Science History Institute Welcomes 2025–2026 Beckman Center Fellows

The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Science History Institute is pleased to announce our 2025–2026 class of fellows. Hailing from a diverse list of local, national, and international institutions, our incoming fellows will use our collections to study a wide range of topics in the history and social studies of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the life sciences.

In addition to our postdoctoral, dissertation, distinguished, and short-term research fellows, the Beckman Center continues its curatorial fellowship program, which integrates fellows as staff members who will assist with ongoing projects, expanding and exploring interpretive programs for our library and museum.

The Science History Institute is home to the largest private fellowship program in the historical study of science, medicine, and technology in the United States. Researchers travel from all over the world to use our collections and to take part in a vibrant scholarly community.

Curatorial Fellow

• Taylor Bailey
  Focus: Public History
  Cain Curatorial Fellow

Haas / NEH Postdoctoral Research Fellow

• Samantha Wesner
  Citizens Electric: Electricity and Democracy in the Revolutionary Atlantic World
  Haas Postdoctoral Fellow

Postdoctoral Research Fellows

• Elizabeth Bennett
  From the Ashes, From the Acid: Histories and Geographies of Coal Refuse Management, Acid Mine Drainage Remediation, and Economic Development in Pennsylvania
  Price-Cain Postdoctoral Fellow
  
  
• Adam Quinn
  The Nature of Computing: The Making of Computers and the Remaking of American Capitalism
  Haas Postdoctoral Fellow

Dissertation Fellows

• Koyna Tomar, University of Pennsylvania
  Dairy Democracy: Science, Cooperatives, and Capital in the Agrarian History of Modern India, 1880–1991
  Doan Dissertation Fellow
  
  
• Csaba Olasz, University of California, San Diego
  The Humanist Impulse: A Movement against Scientific Reductionism, 1950–1980
  Allington Dissertation Fellow

Cain Conference Fellows

• Bernie Lightman, York University, Canada
• Hugh Slotten, University of Otago, New Zealand
  The Global History of Modern Science, 1400–1914

Senior Fellows

• Claiton Marcio da Silva, Federal University of the Southern Frontier, Brazil
  From Agent Orange to Tordon: Dow Chemical Controversies in Brazil (1970–1985)
  Haas Senior Fellow
  
  
• Sarah Everts, Carleton University, Canada
  Our Odor Awakening
  Haas Senior Fellow
  
  
• Jacqueline Robinson, Independent Scholar
  Countless Dignities: William A. Lester, Jr., Chemist and Educational Pioneer
  Ullyot Scholar

Short-Term Fellows

• Nikhil Dharan, University of Pennsylvania
  Colonial Alchemies: Chemical Knowledge and the Industrial Landscape in South India, 1890–1940
  Cain Fellow
  
  
• Caroline Douglas, Royal College of Art, UK
  Cloths of Gold and Silver Stuff: Locating Elizabeth Fulhame in Early Photography
  Otlet Fellow
  
  
• Adriana Fraser, University of Pennsylvania
  Making Danger: Biological Weapons Research, Biosafety, and the Management of Microbial Life, 1940–1990
  Seidel Fellow
  
  
• Muskan Garg, University of Toronto, Canada
  Mapping the Global Circulation of Industrial Dyeing Knowledge
  Mistry Fellow
  
  
• Nayanika Ghosh, Duke University
  Nature and Nation: Sociobiology and the Emergence of Feminist Science Critique in the Postwar United States
  Price Fellow
  
  
• Nicole Liao, University of Toronto, Canada
  “Truth to Nature”: Synthetic Color, Biology, and Photo Media in the 19th Century
  Cain Fellow
  
  
• David Soares Mesquita, University of Lisbon, Portugal
  Integrating Alchemy into Academic Medicine: The Case of Estêvão Rodrigues de Castro (1559–1637)
  Doan Fellow
  
  
• Léon Pradeau, University of Chicago
  Morris A. Robbins: Essaying Prosthesis
  Allington Fellow
  
  
• Audrey Rankin, Temple University
  Collecting for the Crown and Capital: Scientific Networks, Reform, and Ideas of Empire in Late 18th-Century New Granada
  Herdegen Fellow

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Featured image: Fellows conduct research in the Institute’s Othmer Library.