The Society: Derek Price/Rod Webster Prize
The award is given in recognition of excellence in a research article published in Isis. Eligible articles are those published in issues of Isis three years prior to the year in which the award is given (i.e., the calendar year in which the award is given is not included). The prize may not be split between two articles. Deadline 1 April of each year.
History of the Prize
The Price/Webster prize began life as Zeitlin-Ver Brugge Prize in 1979. The announcement on the inside back cover of Isis, March 1979, vol. 70. stated, "The History of Science Society announces the establishment of a new prize to encourage the publication in Isis of original research of the highest standard... to the author of the best article in Isis...." The announcement included the information that the first prize would be awarded in 1981, which was incorrect. June 1979 issue of Isis corrected the announcement and gave further information on the prize, as follows.
Zeitlin-Ver Brugge Prize
The History of Science Society announces the sponsorship, through the generosity of Jacob Zeitlin and Josephine Ver Brugge of Los Angeles [booksellers who were big supporters of the HSS], of its new prize to encourage the publication in Isis of original research of the highest standard. Consisting of $250 and a certificate, this prize will be given annually, on the recommendation of the Committee on Isis, to the author of the best article in Isis in the three years prior to the year of the award. It is expected that the first award will take place in 1979, and articles published in Isis between March 1976 and December 1978, inclusive, will be eligible for the prize.
The first prize was awarded in 1979 to Robert Nye for "Heredity or Milieu: The Foundations of European Criminological Theory," published in Isis in 1976. The prize was later renamed the Derek Price Award and the announcement of the change appeared in the March 1989 issue of Isis.
Derek Price Award
1979-1987: Zeitlin-Ver Brugge Prize
The History of Science Society announces the sponsorship, through the generosity of an anonymous donor, of its prize to encourage the publication in Isis of original research of the highest standard. Consisting of $250 and a certificate, this prize (formerly the Zeitlin-Ver Brugge Prize) is given annually to the author of an outstanding article in Isis in the three years prior to the award.
The anonymous donors turned out to be Rod and Marjorie Webster. Marjorie Webster further endowed the prize in 2002 after Rod Webster died, asking that it be named in part for him, thus the change to the Derek Price/Rod Webster Prize.
Prize Committee Members:
- Stuart W. "Bill" Leslie, (Chair) 2006-2008
- Sachiko Kusukawa, 2006-2009
- Ben Elman, 2007-2010
The 2007 Price/Webster Prize was unanimously awarded to Thomas L. Hankins, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, for his article “A ‘Large and Graceful Sinuosity’: John Herschel's Graphical Method,” (published Isis, December 2006).
All eligible articles are automatically nominated for this prize.
Past Winners of the Derek Price/Rod Webster Prize
1979 |
Robert Nye, "Heredity or Milieu: The Foundations of European Criminological Theory," Isis, 1976, 67: 335-355. |
1980 |
Thomas L. Hankins, "Triplets and Triads: Sir William Rowan Hamilton on the Metaphysics of Mathematics," Isis, 1977, 68: 175-193. |
1981 |
Linda E. Voigts, "Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies and the Angle-Saxons," Isis, 1979, 70: 250-268. |
1982 |
Timothy Lenoir, "Rant, Blumenbach, and Vital Materialism in German Biology," Isis, 1980, 71: 77-108. |
1983 |
Alexander Vucinich, "Soviet Physicists and Philosophers in the 1930s: Dynamics of a Conflict," Isis, 1980, 71: 236-250. |
1984 |
James Secord, "Nature's Fancy: Charles Darwin and the Breeding of Pigeons," Isis, 1981, 72: 163-186. |
1985 |
Keith Hutchison, "What Happened to Occult Qualities in the Scientific Revolution?" Isis, 1982, 73: 233-253. |
1986 |
Mara Beller, "Matrix Theory Before Schrodinger: Philosophy, Problems, Consequences," Isis, 1983, 74: 469-491. |
1987 |
Richard S. Westfall, "Scientific Patronage: Galileo and the Telescope," Isis, 1985, 76: 11-30. |
1988 |
Owen Hannaway, "Laboratory Design and the Aim of Science: Andreas Libavius versus Tycho Brahe," Isis, 1986, 77: 585-610. |
1989 |
David C. Lindberg, "Science as Handmaiden: Roger Bacon and the Patristic Tradition," Isis, 1987, 78: 511-536. |
1990 |
Steven Shapin, "The House of Experiment in Seventeenth-Century England," Isis, 1988, 79: 373-404. |
1991 |
Mario Biagioli, "Galileo the Emblem Maker, " Isis, 1990, 81: 230-258. |
1992 |
Sharon Kingsland, "The Battling Botanist: Daniel Trembly MacDougal, Mutation Theory, and the Rise of Experimental Evolutionary Biology in America 1900-1912, " Isis, 1991, 82: 479-209. |
1993 |
John Harley Warner, "Ideals of Science and Their Discontents in late Nineteenth-century American Medicine, " Isis, 1991, 82: 454-478. |
1994 |
Mary Terrall, "Representing the Earth's Shape: The Polemics Surrounding Maupertuis's Expedition to Lapland," Isis, 1992, 83: 218-237. |
1995 |
Paula Findlen, "Science as a Career in Enlightenment Italy: The Strategies of Laura Bassi," Isis, 1993, 84: 441-469. |
1996 |
John Carson, "Army Alpha, Army Brass, and the Search for Army Intelligence," Isis, 1993, 84: 278-309. |
1997 |
William J. Ashworth "Memory, Efficiency, and Symbolic Analysis: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, and the Industrial Mind," Isis, 1996, 87: 629-653. |
1998 |
Deborah E. Harkness, "Managing an Experimental Household: The Dees of Mortlake and the Practice of Natural Philosophy," Isis, 1997, 88: 247-262. |
1999 |
Lynn K. Nyhart, "Civic and Economic Zoology in Nineteenth-Century Germany: The 'Living Communities' of Karl Möbius," Isis, 1998, 89: 605-630. |
2000 |
Emily Thompson, "Dead Rooms and Live Wires: Harvard, Hollywood, and the Deconstruction of Architectural Acoustics, 1900-1930," Isis, 1997, 88, No.4: 597-626. |
2001 |
Mary Henninger-Voss, "Working Machines and Noble Mechanics: Guidobaldo del Monte and the Translation of Knowledge." Isis, 2000, 91, No. 2: 232-259. |
2002 |
Daniel Schneider, "Local Knowledge, Environmental Politics, and the Founding of Ecology in the United States: Stephen Forbes and 'The Lake as Microcosm' (1887)" Isis 91, No. 3: 681-705. |
2003 |
Peter Neushul and Zuoyue Wang, "Between the Devil and the Deep Sea: C.K. Tseng, Mariculture and the Politics of Science in Modern China" Isis 91, No. 1: 59-88. |
2004 |
Scott Knowles & Stuart W. Leslie, "'Industrial Versailles": Eero Saarinen's Corporate Campuses for GM, IBM, and AT&T" Isis, March 2001. |
2005 |
Marc J. Ratcliffe, "Abraham Trembley's Strategy of Generosity and the Scope of Celebrity in the Mid-Eighteenth Century" Isis, December 2004, Volume 95. pages 555-575. |
2006 |
Maria D. Lane, "Geographers of Mars: Cartographic Inscription and Exploration Narrative in Late Victorian Representatives of the Red Planet" Isis, December 2005, Volume 96. |
2007 |
Thomas L. Hankins, “A ‘Large and Graceful Sinuosity’: John Herschel's Graphical Method” Isis, December 2006, Volume 97. |