Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Teaching and research staff

Teaching Officers

  • Dr Anna Alexandrova (Part IB Manager; Graduate Training Officer): Philosophy of the social and psychological sciences
  • Professor Hasok Chang (MPhil & Part III Manager): General philosophy of science; history and philosophy of chemistry and physics
  • Professor John Forrester (Head of Department): History and philosophy of psychoanalysis and human sciences
  • Dr Nick Hopwood: History of modern medicine and biology
  • Dr Lauren Kassell: History of early modern medicine and the occult sciences
  • Dr Tim Lewens (Director of Graduate Studies, Lent & Easter Terms): Philosophy of biology; philosophical bioethics
  • Dr Eleanor Robson: Science in the ancient and pre-modern Middle East; history of mathematics
  • Professor Simon Schaffer (Part II Manager; Director of Graduate Studies, Michaelmas Term): History of physical science; social history of science
  • Professor Jim Secord (Acting Head of Department, Michaelmas Term): Social history of science; life and earth sciences
  • Professor Liba Taub (Director & Curator of the Whipple Museum): History of scientific instruments, early science and astronomy

Emeritus Professor

Research Fellows and Teaching Associates

  • Dr Salim Al-Gailani: History of medicine and the life sciences since 1800
  • Dr Alexi Baker: Early modern history and the history of science and instruments
  • Dr Marie-Françoise Besnier: Mesopotamian intellectual history
  • Dr Andrew Cunningham: History of medicine
  • Dr Rohan Deb Roy: The 'nonhuman' in science studies; new imperial history; South Asia
  • Dr Karin Ekholm: Early modern European medicine, anatomy and natural philosophy
  • Dr Isla Fay: Medieval and early modern medicine and cosmology
  • Dr Vanessa Heggie: History of modern medicine and biology
  • Dr Natalie Kaoukji: Early modern natural philosophy and medicine
  • Dr Elaine Leong: Early modern medicine
  • Dr Tiago Mata: History of the social sciences; economic sociology
  • Dr Hannah Newton: Medical, social and cultural history of early modern England
  • Dr Hilary Powell: Anglo-Saxon and medieval medicine
  • Dr Ruth Prince: History and ethnography of medicine in Africa
  • Dr Rob Ralley: Social history of natural philosophy, medicine and magic
  • Dr Chitra Ramalingam: History of natural philosophy and the physical sciences and visualization
  • Dr Jennifer Rampling: Late medieval and early modern alchemy, medicine and natural philosophy
  • Dr Nicky Reeves: History of natural philosophy and the physical sciences
  • Dr Greta Van Buylaere: Mesopotamian intellectual history
  • Ms Lydia Wilson: Classical and medieval Arabic science; 20th-century Cambridge science
  • Dr John Young: History of medicine and alchemy; early modern communication networks