
Associate Dean for the Social Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences
University of Pennsylvania
The Center has fulfilled our highest hopes for what it could accomplish for history of science, technology and medicine not only in Philadelphia but in the world. It has become an intellectual resource for visitors who come to work in archives and connect with the region’s thriving scholarly community. It has taken the lead in organizing international meetings and developing public events. It is a treasured resource for scholars everywhere and I support it with great enthusiasm.
Joanna Radin
Assistant Professor in the History of Medicine and of History
Yale University
Former Dissertation Writing Fellow
When I became involved with the Center, I understood myself to be a member of a broad and very vibrant scholarly community. The fellowship provided me with invaluable experiences during a formative period. The opportunity to focus on my writing while engaging with many different individuals and institutions allowed me to take my work in new directions. The Center provides unique resources for stimulating the growth of history of science as an exciting field of inquiry and of action.
2011-2012
B. Robert DeMento
President, Board of Trustees
Library Company of Philadelphia
From the earliest days of the Republic until today, Philadelphia continues to maintain its importance as a center of medicine, science, and technology. Franklin, the Bartrams, Rittenhouse, Leidy, Cope, Agnew, the builders of the ENIAC computer and Blumberg are among the city’s luminaries who contributed to such a reputation. Utilizing the combined resources of its twelve member institutions, the PACHS consortium continues to preserve this legacy of learning through its sponsorship of fellowships, conferences, and exhibitions, targeting both professionals and an interested general public. In the few years since its inception, PACHS has made significant progress in establishing itself as an important intellectual and rich cultural resource in our region.
Lynn K. Nyhart
Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
President, History of Science Society
In its short history, the Center has become far more than a clearing-house and coordinator of information about Philadelphia-area history of science: it is rapidly becoming an autonomous hub for the regional, and even national, scholarly community in history of science, medicine, and technology. Its combination of information-tracking, public and scholarly events, working groups, and fellowships offers other localities across the nation a model of how to unite diverse institutions and disciplinary communities into one larger intellectual community to advance the history of science.
Ruth Schwartz Cowan
Chair, Department of the History and Sociology of Science
Janice and Julian Bers Professor, University of Pennsylvania
After 45 years of an academic career, I am about to retire from my university commitments. I am not retiring from scholarship, however, and because of the lively scholarly community that PACHS has created here, I am seriously considering retiring in Philadelphia (despite the fact that my children and grandchildren live elsewhere). Where else could I be within walking distance of so many archival repositories, such an excellent research university, and so many scholars, young and old, pushing the boundaries of knowledge in so many aspects of the history of technology, natural science, social science and medicine, and having so much fun doing it in each other’s company?
Karin Ekholm
Former Dissertation Research Fellow
Teaching and Research Associate, Cambridge University
My findings in libraries and contacts I made in Philadelphia played a formative role in my research and in preparing me for my work in Cambridge. I remain grateful to the Center, the librarians at member libraries and the other scholars whom I encountered during my fellowship.
Carin Berkowitz
Former Dissertation Writing Fellow
Associate Director, Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry
Chemical Heritage Foundation
The impact of the fellowship on my career was as much, if not more, in the community that it provided for me as it was in the funding. The writing groups, the colloquia, the Center’s staff, Philadelphia area scholars, and Center-sponsored and coordinated events helped me find new enthusiasm for my own work. Suddenly, writing a dissertation seemed much more interesting and less solitary.