I am a historian of science and medicine, specializing in early modern chemistry and the history of the early Royal Society. As a research fellow in the Modern History Faculty at the University of Oxford, I author scholarly publications and write for the popular press. I was formerly an associate professor at the University of Minnesota.
My book Web of nature: Martin Lister (1639-1712), the first arachnologist, was recently published by Brill, and is available for ordering. The book analyzes his contributions as England’s first arachnologist (spiders), conchologist (molluscs), as well as his service as vice-president of the Royal Society in the 1680s. This book has been funded by the British Academy, the Royal Society, and the National Science Foundation. It has been reviewed here. I am also engaged upon transcribing and editing Lister’s correspondence for the Cultures of Knowledge project at the University of Oxford. This three-volume set will be published by Brill.
I have delivered a public lecture at the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford on Tuesday, 26 October at 7 pm, part of its series to celebrate the 350th Anniversary of the Royal Society. The lecture was podcast and was entitled, “The Oxford Philosophical Society and the Royal Society: a meeting of minds?” The history of the Oxford Philosophical Society, a short-lived yet important rival to the early Royal Society, will be the subject of my next book.
I will be speaking at the Science Museum on 17 November 2011 concerning Newton’s work with glass of antimony.
Recently, I served as a consultant and was interviewed for BBC Four’s television program: Chemistry: A Volatile History.
My recent discovery of the 1100 Lister copperplates in the Bodleian Library is on their blog, “The Conveyor.”
Lister’s adolescent daughters engraved the plates for their father’s masterwork on molluscs using live specimens as well as images from artists such as Rembrandt and Wenceslaus Hollar. The story was also featured in the 24 December 2010 issue of the journal Nature.
I presented and was a consultant for “The Philosopher’s Stone and the Lost Ark,” part three of the “Ancient X-files” series from National Geographic, produced by WAGTV. It is currently airing on the Nat Geo channel in the United States, and has been retitled: Secrets of the Dark Arts.
