John Pickstone

John Pickstone is currently Wellcome Research Professor in the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, in the Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Manchester. [ [http://www.chstm.manchester.ac.uk/ Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (The University of Manchester) ] ]

Born and raised in Burnley, Lancashire, he studied Natural Sciences, especially physiology, at Cambridge and at Queen's University, Canada. After his degree he took an MSc in History and Philosophy of Science at University College London (1969), and completed his PhD at Chelsea College London (1974) - on General Physiology in early nineteenth-century France, especially the work of Dutrochet on osmosis. Pickstone has held fellowships in History of Medicine at the University of Minnesota (1971-3) and at University College London (1974), before moving in 1974 to the Department of History of Science and Technology, UMIST, Manchester, to work on the history of hospitals in the Manchester region (Lecturer 1977, then Senior Lecturer).

In 1985-6, as part of a rationalisation, he moved to the Victoria University of Manchester and established CHSTM, including the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine and the National Archive for the History of Computing before directing CHSTM until 2002 when he became a Research Professor [http://www.chstm.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/people/profile/index.asp?id=2571 Professor John Pickstone : (Faculty of Life Sciences - The University of Manchester) ] ] .

More recently, John Pickstone can be found publishing mainly on modern medical history, eg cancer and medical technology; but also on regional history of STM, on which he edited two journal numbers in 2007. With Roberta Bivins, he edited a volume in honor of the late Roy Porter (Palgrave, 2007) and with Peter Bowler, is editing the CUP History of Science volume on Modern Earth and Life Sciences (2008).

Ways of Knowing [http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5NkjqysQObsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=pickstone+j-pickstone&ots=YCIWn0dVh9&sig=QkNoxeBVYmiWoe1mjCpxhC_Kum8] continues to attract wide attention, including a special session at the (American) HSS conference in Washington, DC, 2007, and an invitation to produce an Ositris volume. With his work on recent medical history, it attracts many international invitations -- most recently (07-08) to Yale, Penn, Paris, Maastricht, Berlin and Mexico.

For the University of Manchester, he recently initiated a series of 'Interfaculty Lectures', and with friends in Manchester Metropolitan University and the City, is planning a major local history festival for 2009.

Research Interests

Mostly include aspects of recent medicine, such as the Wellcome project on the history of cancer in Britain, work on medical technology, the history of mental health services, and a collaborative project with the NCRDPC on recent changes in the NHS. He is increasingly interested in the uses of history for health policy.

His wider work on ‘Big Pictures’ and ‘Ways of Knowing’ grew from a conviction that through some of the hundreds of excellent papers produced in history of science, technology and medicine since the 1960s, we might develop new and better frames for understanding long-term history. He continues to explore these themes in relation to medical technologies, science-art relations, science-technology relations, and the display of HSTM in museums.

Recent Publications

2008David Edgerton and John V Pickstone , Science, Technology and Medicine in Britain, 1750-2000, Modern Science in National and International Context, Vol 8 of Cambridge History of Science, CUP

, The modern biological and earth sciences; vol 6 of the Cambridge History of Science , , Cambridge History of Science, CUP

2007Anderson J, Neary F and Pickstone JV, Surgeons, Manufacturers and Patients: a Transatlantic History of Total Hip Replacement, Science, technology and medicine in modern history, Palgrave

Pickstone JV, Contested Cumulations: Configurations of Cancer Treatments through the Twentieth Century., Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 81(1), 164-196

Adrian M K Thomas and John V Pickstone, Imaging. Revealing the World Within, BMJ , 334, (Suppl 1), 12, Madness, Medicine and Social History. Essay in Honour of Roy Porter, Palgrave [ [http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/suppl_1/s12 Imaging: revealing the world within - Thomas and Pickstone 334 (1): s12 - BMJ ] ]

John V Pickstone, Medicine in Manchester: Manchester in Medicine, 1750-2005, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library of the University of Manchester, 87

John V Pickstone, Science and Technology in Manchester: an introduction to the history, Manchester Regional History Review, 18

, Special volume on the History of Medicine in Manchester: Bulletin of the John Rylands Library of the University of Manchester, vol. 87 (2007), With survey article as introduction, Bull John Rylands , University of Manchester

, Special Volume on the History of Science and Technology in the Manchester Region: Manchester Regional History Review. With survey article as introduction, Manchester Regional History Review, 18, MMU

Pickstone JV, Working Knowledges before and after circa 1800. Practices and Disciplines in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine., ISIS, 98(September), 489-516

2006J. S. Metcalfe and John Pickstone, Replacing Hips and Lenses: Surgery, Industry and Innovation in Post War Britain, New Technologies in Health Care. Challenges, Change and Innovat, Palgrave

John V. Picskstone, Innovation, Diverse Knowledges and the Presumed Singularity of Science, Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation, Berghahn Books

Pickstone, ‘Bones in Lancashire: towards long-term contextual analysis of medical technology’ , Devices and Designs. Medical Technologies in Historical Perspec, Palgrave

References