Contact
Research Areas
History of Science; Women and Gender in Science; Public Memory of Science; Science Related Theatre and Film; Science Policy for Gender Equality
Education
Ph.D., University of Montreal
M.Sc., Hebrew University of Jerusalem
B.Sc., Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Links
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Personal Web Page
Scientific Legacies
Scientific Legacies: Pnina Abir-Am
Pnina G. Abir-Am
Pnina G. Abir-Am
Pnina Geraldine Abir-Am is a historian of science who has published widely on the history of women and gender in science, the history of molecular biology, and the history of public memory. She is a recipient of an award from the U.S. History of Science Society for outstanding research in the history of women in science and has edited or co-edited four volumes, among them Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives, Women in Science, 1789-1979 and Commemorative Practices in Science: Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Collective Memory. Recent work focuses on the role of gender in the misallocation of credit in science, the public memory of DNA, and the career of 2009 Nobel Laureate Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute in Israel. In July 2009, Pnina was elected to a four year term as Vice-President of the International Commission on Women in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine.
Current Projects
During 2012-2013, I will focus on the history of women molecular biologists in the US, UK, and Israel, with an emphasis on leadership and gender equality in research teams. I will also begin a new study of “science plays” with the aim to clarify how women and gender issues are dramatized in theatre inspired by history of science.
Representative Publications
Abir-Am, Pnina G. “Women Nobel Laureates and Scientists Interrupted: An Ego-Histoire of the Lost Generation of the 1970s” in Paola Govoni & Alice Z. Franceschi (eds.) Gender and Genre, 1700-2000. (London: Ashgate, 2012).
Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives, Women in Science, 1789-1979. Edited by Pnina G. Abir-Am and Dorinda Outram. New Brunswick/NJ and London, UK: Rutgers University Press, 1987, 1989.