Steven Shapin
| Steven Shapin | |
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Shapin in 2008
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| Born | New York, United States |
| Education | BA in Biology MA in History & Sociology of Science PhD in History and Sociology of Science |
| Alma mater |
University of Pennsylvania Reed College |
| Occupation | Academic |
| Employer | Harvard University |
| Known for | Research on the history and sociology of science |
| Title | Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University |
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| Audio | |
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 “How To Think About Science - Part 1“, CBC Radio
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“How To Think About Science - Part 16“, CBC Radio
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| Video | |
 “Models of Science as Patterns for Econ. Development/Technology Transfer”, CID Harvard |
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“How Does Wine Taste?: Sense, Science, and the Market in the 20th Century“, CSTMS Berkeley |
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“The Long History of Dietetics- Thinking About Food, Expertise and the Self“, Situating Science |
Steven Shapin is a historian and sociologist of science. He is the Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. He is considered one of the earliest scholars on the sociology of scientific knowledge, and is credited with creating new approaches. He has won many awards, including the 2014 George Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society for career contributions to the field.
Shapin was trained as a biologist at Reed College and did graduate work in genetics at the University of Wisconsin before taking a Ph.D. in the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
From 1972 to 1989, he was Lecturer, then Reader, at the Science Studies Unit, Edinburgh University, and, from 1989 to 2003, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego, before taking up an appointment at the Department of the History of Science at Harvard. He has taught for brief periods at Columbia University, Tel-Aviv University, and at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. In 2012, he was the S. T. Lee Visiting Professorial Fellow, School of Advanced Study, University of London.
He has written broadly on the history and sociology of science. Among his concerns are scientists, their ethical choices, and the basis of scientific credibility. He revisioned the role of experiment by examining where experiments took place and who performed them. He is credited with restructuring the field's approach to “big issues” in science such as truth, trust, scientific identity, and moral authority.
"The practice of science, both conceptually and instrumentally, is seen to be full of social assumptions. Crucial to their work is the idea that science is based on the public's faith in it. This is why it is important to keep explaining how sound knowledge is generated, how the process works, who takes part in the process and how."
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Wikipedia