Reinhardt, Carsten

PERSONAL:

Education: Technical University of Berlin, M.A., 1992, Ph.D., 1996; attended University of Regensburgh.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Institute for Science & Technology Studies (IWT), University of Bielefeld, Universitätsstr. 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian, educator, writer, and editor. Research Center on History and Philosophy of Science, Berlin, Germany, research fellow, 1995; University of Regensburgh, Regensburgh, Bavaria, Germany, instructor, 1996-97, assistant professor in history of science unit, 1997-2003, associate professor, 2003-05; Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Thuringia, Germany, stand-in chair for history of science unit, 2005-06; Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin, German, visiting scholar 2006-07; University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany, professor in Institute for Science and Technology Studies, 2007—. Also executive officer of the Commission on the History of Modern Chemistry (IUHPS-DHS), 1997—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

ABB Wissenschaftspreis award, 2000, for Heinrich Caro and the Creation of Modern Chemical Industry; Georg-Uschmann-Prize for History of Science of Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, 2003; Paul-Bunge-Prize for the History of Scientific Instruments of the Hans R.-Jenemann-Stiftung, 2004; Habilitations-Preis, University of Regensburg, 2004; fellowship at the Habilitations-Preis of the University of Regensburg, 1994, and Edelstein International Fellowship, Philadelphia, PA, and Jerusalem, Israel, 1994.

WRITINGS:

(With Ralf Hahn) Scripta scientium: gedruckte und ungedruckte schriften bedeutender Wissenschaftler: eine Reihe von Verkaufskatalogen aus den Sammlungen der verfasser, Verlag für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik (Stuttgart, Germany), 1993.

(With Gunter Benz und Ralf Hahn) 100 Jahre Chemisch-Wissenschaftliches Laboratorium der Bayer AG in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, 1896-1996, Leverkusen, 1996.

(With Anthony S. Travis) Heinrich Caro and the Creation of Modern Chemical Industry, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Boston, MA), 2000.

(Editor, as C. Reinhardt) Chemical Sciences in the 20th Century: Bridging Boundaries, Wiley-VCH (New York, NY), 2001.

Shifting and Rearranging: Physical Methods and the Transformation of Modern Chemistry, Science History Publications/USA (Sagamore Beach, MA), 2006.

Member of the editorial board of AMBIX: Journal for the Society for the History of Alchemy & Chemistry, 2001—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Carsten Reinhardt specializes in the history of science with a focus on the history of chemistry. He has authored, coauthored, or edited several books in this area. As editor of Chemical Sciences in the 20th Century: Bridging Boundaries, Reinhardt presents papers that address the bridging of boundaries between chemistry and other "classical" disciplines of science, such as physics and biology, as well as chemistry's connections to mathematics and technology. The fourteen papers in the volume are organized into thematic sections, such as the relationship between theoretical chemistry and quantum chemistry and the development from radiochemistry to nuclear chemistry and cosmochemistry, which focuses on the origin and development of the elements and their isotopes within the Earth's solar system. In addition, overall chemical research is presented as an interconnected patchwork of scientific specialties with authors addressing topics such as national styles of scientific work and also the emergence of new subdisciplines and research fields. David Knight, writing in Hyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, noted that "we can infer from these studies that chemists are likely to continue to be crucial figures in the research teams which, to the continuing bafflement of lay people, will carry science forward as an intellectual, a practical, and a social activity."

In his 2006 book Shifting and Rearranging: Physical Methods and the Transformation of Modern Chemistry, Reinhardt presents "an excellent college-level survey," according to a California Bookwatch contributor. Specifically, the author focuses on the development of the science of chemistry in the second half of the twentieth century. According to the author, chemistry underwent a profound transformation during this period. The author describes how chemists began examining chemical substances as abstract structures and ended up replacing their most important research method, namely the study of chemical reactions, with new physical methods of analysis. The author also details how the chemists themselves were partially replaced by technical instruments. Drawing on years of study, including interviews and archival research, the author details how new physical methods have changed the modern science of chemistry. In the process, he provides an in-depth look at scientific instruments and the connection between science and industry.

Writing in the American Scientist, Pierre Laszlo noted that the author "is an especially skilled narrator, and his recounting of the twists and turns of early NMR and mass spectrometry as applied to organic chemistry is captivating." Laszlo added: "He is also very good at describing the industry-university nexus, pointing out, for example, that instrument makers such as Varian Associates initiated training for users at universities."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, March 1, 2007, Pierre Laszlo, "Instrumental Journey," review of Shifting and Rearranging: Physical Methods and the Transformation of Modern Chemistry, p. 186.

California Bookwatch, November, 2006, review of Shifting and Rearranging.

Chemical Heritage, spring, 2003, Jeffrey I. Seeman, "Bridging Boundaries."

Choice, March, 2007, A. Viste, review of Shifting and Rearranging, p. 1196.

History of Science, June, 2002, review of Heinrich Caro and the Creation of Modern Chemical Industry, p. 249.

Hyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, Volume 8, number 2, 2002, David Knight, review of Chemical Sciences in the 20th Century: Bridging Boundaries, pp. 129-131.

Journal of Chemical Education, April, 2002, Pedro J. Bernal, review of Chemical Sciences in the 20th Century, p. 433.

Journal of the American Chemical Society, November 21, 2001, review of Chemical Sciences in the 20th Century, p. 11517.

SciTech Book News, December, 2006, review of Shifting and Rearranging.

ONLINE

Universität Bielefeld, Institut für Wissenschafts und Technikforschung Web site,http://www.unibielefeld.de/iwt/ (February 26, 2008), author's curriculum vitae.