Welcome to the Website of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC), publisher of the scholarly journal Ambix.
Founded in 1935, SHAC has consistently maintained the highest standards of scholarship in all aspects of the history of alchemy and chemistry from early times to the present. The Society has a wide international membership from over thirty countries.
We hold meetings and webinars, offer scholarly prizes and grants, and publish the journal Ambix. The Society’s newsletter, Chemical Intelligence, is published twice a year. We have also established the Graduate Network to bring together postgraduate students in the field.
Keep up to date with the news and events of SHAC by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
You can watch our SHAC Online Seminars on YouTube here.
Please note that changes are processed manually and you will receive a confirmation email when our records have been updated. For any queries please find relevant contact information on https://www.ambix.org/contact-us/
The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Francesca Antonelli (University of Bologna) who will present:
Family historians? Women and the construction of scientific memory, from Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836) to Lucie Laugier (1822-1900)
This will be live on Thursday, 25 September 2025, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.
As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:
Family historians? Women and the construction of scientific memory, from Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836) to Lucie Laugier (1822-1900)
Francesca Antonelli
Family history is widely recognized as one of the first domains where women engaged with modern historical writing, often being regarded as the “natural” custodians of family memory. But what about the history of science? This presentation focuses on how women between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shaped the posthumous memory of scientists within their families, particularly through the curation of scientific and personal archives, the management of instruments and other objects, and biographical writing. Beginning with the well-documented case of Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836), who crafted her husband’s memory in the early nineteenth century, I turn to the largely overlooked figure of Lucie Laugier (1822-1900), François Arago’s niece and author of biographical accounts of her uncle (published only in the 1990s). Both women served as “secretaries” – as they would put it – to their relatives and managed extensive material and paper collections in radically different political contexts—from post-Revolutionary rehabilitation to Second Empire hostility. Significantly, both are commemorated in public monuments—Arago’s in 1879 and Lavoisier’s in 1900—depicted precisely in these roles. I will thus deal with their cases to raise some questions on women’s agency in constructing scientific memory and the complex negotiations between family and institutional narratives of scientific commemoration.
This post is almost overflowing with news of forthcoming events brought to you by SHAC over the next few months.
1. SHAC WEBINAR – Thursday 22 May 2025 at 5pm BST: Ellen Hausner – Early modern alchemical characters: the case of Simon Forman (1552-1611)
An invitation to the next SHAC seminar to be held on 22nd May and a reminder to register for the AGM to be held on Monday 12th May .
The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Ellen Hausner (University of Oxford) who will present:
Early modern alchemical characters: the case of Simon Forman (1552-1611)
This will be live on Thursday, 22 May 2025, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour. As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:
Early modern alchemical characters: the case of Simon Forman (1552-1611)
Ellen Hausner
From the late medieval era through the end of the early modern period, writers of alchemical literature used both verbal and pictorial methods of communication. Alongside these two systems, a third, visually abstract language began to be used to transmit meaning. Known in the period as ‘characters,’ these symbolic notations and signs were pervasive across alchemical literature and became a vital form of expression in alchemical texts.
This talk will explore the ways in which alchemical characters may have been perceived in the early modern period through an examination of the writings of Simon Forman (1552-1611). He was one of many alchemists in the early seventeenth century fascinated by these characters, creating several lists of them along with their interpretations. The evidence from Forman’s writings shows that he did not regard alchemical characters solely as a notation system for representing alchemical substances, processes, and apparatus. Rather, he believed them to have a celestial origin, and to contain some of the same properties as those found in magical sigils, astrological glyphs, and angelic signs. Forman serves as an example of how the early history of alchemical characters is situated in the context of a culture steeped in symbolic characters which were seen to connect humans to other realms.
If you are unable to attend but wish to send your apologies please contact our administrative coordinator, Dr. Rebecca Martin, using meetings@ambix.org.
3. SHAC AWARD SCHEME 2025
Remember the deadline is 31 May 2025 and application forms have to be requested in advance from grants@ambix.org
16 and 17 October 2025, at the Science History Institute, Philadelphia
It is intended that the first day of this two day meeting will cover the history of alchemy and early modern chemistry, while the second day will discuss the history of chemistry from then to the modern period. Offers of papers on any aspect of the history of alchemy and chemistry, including their historiography, should be sent, with a short description, to the SHAC chair, Professor Frank James (frank.james@ucl.ac.uk), by 31 May 2025.
5. SHAC Brock Award – Call for Nominations
Nominations by 30 June 2025 – please see details at
The Partington Prize is awarded every three years for an original and unpublished essay on any aspect of the history of alchemy or chemistry. The prize consists of five hundred pounds (£500), with the winning article published in SHAC’s Journal, Ambix. The competition is open to anyone with a scholarly interest in the history of alchemy or chemistry who, has not reached thirty-five years of age, or if older is enrolled in a degree programme or has been awarded a master’s degree or PhD within the previous three years. Entries must arrive before midnight GMT on 31 December 2025.
Examples of past-prize winning essays, including Armel Cornu’s 2023 Prize-Winning Essay, “Senses and Utility in the New Chemistry” can be found at
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry established the Partington Prize in memory of Professor James Riddick Partington, the Society’s first Chairman. It is awarded every three years for an original and unpublished essay on any aspect of the history of alchemy or chemistry. The prize consists of five hundred pounds (£500) if awarded to a single essay. Alternatively, it may be divided, or not awarded at all.
The competition is open to anyone with a scholarly interest in the history of alchemy or chemistry who, by the closing date of 31 December 2025, has not reached 35 years of age, or if older is currently enrolled in a degree programme or has been awarded a master’s degree or PhD within the previous three years. No restriction is placed on the nationality or country of residence of competitors. Only one entry is permitted from any competitor.
The prize-winning essay will be published exclusively in the Society’s journal, Ambix. It must not have been submitted to any journal, including Ambix, at any time before 30 April 2026.
Essays must be submitted in English. Essays must be fully documented using the conventions used in the current issue of Ambix and include an abstract of no more than 200 words. Essays must not exceed 10,000 words in length, including the abstract, references and footnotes.
All entries should be sent to prizes@ambix.org in the form of two separate e-mail attachments in Microsoft Office Word (preferably 2013 or later). The first attachment should be headed “Partington Prize Entry 2026” and should give the author’s name, institution, postal address, e-mail address, date of birth (and, if relevant, the date of the award of the master’s degree or PhD), the title of the essay, and the word count. The second attachment should be the essay, which should not identify the author either by name or implicitly.
Entries must arrive before midnight GMT on 31 December 2025. The decision of the Society will be final on all matters. The result of the competition will be announced by 30 April 2026.
For more information, see https://www.ambix.org/partington-prize/
The next on line seminar will be on Thursday, 27 March 2025
The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Christopher Halm (Deutsches Museum, Munich) who will present:
Escaping Earth, Sustaining the Moon: The ‘Chemistry’ Behind Public Narratives of Lunar Habitation and Cosmic Age This will be live on Thursday, 27 March 2025, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour. As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:
Escaping Earth, Sustaining the Moon: The ‘Chemistry’ Behind Public Narratives of Lunar Habitation and Cosmic Age
Christopher Halm
Recent space programmes, particularly NASA’s Artemis initiative, present space travel and lunar habitation in ecological terms, emphasising sustainability and resource efficiency. Yet this rhetoric obscures a deeper historical trajectory.
This talk explores how lunar exploration narratives—rooted in museological practices, Cold War geopolitics, and the public presentation of moon rockresearch—have constructed the Moon as both a spatial and temporal escape from earthly crises. Focusing on museum displays and the scientific use of lunar samples, I argue that moon rocks have served as instruments for advancing and disseminating narratives of civilisational progress. In this context, the Apollo programme offered a redemptive vision—an escape from the destruction, division, and psychological rupture of the Second World War into the pristine, unclaimed realm of the Moon. Space exhibitions, such as those in Bonn’s Haus der Geschichte, and research institutions like the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz have reinforced a narrative of spatial and temporal transcendence, framing moon rocks as heralds of a new era.
By tracing the political and scientific representations of moon rocks, this talk examines how the Moon has been enlisted in broader efforts to reframe human history, resolve cross-cultural traumas, and establish new frontiers of political and technological legitimacy.
Chemical Intelligence
The winter edition of Chemical Intelligence is now available on the SHAC web site on either of these links:
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC) is holding its Spring Meeting, which will also mark its 90th Anniversary, in person on Saturday 29 March 2025 at University College London (LG04, 26 Bedford Way).
The meeting will be on The Biographies of Alchemists and Chemists and registration, which costs £18.50, is now available via this TicketSource link:
