Publications by Subject Area
Pnina Geraldine Abir-Am
Historian of Science/ 20th Century Molecular Biology;
Women and Gender in Science
Senior Research Fellow, Scientific Legacies
249 Orchard Street, Belmont, MA 02478, USA
Tel: 617-283-7464, Fax: 617-484-2709
Research Schools of Molecular Biology in UK, US, and France: National traditions, transnational Innovation, and the origins of the biotech revolution (forthcoming).
"Molecular Biology in the Context of British, French, and American Cultures" in Sciences and Cultures, special issue of International Social Science Journal, no. 168, guest editor: H. Vessuri (Oxford: Blackwell and UNESCO, June 2001, 187-199). (translated by UNESCO into French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese)
Most significant publications (Top three other than A.I.1/2003, the most significant item)
"The Molecular Revolution in 20th Century Biology" in Science in the 20th Century, J. Krige and D. Pestre, eds. (London: Harwood, 1997), 495-520.
"From Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration to Transnational Objectivity: International Space as Constitutive of Molecular Biology, 1930-1970", in Denationalizing Science: The International Context of Scientific Practice, E. Crawford, T. Shinn & S. Sorlin (eds.), (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1993), 153-186; translated into Spanish (Arbor, 1997)
"The Biotheoretical Gathering, Transdisciplinary Authority and the Incipient Legitimation of Molecular Biology in the 1930s: New Perspective on the Historical Sociology of Science", History of Science, 25 (March 1987), 1-70.
Essay reviews [additional reviews in the complete C.V.]
"'New' Trends in the History of Molecular Biology", Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, vol. 26 (1995), 167-196. (comparative essay of six books)
"Nobelesse Oblige: Lives of Molecular Biologists", ISIS, 82 (June 1991), 326-343; (on seven Nobelist auto/biographies) featured as "newsworthy" in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 09/18/1991.
Most recent publications (Last three years, including forthcoming)
Cultural Memory and Gender: Remembering Nobel Laureate Dorothy Hodgkin in England, China, and India. (forthcoming; paper read on 11/05/05 at the Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society, MNPLS)
"Entre Memoire Collective et Histoire en Biologie Moleculaire: Les Premiers Rites Commemoratifs pour les Groupes Fondateurs", in La Mise en Memoire de la Science, P.G. Abir-Am (ed.) (Paris: EAC/ Gordon & Breach, 1998), 25-75.
"A Historical Ethnography of a Scientific Anniversary in Molecular Biology: The First Protein X-ray Photo (1984, 1934)", Social Epistemology, vol. 6, 1992, 323-354; 363-364; 371-372; 380-387 (Special issue devoted to this paper, three commentaries & replies to each commentary).
Essay reviews [additional reviews in the complete C.V.]
"Images of Women Scientists: Comparing Still Photos and Movies of Dorothy Hodgkin and Rosalind Franklin". (forthcoming)
Creative Couples in the Sciences (New Brunswick/NJ and London: Rutgers University Press, 1996); edited with H.M. Pycior and N.G. Slack; reviewed in Science, American Historical Review, Nuncius, Medical Technology, among others; co-author of Introduction, 1-35, Appendix, and C.I.3.
"Women in Modern Scientific Research: A Historical Overview" in World Science Report Paris: UNESCO, official publications, 1995/6); also in a French edition, Rapport Mondial sur la Science), as "La place de femmes dans la science et la technologie"
Most significant publications
From Sufragettes to the DNA Moratorium: Women in the Rise of Molecular Biology, (forthcoming; draft read on 09/10/00, Newnham College, Cambridge University, International Conference on Women in the History of Science, Technology, & Medicine).
"Collaborative Couples who Strove to Change the World: The Social Policies and Personal Tensions of the Russells, the Myrdals, and the Mead-Batesons" in Creative Couples in the Sciences, 1996, (C.I.2), 267-281.
"Synergy or Clash: Disciplinary and Marital Strategies in the Career of the Mathematical Biologist Dorothy M. Wrinch (1894-1976)" in P.G. Abir-Am & D. Outram (eds.), Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives, Women in Science, 1789-1979 (1987 & 1989), op.cit. 338-94.
Essay reviews [additional reviews in the complete C.V.]
"Women in Science as Groups and as Individuals", History and Philosophy of Life Sciences (forthcoming); a review of G. Ferry, Dorothy Hodgkin, A Life and A.H. Koblitz, Science, Women, and Revolution in Russia.
"The Strategy of Large Versus Small Scale Investments: The Rockefeller Foundation's International Network of Protein Research, 1930-1960" in American Foundations and Large Scale Research, ed. G. Gemelli (Bologna: Clueb, 2001), 71-90.
"The Rockefeller Foundation and Refugee Biologists: The European and American Careers of Leading RF Grantees from England, France, Germany, and Italy" in The "Unacceptables", American Foundations and Refugee Scholars between the Two World Wars, ed. G. Gemelli (Brussels: P.I.E., 2000), 217-240.
"The Assessment of Interdisciplinary Research in the 1930s: The Rockefeller Foundation and Physico-Chemical Morphology", Minerva, xxvi (summer 1988) 153-176.
Essay reviews [additional reviews in the complete C.V.]
"Strategic Repositioning of Philanthropic Foundations in the Era of Globalization" (forthcoming).
"A Comparative Study of the Rockefeller Foundation's Divisions: Disciplinarity as Enabling and Constraining the Impact of Large Scale Private Philanthropy" (forthcoming).