Anna Marie Roos is a historian of

early modern The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

English science, noted for her research on the early

Royal Society 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, re ...

. She is an emeritus professor in the School of Humanities and Heritage at the

University of Lincoln The University of Lincoln is a public university, public research university in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England, with origins dating back to 1861. It gained university status in 1992 and its present name in 2001. The main campus is in the hea ...

, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collec ...

, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and the former

Editor-in-Chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of '' Notes and Records''.

Career

Anna Marie Roos obtained a PhD in history from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

in 1997. She was an assistant and then associate professor at the

University of Minnesota Duluth The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the University of Minnesota System. UMD offers 17 bachelor's degrees in 87 majors, graduate programs in 24 different fields, a tw ...

from 1999 to 2006, The Lister Research Fellow at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

from 2009 to 2012, and a research associate at the Museum for the History of Science in Oxford from 2009 to 2013. Roos was
visiting fellow at All Souls College
Oxford, Huntington Fellow and Beinecke Fellow (declined) in 2017. She will be a visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge during the 2025-2026 academic year. In 2013, Roos began work at the University of Lincoln and retired in July 2024 and is now an Emeritus Professor. She became the Editor-in-Chief of ''Notes and Records'' in 2018. Under her editorship, the first in a series of video interviews was published and the number of entries to the Essay prize significantly increased. Roos was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2013. She is also a fellow of the Linnean Society of London. She is a member of the Editorial Board for

The British Journal for the History of Science ''The British Journal for the History of Science'' (''BJHS'') is an international academic journal published quarterly by Cambridge University Press in association with the British Society for the History of Science. It was founded under its pre ...

. Roos delivered the Gideon de Laune Lecture at the Worshipful Society of Antiquaries in 2023. Roos also delivered the Bynum Lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine in 2024.

Research

Roos' work concerns early modern English science and the early history of the Royal Society. She studied the naturalist

Martin Lister Martin Lister (12 April 1639 – 2 February 1712) was an English natural history, naturalist and physician. His daughters Anne Lister (illustrator), Anne and Susanna Lister, Susanna were two of his illustrators and engravers. J. D. Woodley, 'L ...

and his daughters Anna and Susanna, who created the images for the book ''Historiae Conchyliorum'' and were some of the first women to use a microscope. Roos detailed how Anna and Susanna became artists from their teenage years and that their work was used by their father because he considered that even the best professional illustrators were not sufficiently reliable. Her book, ''Martin Lister and his Remarkable Daughters'', was published by the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

in 2018. The book was published in Pinyin in 2024. Roos' book ''Goldfish'', one of

Reaktion Books Reaktion Books is an independent book publisher based in Islington, London, England. It was founded in 1985 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and moved to London in 1987. Reaktion originally focused on the fields of art, architecture, and design. In recen ...

' Animal series, was published in September 2019. The book was dedicated to a pet goldfish she owned as a child, named Speedy. In 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Roos was interviewed by ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

'' on the effect of pandemics on ancient cities. She discussed plague outbreaks and quarantine in Venice in the early modern era. Her other books are: The Correspondence of Dr. Martin Lister: (1639—1712). Volume Two: 1678—1694, Brill, forthcoming 2025. ''Taking Newton On Tour: The Grand Tour Travel Diary Of Martin Folkes (1690–1754).'' Boydell and Brewer with the Hakluyt Society, October 2025. Edited with Gideon Manning, ''Collecting Wisdom of the Early Modern Scholar: Essays in Honor of Mordechai Feingold. '' Springer, 2023. Edited with Vera Keller, ''Collective Wisdom: Collecting in the Early Modern Academy.'' Brepols, 2022. ''Martin Folkes (1690-1754): Newtonian, Antiquary, Connoisseur.'' Oxford University Press, 2021 Edited with Vera Keller and Elizabeth Yale, ''Archival afterlives: life, death, and knowledge-making in early modern British scientific and medical archives.'' Brill, 2018. ''The correspondence of Dr Martin Lister (1639-1712) olume one 1662-1677'. Brill, 2015. Winner of the John Thackray Medal, Society of the History of Natural History. ''Web of Nature: Martin Lister (1639-1712), the first arachnologist.'' Brill, 2011. ''The salt of the earth: natural philosophy, medicine and chymistry in England, 1650-1750.'' Brill, 2007. ''Luminaries in the natural world: the sun and moon in England, 1400-1720.'' Peter Lang, 2001. https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Luminaries_in_the_Natural_World.html?id=7WrvAAAAMAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roos, Anna Marie Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Historians of science Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Academic journal editors University of Colorado alumni British women historians 21st-century American historians Academics of the University of Lincoln