The 26^th International Congress of History of Science and Technology (ICHST) will take place in Prague this July . . . well, sort of in Prague, as the conference has gone virtual! You can find more information about the conference here.

As part of the Division of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, which is itself a component of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science, ICHO sponsors symposia at every ICHST meeting, and this year we have six panels and 24 scholars exploring topics on and adjacent to ocean science.  

If you’re interested in the congress, you should also make sure you’ve signed up as a member of ICHO so you can vote (& perhaps run!) in the elections for ICHO leadership.  You’ll get details via email soon as long as you’re on the list.

Our schedule for the congress is below, or you can find the entire congress schedule here.  All times are in Central European Summer Time CEST (UTC+2).

Monday, July 26

3:30-5:30 pm CEST — Re-scaling  & De-centering the History of Oceanography: the ‘Hidden Figures’ and Hidden Dimensions of Global Ocean Science – 1/5

An ‘Indian’ Ocean? Marine Biology and Scientific Authority in British India, Aviroop Sengupta

Post-War Reconnaissance of Japanese Fishery and Ocean Science and its Contribution to the Development of U.S. Scientific Programs: 1947-1954, Carmel Finley and Allen Shimada

Female Peruvian Scientists in Fishery Science: The Marine Biologists of IMARPE, 1964-1982, Alejandra Osorio

Recovering Hidden Histories of Marine and Aquatic Invasion Biology, Christine Keiner 

6:00-8:00 pm CEST — Wet Ecologies: The Media in (Under)Water Worlds

Imagining Submarine and Subterranean Coral: Geology and the Economics of Marine Fossil Remains, Penny Magazine 1833, Anne Ricculli

Luminous Marine Animals and an Enlightened Public: How Bioluminescence Popularized Marine Biology, Katharina Steiner

Live from the Depths:  Telepresence and the Production of Deep Ocean Science, Alicia Caporaso

Pteropods Realized: From Bio-indication to Bio-inspiration, Samm Newton

Tuesday, July 27

3:30-5:30 pm CEST — Re-scaling  & De-centering the History of Oceanography: the ‘Hidden Figures’ and Hidden Dimensions of Global Ocean Science – 2/5

Vulnerable at sea: Peru’s reluctant viceroy and the risks of ocean travel, Katy Kole de Peralta

Debating value and purpose: The inland Ohio- Mississippi river system within broader water networks, Kristen Fleming

De-centering conservation in the Indian Sundarbans Delta: a nexus between global ocean science and competing grounded environmentalities, Amrita Sen and Jenia Mukherjee 

Knowing the beast:  How different styles of population modelling developed in early fisheries science, Jennifer Hubbard and Vera Schwach        

6:00-8:00 pm CEST — Re-scaling  & De-centering the History of Oceanography: the ‘Hidden Figures’ and Hidden Dimensions of Global Ocean Science – 3/5

“Unnamed marine animals” –oceanic microfauna, collection ecologies and hidden knowledge makers, ca. 1750-1850, Dominik Huenniger

Science from the quarterdeck: Naval-scientific networks and the 1870s Challenger Expedition, Penelope K. Hardy

“So-called” coral reefs: Algae, transnational networks and the biological turn in reef science 1896-1928, Emily Hutcheson

Circulating Coral: Tracing the Pacific origins of captive coral systems, Samantha Muka

Thursday, July 29

3:30-5:30 pm CEST — Re-scaling  & De-centering the History of Oceanography: the ‘Hidden Figures’ and Hidden Dimensions of Global Ocean Science – 4/5

Giants of the deep: Scientific and cultural encounters with polar gigantism in Antarctica, Joy McCann

Science in a sub: Taking geophysics to sea in the 1920s, Katharine Andersen

Canada’s underwater habitat program and vertical dimensions of marine sovereignty, Antony Adler

6:00-8:00 pm CEST — Re-scaling  & De-centering the History of Oceanography: the ‘Hidden Figures’ and Hidden Dimensions of Global Ocean Science – 5/5

An ‘open secret’: Geologists and oil industry secrecy in the Mediterranean’s seafloor exploration, Beatriz Martínez-Rius

Secrecy and sea-floor spreading: rethinking the role of navy oceanography in the development of plate tectonics, Naomi Oreskes

Secrecy and seabed mining: questioning the freedom of marine science during the 1970s, Sam Robinson

The Invisible Sinking Surface: Hydrogeology, Fieldwork and Photography in California, Rina C. Faletti

Other sessions that might be of interest to ICHO members:

Tuesday, July 27, 10:00 – 12:00  Session (Part 2/3) – Biological Sciences

10:00 – 10:30  The dwarf that created a giant industry: The culture of dwarf mulberry tree and its spreading in China, Chuan-hui Mau

10:30 – 11:00  The founders of Romanian biological oceanography – Emil Racovitza, Ioan Borcea and Grigore Antipa, Alexandru Ș. Bologa

11:00 – 11:30  D’Arcy Thompson, civic science, and fin-de-siècle Darwinism. A case study of scientific and social change, Giuliano Pancaldi

Wednesday, July 28, 13:00-15:00 Symposium (Part 2/3) Great to small: spatial and temporal scales in the history of the geosciences (INHIGEO) (with IUGS) 

13:00 – 13:30  Henry Thomas De la Beche’s (1796-1855) Duria antiquior: temporal visualization within the golden age of geology (1788-1840), Renee Clary

13:30 – 14:00  Small pieces of rocks, shells, sand grains and mineral nodules: islands and ocean as geological strategic projects in Brazil, Maria Margaret Lopes

14:00 – 14:30  Scale in the history of geology, Martina Kölbl-Ebert

14:30 – 15:00 Caught between cosmos and crystals, space and time: John Herschel’s planet Earth (Gregory Good)

Friday, July 30, 18:00 – 19:00 Symposium Creating, maintaining and using technological systems: non-western actors – (ICOHTEC)

18:00 – 18:30  Showing the way: maritime illumination in Japan, 1600-1900, Laura Nenzi

18:30 – 19:00  A struggle between external aid and self-support: the financing of Puji Hospital in Dongguan, China, Yuping Zhou