Announcing the 2026 Award Scheme

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Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry Award Scheme 2026

Opening date: 1 March 2026

Closing date for applications: 31 May 2026

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry invites applications for its Award Scheme for 2026. SHAC offers two types of award: support for research into the history of chemistry or history of alchemy by both new and independent scholars and support for Subject Development of either history of chemistry or history of alchemy. It is expected that applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application by 31 July 2026. 

The Awards are most suitable for activities planned to be undertaken during the period 1 August 2026– 30 September 2027. In exceptional circumstances applications may be considered for activities which occur between the deadline on 31 May and 31 July, but this must be brought to the attention of SHAC when submitting the application for the Award. A two-year window for completion of all Awards will be given. Research Awards are open to post-graduate students (both masters and doctoral students), those who have obtained a PhD since 1 January 2016 and also to independent scholars. Given that the circumstances of independent scholars differ we are letting members ‘self-define’ and if there are any unclear cases it will be left to the discretion of the Awards Panel. 

Awards of up to £1000 will be made to cover research expenses, including travel, accommodation, subsistence (at the discretion of the award panel), the copying or scanning of documents, and library fees. Applications may also include the costs of reproducing images for publication. The Scheme does not fund the purchase of equipment or course fees. It does not cover the costs of Open Access publication. In addition, those who have obtained a PhD since 1 January 2016 and independent scholars may apply for the costs of travel to conferences and accommodation, but only in order to give a paper. There is an expectation that awardees will attend the entire conference, unless there are exceptional circumstances. The Scheme does not pay conference registration fees. Subject Development Awards of up to £1000

may be made to support activities such as seminars, workshops, colloquia, lecture series, conference sessions, conferences, exhibitions and outreach activities that support either the history of chemistry or history of alchemy as academic subjects. The Awards do not cover the costs of refreshments or catering for these events or honoraria for speakers. The Scheme does not cover the costs of Open Access publication. Please note that activities covered by the Awards do not have to occur in the UK, and that the Awards are open to members of the Society resident both in the UK and elsewhere. Members who have applied to the Scheme in previous years, whether successfully or not, are entitled to make an application in 2026.

Applicants must be members of the Society in good standing at the time of making an application, and, if successful, throughout the period of an award. 

For more information and application forms, please contact grants@ambix.org. Membership enquiries should be made to newjoiner@ambix.org.

An activity report must be submitted at the end of the Award. This will usually be published in SHAC’s Chemical Intelligence newsletter.

Online Seminar: Michael Bycroft, Gems and the Crafts in the Chemical Revolution

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Next SHAC on-line seminar, Thursday, 22 January 2026, 5pm (London Time)

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Michael Bycroft (University of Warwick) who will present:

Gems and the Crafts in the Chemical Revolution

This will be live on Thursday, 22 January 2026, 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:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/shac-on-line-seminar-dr-michael-bycroft-university-of-warwick/e-zkzlqg

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at:
rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2
When booking please ensure that you provide the e-mail address where you would like your link to be sent. Both links will go live just before the seminar.

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry

Gems and the Crafts in the Chemical Revolution
Michael Bycroft
Chemistry is inseparable from the chemical crafts. This is a commonplace in the historiography of chemistry. But what about the relationship between the crafts themselves? How were chemical ideas shaped by the interaction between different arts, trades and industries? I answer this question with respect to gemstones in European chemistry in the latter part of the eighteenth century. In this period, and not before, chemists found general procedures for dividing gems into their component substances. Miners, apothecaries, glass-makers, and porcelain-makers were all involved in this process, as well as jewellers and diamond-cutters. These interactions between crafts were not just a matter of generalization or juxtaposition. New kinds of analysis emerged when two or more crafts interacted. Chemistry was greater than the sum of its crafts.

Oxford talk: Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent on Michel Serres

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‘Michel Serres, historian of science despite himself’

Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Emeritus Professor, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

9 April 17:00

Maison Française d’Oxford

Abstract:

In 1969 Michel Serres was elected professor in the history of science at University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne where he served until 1989. However, this mathematician turned philosopher considered this election as a mistake or even a mischief and he never endorsed the role of historian. He taught the history of science in spite of himself although he was an expert in this domain, unlike Sganarelle, the Doctor in spite of himself staged by Molière. For him, teaching the history of science was a way to reconcile his two passions for science and literature.

In this paper I will outline three aspects of Serres’s unorthodox view of the history of science: i) there is no rigid boundary between science, fable and myths; ii) science generates a time of its own that is neither amenable to the arrow of progress nor to a timeline; iii) his history science raises a philosophical question: who are the subjects of knowledge?

https://mfo.web.ox.ac.uk/event/shac-spring-meeting-remembering-bill-brock-chemistry-and-culture

SHAC Spring meeting “Remembering Bill Brock”

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SHAC Spring meeting “Remembering Bill Brock: Chemistry and Culture“

10 April 2026

Arranged with and at the Maison Française d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road, Oxford, OX2 6SE

This meeting is being held to commemorate the life, work and legacy of William Hodson Brock (1936-2025), who spent his entire career at the University of Leicester. Sometime chair of SHAC and editor of its journal Ambix, Brock was one of the leading historians of chemistry in his time, writing the Fontana/Norton History of Chemistry, as well as biographies of William Crookes, Justus von Liebig and Henry Edward Armstrong. (An extended obituary can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00026980.2025.2489298). The papers to be presented at this meeting take their starting point from Brock’s work and historical interests.

9.30Registration and Coffee 
9.55Welcome:  Stéphane Van Damme, MFO, and Frank James, SHAC
10.00First Brock Award Lecture:Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne             The history of chemistry through the lens of materials. A very             short introduction
10.45Session 1:Alan Rocke, Case Western Reserve University:             The Best of Frenemies: Liebig and Dumas (A Tribute to William             H. Brock)
11.15Coffee 
11.45Session 2:Eira H. Betthell (Booth), University of Essex:             From Laboratory to Library: Bill Brock’s Prolific Writing as             Chemical Practice Matthew Daniel Eddy, Durham University:             A Context for Colonial Chemistry: Thinking with Bill Brock             about the Biomedical Relevance of Dr J. A. B. Horton’s             Experiments on the Soil of Sierra Leone Georgiana D. Hedesan, University of Oxford: The Foundation of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry in 1935: Between Historical Research and the Transmutational Paradigm Michael Jewess, Independent Scholar:             Working with Bill: Robert Fergus Hunter (1904-1963)
13.15LunchNot provided but there are some good pubs nearby
14.30Tribute from the Brock family:Susannah Ahluwalia, Gareth Brock and Benjamin Brock
14.50Session 3:Julia Carr-Trebelhorn, University of Cincinnati: Burning Diamonds: Lavoisier, Guettard, and the 1771 Development of Reduction Firing and Hard-Paste Porcelain in Paris John R.R. Christie, University of Oxford: Commerce, Manufacture and Practical Chemistry in 18th–            Century Britain Robert Bud, Science Museum/UCL:             Poison gas and Art Deco: analysing early 20th century             ambivalence about chemistry
16.00Coffee 
16.20Session 4:Robin Mackie, Open University and Gerrylynn K Roberts, Independent Scholar: Counting the British Chemical Community, 1881-1971:             Opening the ‘Black Box’ Annette Lykknes, Norwegian University of Science and Technology:             Crookes’ Vis Generatrix in teaching and learning
17.15 Closing remarks
17.20End of meeting 

There is no charge for this meeting, but please let Frank James, frank.james@ucl.ac.uk, know if you wish to attend.

More information: https://mfo.web.ox.ac.uk/event/shac-spring-meeting-remembering-bill-brock-chemistry-and-culture

Online Seminar “From Sacred Plants to Golden Wine”

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The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Stefania Buosi-Moncunill (University of Barcelona) who will present:

From Sacred Plants to Golden Wine: The Alchemist’s Art of Healing


This will be live on Thursday, 27 November 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:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/shac-on-line-seminar-dr-stefania-buosi-moncunill-university-of-barcelona/e-aggypq 

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at

https://studio.youtube.com/video/pKzs1vW2Dxg

Both the Zoom and YouTube links will go live just before the seminar

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry

From Sacred Plants to Golden Wine: The Alchemist’s Art of Healing

Stefania Buosi-Moncunill

This presentation explores the many healing dimensions of medical alchemy as it was practiced within the Occitan-Catalan school of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. It is based on extensive archival and philological research and forms part of the forthcoming collected volume The Medical Legacy of Medieval Alchemy: Elixirs, Healing Waters, and Precious Stones (Palgrave, 2025), co-edited with Lawrence M. Principe (Johns Hopkins University).

At the heart of the Occitan-Catalan medico-alchemical tradition lies the idea of a medicina integralis, a holistic vision in which the healing of the body and the regeneration of the spirit converge in a single quest for harmony with the cosmos. Remedies such as theriac, aurum potabile, and the elixir were not mere pharmacological compounds, but true thresholds of transformation leading toward deeper states of balance and knowledge.

Best regards

The SHAC Officers

Remembering Bill Brock – CfP SHAC Meeting 10 April 2026

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William ‘Bill’ Hodson Brock (1936-2025) was one of the leading historians of chemistry of the last fifty years. As Chair of SHAC and editor of Ambix he played a major role in the Society from the 1960s to the 2000s. He also wrote on the history of publishing, education and many other aspects of nineteenth-century science and culture, publishing in 1992 The Fontana/Norton History of Chemistry, a general history of chemistry from antiquity to the present.

To commemorate his life, work and legacy, SHAC is organising a one-day meeting to be held on Friday 10 April 2026 at the Maison Française d’Oxford.

Offers of papers (including a short abstract) related in some way to Brock’s work should be sent to Frank James (frank.james[at]ucl.ac.uk) by 30 November 2025.

1st Brock Award given to Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent

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The first Brock Award is given to Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent for her lifetime of outstanding work in the history of chemistry. For about four decades she has produced original and thought-provoking research in the history and philosophy of chemical and materials science, significantly shaping the historiography of chemistry. Her work stands as an inspiring example of how innovative approaches in these fields can not only illuminate significant historical and philosophical ideas in the chemical sciences, they can also meaningfully contribute to addressing contemporary societal challenges. Bensaude-Vincent has played a key role in establishing collaboration and building scholarly communities across Europe, and in nurturing new generations of scholars in history of chemistry, both formally and informally.

The Brock Award honours Professor William ‘Bill’ Hodson Brock (1936-2025), one of the leading historians of chemistry of the last fifty years, and is for outstanding contributions in the fields of the history of alchemy and chemistry.