Issue No.49, March 1995 (ISSN 0158 9040)

Edited by Tim Sherratt on behalf of AAHPSSS.

Letter from the President

First, I should like to indicate the plans that are being made for the Association's Annual Conference, to be held at the University of New South Wales from Saturday July 8 to Tuesday July 11 this year. My colleague David Miller is acting as program secretary, and he has already organised the main framework of the Conference. The Conference promises to be one of considerable interest, and we look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. The main program is now almost full. So if any Members wish to contribute a paper but have not yet contacted David Miller, will they please do so immediately (DP.Miller@unsw.edu.au)?

We are fortunate to have Professor Ludmilla Jordanova as our principal guest speaker, with the support of a British Council grant. Professor Jordanova has taken up a chair at the University of York in England fairly recently, and with her wide range of interests and experience she will, I think, have something of appeal to say to just about everyone in the Association. At present, her chief 'remit' at York is cultural history. We expect to welcome two other invited overseas visitors: Professor Nicolaas Rupke from Gottingen University, and Professor John Harley Warner from Yale. Needless to say, we look forward to having them with us too. One of our members, Ruth Barton, is coming over from Auckland and will be presenting the Dyason Lecture.

This year, we plan to expand the 'student section' of the conference. This will be organized by Philip Gissing, a PhD student in the School of Science and Technology Studies at the University of New South Wales. Persons interested in taking part in the student program should contact Philip as soon as possible, with offers of papers. Professor Jordanova will be giving a workshop for research students, but other members will also be welcome of course.

To encourage the work of research students, the Executive has decided to introduce an AAHPSSS Prize of $100 for the best conference paper presented by a student resident in Australasia. Also, a limited number of Langham Bursaries will be available, as in previous years.

Several theme symposia have been organised, as can be seen from the broad outline of the total program printed on p.8 of this Newsletter. For those who like a little local history of science, a guided visit to the museum at La Perouse is to be arranged. This museum contains a considerable number of interesting exhibits relating to eighteenth century exploration, and of course to La Perouse himself. A visit to the Powerhouse Museum at Darling Harbour will also be arranged. In addition, I'm pleased to draw your attention to the session to be presented by Tim Sherratt about the 'World Wide Web' and its relevance to aficionados of HPS/STS.

It should be mentioned that the AAHPSSS Conference overlaps with the History of Medicine Conference being held on Norfolk Island. However, historians of medicine may, if they wish, attend the whole of the Norfolk Island meeting and two days of the AAHPSSS Conference. With this in mind, attendance for half the AAHPSSS meeting will be possible at a reduced rate. Persons interested in doing this are requested to contact the Association's Treasurer, Tony Corones (A.Corones@unsw .edu.au).

Regarding the Conference and its venue, I should also mention that there has been a remarkable transformation of the University of New South Wales campus in the last few years, and for those of you who have not been here recently it may be quite an eye-opener to see all that has gone on in the way of refurbishments.

It should be noted that 1996 will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne, which may suggest that Melbourne will be a suitable venue for the 1996 AAHPSSS Conference But there could be an argument for holding the meeting in Canberra. It might, for example, be arranged so as to run immediately after the Xth David Nichol Smith Seminar on Margins and Metropolis: Literature, Culture and Science, 1660-1830 (July 2-5), which is being organized by the Humanities Research Centre at ANU. There will be several distinguished overseas HPS/STS visitors to the Centre in 1996, and the Association may wish to take advantage of their presence in Australia. Other symposia relevant to AAHPSSS Members to be organized by the Centre in 1996 are: Science and Other Indigenous Knowledge Traditions (23-26 August) and The Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences (6-9 September). It would be helpful if Members would give some thought, prior to the Annual General Meeting in July, as to how the Association might best integrate its activities with events in Canberra and/or Melbourne in 1996.

Also looking to the future, I have received a letter from Aant Elzinga, President of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST), about the possibility of Australia hosting a joint EASST/4S conference here in the year 2000. I have already written to several persons in Australia who may wish to be involved in such a meeting, and I presume that it is something with which AAHPSSS should be actively involved if the idea is to be realized. We can discuss the matter further at the Association's AGM in July.

If you have any thoughts on these or other matters, please write to me letting me have your views (D.Oldroyd@unsw.edu.au).

We look forward to seeing you all in July.

- David Oldroyd, President, AAHPSSS