Science History Institute Welcomes 2026–2027 Beckman Center Fellows

The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Science History Institute is pleased to announce our 2026–2027 class of fellows. Hailing from a diverse list of local, national, and international institutions, our incoming fellows will use our collections—including our newly acquired History of Molecular Biology Collection—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, 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

• Gina Pungello
  Focus: History of Molecular Biology Collection
  Haas Curatorial Fellow

Postdoctoral Research Fellows

• He Li
  Celestial Art: Form, Alchemy, and Nature in the Artwork, c. 1250–1475
  Cain Postdoctoral Fellow

• Deirdre Moore
  DEBUG: Narratives of Insects from Enlightenment Natural History to 20th-Century Chemical Regimes
  Price-Cain Postdoctoral Fellow

Dissertation Fellows

• Jessica Hogbin, Syracuse University
  Innumerable Melancholies: Medicine, Mental Health, and Human Nature in Renaissance Italy, 1450-1650
  Allington Dissertation Fellow
  
  
• Pere Nogués-Martín, CUNY Graduate Center
  Ecological Dispossession and Black Counter-Ecologies in the South Carolina Lowcountry
  Haas Dissertation Fellow

Cain Conference Fellows

• Christina Brandt, University of Jena, Germany

• Alistair Sponsel, Science History Institute

Short-Term Fellows

• Waqia Abdul-Kareem, New York University
  Colonial Alchemies: Chemical Knowledge and the Industrial Landscape in South India, 1890–1940
  Price Fellow
  
  
• Rebecca Allen, University of California, Riverside
  Encoded Enlightenment: Alchemical Secrecy and the Rise of Print
  Herdegen Fellow
  
  
• Aida Arosaoie, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Synthetic Affliction: Climate Change, Synthetic Rubber, and Disease on the Asian Natural Rubber Belt
  Cain Fellow
  
  
• Aaron A. Aryee, University of Ghana
  Inventing Clean Water: Reconstructing Industrial Chemistry and Environmental Responsibility Through Corporate Archives, 1930–1980
  Cain Fellow
  
  
• Ann Campbell, Indiana University Bloomington
  James Hutton: Natural Philosopher
  Haas Fellow
  
  
• Julian Chehirian, Princeton University
  The Acoustics of Care and Control: Synthetic Materials and the Material Governance of Attention in Postwar America
  Doan Fellow
  
  
• Madison Clyburn, McGill University, Canada
  Pleasurable Perfumes: Visualizing the Material Culture of Women’s Wellness in Early Modern Northern Italy
  Allington Fellow
  
  
• Océane Fontaine Cioffi, University of Tours, France
  Scents and Artisanal Practices in Early Modern Recipe Books: Books of Secrets, Marginalia, and the Circulation of Knowledge
  Mistry Fellow
  
  
• Anna Gasha, Columbia University
  Constructing an Early History of Scientific Research on Energy Use and Existing Buildings
  Otlet Fellow
  
  
• Adrien Gau, University of Pennsylvania
  The Authenticity of Health: Plastic Surgery, Trans Identity, and American Medical Diplomacy in Cold War Taiwan
  Doan Fellow
  
  
• Grace Kim-Butler, Independent Scholar
  Manufacturing Flow: Rheology Modifiers and Other Processing Aids in the 20th Century
  Cain Fellow
  
  
• Alison McManus, Johns Hopkins University
  Banned by Gaussian: How Scientists Fought for the Soul of Quantum Chemistry
  Seidel Fellow
  
  
• Elliot Mertz, Johns Hopkins University
  A New Mechanism: Organizing Principles of Living Bodies in 17th- and 18th-Century German Iatrochymistry at the Fredericana in Halle
  Allington Fellow
  
  
• Mesías Orozco Ic, Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), Mérida Unit, Mexico
  The Quantum Alchemy of Aromaticity: A Historical and Critical Journey from Intrinsic Concept to the Engineering of Molecular Fields
  Doan Fellow
  
  
• Kyriane Petit, Sciences Po Lyon, France
  Chemical Workers and Researchers United Against Exposure to PFAS: Investigating the Development of an Occupational Health Survey in Lyon’s Chemical Valley
  Ullyot Scholar
  
  
• Lucas Richert, University of Wisconsin–Madison
  Chain Reaction: The Rise of Big Pharmacy, Corporate Health, and American Capitalism
  Haas Fellow
  
  
• Gildo Santos, University of São Paulo, Brazil
  Béchamp: A Road from Chemistry to Medicine?
  Presidential Fellow
  
  
• Emmet von Stackelberg, Harvard University
  Seeing Through Silver: How Chemists and Capital Made Images Move
  Doan Fellow
  
  
• Jonah Walters, University of California, Los Angeles
  From ‘Lord’s Breath’ to ‘Miracle Cotton’: Nitrocellulose, the Rise of Mass-Produced Explosives, and the End of Gunpowder
  Cain Fellow
  
  
• Alexis White, Bryn Mawr College
  The Plastic Line: A History of Modern Dance According to Knit
  Cain Fellow

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Featured image: A fellow conducts research in the Institute’s Othmer Library.