SHAC is delighted to announce that the new Editor-in-Chief of Ambix, Professor Annette Lykknes, is the winner of the Joseph B. Lambert HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry for 2026 for her outstanding contributions to the advancement of the study and communication of the history of chemistry. In her nominating letter, Brigitte van Tiggelen lauded Professor Lykknes: “She acts as a figurehead for our discipline, embodying the values and ideals that make our field vibrant, creative, beneficial and inclusive.” See the current issue of SHAC’s newsletter Chemical Intelligence for full details.
HIST Award Biography for Annette Lykknes (1974-)
The winner of the Joseph B. Lambert HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry for 2026 is Annette Lykknes for her outstanding contributions to the advancement of the study and communication of the history of chemistry. In her nominating letter, Brigitte van Tiggelen lauded Professor Lykknes: “She acts as a figurehead for our discipline, embodying the values and ideals that make our field vibrant, creative, beneficial and inclusive.”
Professor Lykknes is a true daughter of Norway, but she has become a mother of the European community of the history of chemistry. She was educated at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She received a Masters degree in Chemical Education and taught mathematics and science for two years. While her interest in education remains a driving force for her, she decided to pursue a Ph.D. in the history of chemistry and obtained this in 2005 at NTNU under Prof. Lise Kvittingen, with thesis titled “Ellen Gleditsch: Professor, Radiochemist, and Mentor.” Now she combines both pillars of her profession as Professor of Teacher Education at NTNU.
One of the secrets of her success is her commitment to an interdisciplinary approach to her scholarship. In her own words: “Over the course of my academic career, I have collaborated extensively with chemists and other natural scientists as well as with educators within these fields, with historians, philosophers and sociologists of science, with pedagogy scholars and with language experts and researchers of the Norwegian language, and even with a political scientist. The result of this is a foot in different fields and knowledge of quite distinct research methods and theoretical perspectives.”
The Award committee noted: “Professor Lykknes has contributed to an amazing array of research topical areas including: history of women scientists, studies of the collaborations of couples in science, history of the periodic table, discovery of the chemical elements, history of chemical education, how twentieth-century chemical engineers shaped the relationships between the academy and industries, and the application of the history of science to teach science.” Alan Rocke especially noted her treatment of the work of Marie Curie as “revealing the complex nature of scientific discovery itself.”
Annette Lykknes is at the center of the worldwide community of historians of chemistry.. She is now the Editor-in-Chief of the flagship journal Ambix. She is currently the Chair of the Division of the History of Chemistry of the European Chemical Society. While her publication record is sterling, and her research is groundbreaking, her greatest achievements have been as a leader.
HIST is thrilled to honor Professor Annette Lykknes with the 2026 Joseph B. Lambert Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry.