The year 1993-1994 was significant for the department, because with the retirement of G. Lawrence Vankin, Professor of Biology and the History of Science, the department lost a talented and knowledgeable colleague with exceptional expertise in the history of biology and evolutionary theory. It is unlikely that he can or will be replaced.
Nonetheless, in the coming year, the department will have some additional representation in the curriculum, through a course on the history of astronomy to be offered by James Voelkel, '84 who is visiting assistant professor of astronomy for the year, and through a Winter Study course on the history of Graeco-Roman medicine, offered by Professor Sumi, of the Classics Department.
The beginning of the 1993-1994 year was busy. On July 7, Professor Donald deB. Beaver gave a talk on "Scientometrics" to the summer mathematics group colloquium. On July 30 he gave a talk on the significance of pioneer computer scientist Alan Turing's research, at Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, as part of its lecture series connected with new productions, in this case, "Breaking the Code," a drama about Turing's life adapted from the biography by Andrew Hodges.
During the first week of classes, Prof. Beaver traveled to Berlin, Germany, where he gave a keynote lecture, "The Early Days of Science," on September 12, 1994, to the Fourth International Conference on Bibliometrics, Informetrics, and Scientometrics. Later in the afternoon, he reported on his own research in "Collaboration and Teamwork Revisited," an update of findings concerning distinctions between teamwork and collaboration in scientific research. Khadijah Abdull-Mutakallim '94, a Mellon Fellow who worked with Prof. Beaver in August, 1993, provided significant parts of the data for that research.
On January 19, 1994, Prof. Beaver gave an informal evening presentation to Dr. Michael Payne's Winter Study premedical students, on "What's Wrong with Medicine Today?" On February 22, 1994, he gave a Bronfman Bag Lunch talk, in which he once again discussed and updated his research about Sarah Wallis Bowdich Lee, 1791-1856, an unusual English natural historian, popularizer of science, artist, biographer, and novelist.
Professor Beaver continued to review and referee scholarly work during the year, for the American Journal of Physics and Spectrum [journal of the IEEE]. He also prepared two entries, Scientific Method" and "Thomas Kuhn: Structure of Scientific Revolutions," for the forthcoming The History of Science in the United States: An Encyclopedia.