Notes on Contributors
Dominique Bernard
was a “Maître de Conférences” in physics at the University of Rennes 1, France, where he rescued old scientific instruments. He works on the history of ancient physics instruments, developing an experimental approach to them. In 2018, he published a book on the University collection, which won the 2019 Scientific Information Prize of the Academy of Sciences.
Paolo Brenni
studied experimental physics at the University of Zürich, where he graduated in 1981. He then specialised in the history of scientific instruments and of precision industry in the period from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. He is a researcher in Florence for the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and collaborates with the Museo Galileo. He catalogued and restored several collections of scientific instruments in Italy and abroad, and has written numerous articles about instrument history, their trade and their production. Since 2005, he has been President of the Scientific Instrument Society.
Roland Carchon
holds a PhD from Ghent University in nuclear physics. During his professional life he was a researcher at the Nuclear Research Centre (Mol-Belgium) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA-Vienna). After retiring, he has been a collaborator at Ghent University Museum for the History of Sciences, with interests in the educational applications of museum collections in a historical context and the popularization of scientific theories.
Elizabeth Cavicchi
completed a doctor of education (EdD) degree at Harvard University; master’s degrees at Harvard, Boston University and MIT; undergraduate degrees at MIT. She has written and presented internationally on explorations interweaving history, science phenomena, teaching and learning. At MIT’s Edgerton Center, Cavicchi encourages learners to be explorers. Her seminars provide direct experiences with observation, experiment, instruments, history and social justice. Cavicchi’s artwork spans watercolours, pastels and sculptural media.
Stéphane Fischer
is assistant curator at the Museum of the History of Science in Geneva, Switzerland, and is in charge of the Museum’s collections. He organises and sets up numerous projects – exhibitions, replicas, demonstrations, publications – in connection with the collections and their promotion to the public.
Peter Heering
is professor of physics and its didactics at the Europa-Universität Flensburg, Germany. His research focuses on the history of physics, especially experimental practice, which he investigates using the replication method, the use of historical content in science education, and the historical development of teaching experiments in physics education.
Jan Waling Huisman
holds a BASc in Environmental Sciences and Engineering, and studied as a physics teacher. A staff member of the University Museum Groningen, in the Netherlands, since 1989, he is a collections manager with curatorial tasks. He has cooperated in dozens of exhibitions and projects in different roles, including project management and designing, and engineering interactives. Using old instruments to engage the public in understanding science is one of his key targets.
Françoise Khantine-Langlois
PhD and former professor in the technical department of the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, is currently an associate researcher at the Sciences and Society, Historicity, Education, Practices (S2HEP) laboratory at Lyon 1 University. She manages the University’s collection of physical instruments and is president of the Association de Sauvegarde et d’Étude des Instruments Scientifiques et Techniques de l’Enseignement (ASEISTE).
Alistair Kwan
studied and taught physics, history of science, and education in the United States, Australia and New Zealand universities. He has worked on how historical objects, environments and architecture can constitute primary source evidence in education, research, and heritage interpretation, especially for voices and kinds of knowledge that the textual record does not represent.
Janet Laidla
has a PhD in history. Her research has previously concentrated on early modern historiography in Estonia and Livonia. Her current research interests lie in the history of knowledge of the modern period. She currently works at the University of Tartu as Lecturer of Estonian History and Curator at the University of Tartu Museum.
Pierre Lauginie
is a former lecturer and researcher in physics, who has developed an experimental approach to history of science based on adaptations of historical experiments. His present interests concern the history of instruments and measurement, and the popularization of science.
Panagiotis Lazos
is a physicist with an MSc in History and Philosophy of Science from the Technical University of Athens and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is a PhD candidate in the latter. He had taught high school physics for more than fifteen years and is currently the Head of the 4th Laboratory Center of Natural Sciences of Athens. His research and publications are on the history of scientific instruments, history of science, didactics of science, and the use of open source platforms in science education.
Pietro Milici
has a PhD in mathematics (University of Palermo, Italy) and in epistemology (Paris-Sorbonne University, France). He is a researcher in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences (DiSTA) of the University of Insubria (Varese, Italy). He is the founder of
Flora Paparou
works currently as a science teacher in secondary education, in Athens, Greece. She is a chemical engineer and holds a PhD in science education. Her research focuses on the material culture of science, as well as on the integration of the history of science in science teaching. From 2003 to 2008 she organised the Science Museum of Chios educational programme. Since 2012, she has been systematically involved in the documentation of the Athens University scientific instrument collections.
Frédérique Plantevin
is lecturer in mathematics at the University of Brest, France, and member of the Laboratorie de Mathematiques de Bretagne Atlantique (LMBA). She is involved in initial and continuing teachers’ training, in particular through her implication in the Instituts de Recherche sur l’Enseignement des Mathématiques (IREM) network. She has developed a line of work with primary and secondary teachers on historical instruments in the classes. In 2016, she founded the Cabinet of Curiosity in the Faculty of Science where the collection of outdated scientific instruments is housed.
Julie Priser
is collection assistant and PATSTEC (Patrimonie Scientifique et Technique Contemporaine) project manager for the Brittany region. She works for the protection, conservation, and valorization of old and contemporary scientific instruments at the University of Rennes 1, France.
Alfonso San-Miguel
is physics professor at the University Lyon 1, Director of the Ampère Physics Federation, and president of the Rhône region branch of the French Physical Society. He is also member of the Friends of Ampère Society. He has initiated outreach projects involving university students and the above mentioned learned societies. He has also set up projects for the safeguarding and development of the scientific heritage with physics master’s students in collaboration with the Association de Sauvegarde et d’Étude des Instruments Scientifiques et Techniques de l’Enseignement (ASEISTE).
Danny Segers
holds a PhD from Ghent University in materials research by nuclear methods. He has been a professor of physics with teaching duties in the departments of informatics and veterinary medicine. In the period from 2006 till 2016 he was the director of the Ghent University Museum for the History of Science. During that time, he was teaching a course on the history of science.
Constantine Skordoulis
is Professor of Epistemology and Didactical Methodology of Physics at the Department of Primary Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is the academic coordinator of the postgraduate program “Secondary Science Teachers Education” at the Hellenic Open University. He studied natural sciences at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, and worked as a visiting researcher at the Universities of Oxford and Groningen. His research interests include the history of science and science education from a critical perspective.
Trienke M. van der Spek
is chief curator and head of the science collections at Teylers Museum, Haarlem. She previously worked at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden as curator and head of collections. Graduating as a chemist, she also held positions in science education at Nemo Science Museum in Amsterdam and at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests include the popularisation of science in the nineteenth century and Teylers Museum’s institutional and collection history.
Constantina Stefanidou
is a physicist with a PhD in Science Education from University of Athens. After a long period of teaching science in secondary education, she now has a position in the Department of Education at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her research and publications are on didactics of science, focusing on historical and philosophical perspectives as well as conceptual difficulties and their relation to model-based teaching and learning, and informal science education. She participates in international conferences (ESERA, IHPST, etc.) and science communication actions.