Donald Angus MacKenzie (born 3 May 1950) is a professor of sociology at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. His work constitutes a crucial contribution to the field of

science and technology studies Science and technology studies (STS) or science, technology, and society is an interdisciplinary field that examines the creation, development, and consequences of science and technology in their historical, cultural, and social contexts. Histo ...

. He has also developed research in the field of

social studies of finance Social studies of finance is an interdisciplinary research area that combines perspectives from anthropology, economic sociology, science and technology studies, international political economy, behavioral finance, and cultural studies in the ...

. He has undertaken widely cited work on the history of

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

and

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

, among other things. In 1978 he earned a PhD from the University of Edinburgh for his thesis on the development of statistical theory in Britain. In August 2006, MacKenzie was awarded the Chancellor's Award from

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...

and

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

of the

, for his contributions to the field of science and technology studies. He is also the winner of the 1993 Robert K. Merton Award of the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...

and the 2005 John Desmond Bernal Prize of the Society for Social Studies of Science among many others.

Books

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References

External links

Donald MacKenzie's faculty homepage
at the University of Edinburgh
Donald MacKenzie's contributions
published in '' The London Review of Books'' (includin
"The Political Economy of Carbon Trading"
1950 births Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British sociologists Economic sociologists Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Formal methods people Sociologists of science Living people Philosophers of technology {{UK-sociologist-stub