Aileen Fyfe is a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

Academia

Fyfe formerly lectured on the history of science and technology, typically nineteenth-century, at

NUI Galway The University of Galway () is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. The university was founded in 1845 as "Queen's College, Galway". It was known as "University College, Galway" (UCG) () from 1908 to 1997 and as ...

, . Since 2011 she has been based at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

and is Director of Research for the School of History. Her research there is focused on the circulation and consumption of knowledge from the late seventeenth century onwards. Fyfe is a member of the Council of the

History of Science Society The History of Science Society (HSS), founded in 1924, is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science. The society has over 3,000 members worldwide. It publishes the quarterly journal ''Isis'' and the yearly ...

(USA). From 2002 to 2007 she was Treasurer of the

British Society for the History of Science The British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) was founded in 1947 by Francis Butler, Joan Eyles and Victor Eyles. Overview It is Britain's largest learned society devoted to the history of science, technology, and medicine. The society' ...

, and she was the Chair of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

's subcommittee on the History of Science until 2010. From 2013-2017 she led an AHRC on

Philosophical Transactions ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the second journ ...

, the journal of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

. She was the lead author of the 2017 briefing paper ''Untangling Academic Publishing: a history of the relationship between commercial interests, academic prestige and the circulation of research'' which culminated from this research. Since Spring 2021 she has been coordinating the 'Women Historians of St Andrews' project, which aims to seek out the experiences of women who studied, researched and taught History at St Andrews.

Selected publications

* * * * *Fyfe, Aileen (2015), 'Journals, learned societies and money: ''Philosophical Transactions'' ca. 1750–1900', ''Notes and Records of the Royal Society'', vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 277-299. *Fyfe, Aileen; McDougall-Waters, Julie; Moxham, Noah (2018), 'Credit, copyright, and the circulation of scientific knowledge: the Royal Society in the long nineteenth century', ''Victorian Periodicals Review'', vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 597-615. *Fyfe, Aileen; Squazzoni, Flaminio; Torny, Didier; Dondio, Pierpaolo (2020), 'Managing the growth of peer review at the Royal Society journals, 1865-1965', ''Science, Technology, and Human Values'', vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 405-429. *Fyfe, Aileen; Gielas, Anna Maria (2020), 'Introduction: Editorship and the editing of scientific journals, 1750-1950', ''Centaurus'', vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 5-20. *Fyfe, Aileen; McDougall-Waters, Julie; Moxham, Noah; Mørk Røstvik, Camilla (2022)
'''A History of Scientific Journals: Publishing at the Royal Society, 1665-2015
London: UCL Press (open access)

Awards and honours

Fyfe was awarded the 2013 Edelstein Prize, recognizing ''Steam-Powered Knowledge'' as best book on the history of technology. ''Steam-Powered Knowledge'' was also awarded the 2013 Robert and Vineta Colby Prize, by the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. She was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2022.

References

External links

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John Dalton John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He introduced the atomic theory into chemistry. He also researched Color blindness, colour blindness; as a result, the umbrella term ...

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'' In Our Time'',

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. Aileen Fyfe on the panel with Jim Bennett and James Sumner. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fyfe, Aileen Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Academics of the University of Galway Academics of the University of St Andrews British women historians Historians of science Historians of technology 21st-century British historians 21st-century British women writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Place of birth missing (living people)