Patricia Fara
Patricia Fara | |
---|---|
![]() Fara in 2018 | |
Known for | Women in science |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Oxford |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History of science |
Institutions | University of Cambridge |
Patricia Fara is a college lecturer in the history of science at Clare College, Cambridge. She is a graduate of the University of Oxford and did her PhD at the University of London.[1] She is a former Fellow of Darwin College and is an Emerita Fellow of Clare College, where she was previously Director of Studies in the History and Philosophy and Science.[2] Fara was also a College Teaching Officer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science.[3] From 2016 to 2018, Fara was President of the British Society for the History of Science. In 2016, she became President of the Antiquarian Horological Society.[4][5] Fara is author of numerous popular books on the history of science and has been a guest on BBC Radio 4's science and history discussion series In Our Time.[6]
Early life and education
[edit]Fara began her career as a physics teacher but returned to graduate studies as a mature student to specialise in History and Philosophy of Science, completing her PhD thesis at Imperial College, London, in 1993.[7][8]
Research and writing
[edit]Her areas of particular academic interest include the role of portraiture and art in the history of science, science in 18th-century England during the Enlightenment, and the role of women in science. She has written about numerous women in science, mathematics, engineering and medicine, including: Hertha Ayrton, Lady Helen Gleichen, Mona Chalmers Watson, Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, Isabel Emslie Hutton, Flora Murray, Ida Maclean, Marie Stopes, and Martha Annie Whiteley.[7][9][10][11][12] Fara has argued for expanded access to childcare as a means of increasing the retention of women in science.[4] She has written and co-authored a number of books for children on science. Fara is also a reviewer of books on history of science.[13] She has written the award-winning Science: A Four Thousand Year History (2009)[14][15] and Erasmus Darwin: Sex, Science, and Serendipity (2012).[16] Her most recent book is A Lab of One's Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War (2017).[17][18][19] In 2013, Fara published an article in the journal Nature, stressing the fact that biographies of female scientists perpetuate stereotypes.[20]
Awards
[edit]- 2011: Dingle Prize, British Society for the History of Science for Science: A Four Thousand Year History (2009)[14]
- 2022: Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics[21]
Bibliography
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- Fara, Patricia (1996). Sympathetic attractions : magnetic practices, beliefs, and symbolism in Eighteenth-Century England. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400864362.
- Fara, Patricia (December 1998). "Presidential portraits : Joseph Banks in the National Library". National Library of Australia News. IX (3): 7–10. Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
- Fara, Patricia (2002) An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment Icon Books
- Fara, Patricia (2002) Newton: The Making of Genius Pan-MacMillan
- Fara, Patricia (2002) Scientists Anonymous: Great Stories of Women in Science. Totem Books.
- Fara, Patricia (2003). Sex, Botany and Empire: The Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks. Cambridge: Icon Books. ISBN 9781840464443. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
- Fara, Patricia (2004) Pandora's Breeches: Women, Science and Power in the Enlightenment Pimlico Books
- Fara, Patricia (2005) Fatal Attraction: Magnetic Mysteries of the Enlightenment Icon Books
- Fara, Patricia (2009) Science: A Four Thousand Year History Oxford University Press
- Fara, Patricia (2012). Erasmus Darwin : sex, science, and serendipity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199582662. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
- Fara, Patricia (2017). A Lab of One's Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-879498-1.
- Fara, Patricia (2021) Life After Gravity: Isacc Newton's London Career Oxford University Press
Broadcasts
[edit]- BBC Radio 4 In Our Time "Ada Lovelace", 6 March 2008
- BBC Radio 4 In Our Time "Vitalism", 28 October 2008.
- BBC Radio 4 In Our Time "Baconian Science", 2 April 2009.
- BBC Radio 4 In Our Time "Calculus", 24 September 2009
- BBC Radio 4 In Our Time "Women and Enlightenment Science", 4 November 2010.
- BBC Radio 4 In Our Time "Robert Hooke", 18 February 2016.
- BBC Radio 4 The Forum "Marie Curie - A Pioneering Life", 19 August 2017
- BBC Radio 4 In Our Time "Rosalind Franklin", 22 February 2018
- BBC Radio 4 Science Stories "Madame Lavoisier's Translation of Oxygen", 21 August 2019.
References
[edit]- ^ Sobel, Dava (19 March 2018). "Science's Invisible Women". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- ^ Clare College Fellows, referenced 28 November 2016
- ^ Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge, referenced 28 November 2016
- ^ a b Sample, Ian (7 June 2017). "Keep women in academia by providing childcare, historian urges universities". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- ^ "The new President" (PDF). Antiquarian Horology. 37:2: 178. 2016.
- ^ Moulds, Alison (15 February 2018). "Patricia Fara on In Our Time". The British Society for the History of Science (BSHS). Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- ^ a b Baldwin, Melinda (10 August 2018). "Q&A: Patricia Fara on the British women scientists who broke barriers". Physics Today. doi:10.1063/PT.6.4.20180810a. S2CID 240330712.
- ^ Fara, Patricia (1993). "Magnetic England in the 18th Century". PhD Thesis, London.
- ^ Brazil, Rachel (10 December 2018). "Science, suffrage and misogyny". Chemistry World. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- ^ "Book Excerpt from A Lab of One's Own". The Scientist Magazine®. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- ^ Fara, Patricia (8 November 2019). "Helena Gleichen: pioneer radiographer, suffragist and forgotten hero of WWI". The Conversation. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- ^ Fara, Patricia (8 March 2020). "Helen Gwynne-Vaughan: An extraordinary botanist whose problems of identity still confront female scientists today". BBC Science Focus Magazine. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- ^ Fara, Patricia (October 2008). "Watchers of the Skies". Literary Review. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- ^ a b Fara, Patricia (2009) Science: A Four Thousand Year History Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Ferry, Georgina (2009) 'Under the Microscope' The Guardian 25 April 2009 Retrieved 16 August 2010
- ^ Fara, Patricia (2012) Erasmus Darwin: Sex, Science, and Serendipity Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Moore, Wendy (3 January 2018). "A Lab of One's Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War by Patricia Fara review – trailblazing feminist'". The Guardian.
- ^ Bruton, Elizabeth (10 January 2018). "When Suffragettes kicked open the lab door". Nature.
- ^ "Briefly Noted Book Reviews". The New Yorker. 14 May 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- ^ Fara, Patricia (6 March 2013). "Women in science: Weird sisters?". Nature. 495 (7439): 43–44. Bibcode:2013Natur.495...43F. doi:10.1038/495043a.
- ^ "2022 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- Living people
- 20th-century British historians
- 20th-century British women writers
- 21st-century British historians
- 21st-century British women writers
- Alumni of Imperial College London
- Alumni of the University of Oxford
- British historians of science
- British women historians
- Fellows of Clare College, Cambridge
- Fellows of Darwin College, Cambridge