[Classifieds] [classifieds] Lecture, July 23 - Talk about “Modern” Science by Seymour Cohen

[MBL Classifieds]

From: "Jennifer Gaines" <jgaines at clamsnet.org> 



Event: Talk about “Modern” Science by Seymour Cohen 

Where: Woods Hole Public Library 

Date/Time: Monday, July 23, 12:30 PM 

Free and open to the public 



Dr. Seymour Cohen, retired biochemist, bacteriologist, and virologist, will speak at the Woods Hole Public Library on Monday, July 23 at 12:30 PM about a recent controversy among scientific historians. His talk will focus on the work of Charles Gillispie, Professor Emeritus of the history of science at Princeton University and editor of the Dictionary of Scientific Biology , and Joel Mokyr, former President of the Society of Economic Historians. These two major figures in the history of science and industrial history in America today have widely divergent opinions about the evolution of the modern industrial age. Dr. Cohen will address their differences and the problems in their interpretations of “modern” science. 



To quote Princeton University, which just awarded Dr. Gillispie an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters: “Charles Gillispie, a recognized expert in scientific technological activity in 18th-century France, established Princeton's Program in History of Science and served as director for ten years. He also served as chair of the Department of History in the 1970’s. With his colleague Thomas Kuhn, he gave impetus to the founding of the field of history and philosophy of science as an academic discipline. He was editor-in-chief of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, a 16-volume landmark series that won an award from the American Library Association as an outstanding reference work. 





Joel Mokyr, professor of economics at Northwestern University works on the economic history of Europe, and specializes in the period 1750- 1914. He teaches classes in European and American economic history and is currently head of his department. He holds a PhD from Yale University in 1974, and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1980. Hs current research concerns the economic and intellectual roots of technological progress and the growth of useful knowledge in European societies, as well as the impact that industrialization and economic progress have had on economic welfare. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Econometric Society. He has been the President of the Economic History Association, and a co-editor of the Journal of Economic History. 




Dr. Cohen is himself an esteemed and life-long scientist, having been on the staff at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Colorado in Denver and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He worked primarily on viruses and metabolic pathways. The discovery that virus infection creates new metabolic pathways and affects flux through existing pathways is important because it suggests that virus-specified enzymes could be used as biochemical targets for antiviral agents. 





He currently is working in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he published texts on polyamines and is working on a biography of the chemist, Thomas Cooper. He has spoken at the Library on other aspects of the history of science; this talk will be an extension of those previous lectures. 




This event will be held in the lower level meeting room of the Woods Hole Public Library and is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Library at 508-548-8961 or check the website at www.woodsholepubliclibrary.org . 





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