People

Janet Browne

Janet Browne is a noted author and the Aramont Professor of the History of Science with Harvard University. She received her B.A. degree from Trinity College, Dublin (1972), and completed her Masters in zoology (1973) and doctorate in the history of science at Imperial College London (1978). Her doctoral thesis was published as “The Secular Ark: Studies in the History of Biogeography” in 1983. Since then, Browne has specialized in reassessing Charles Darwin’s work, starting when she was associate editor on the University of Cambridge Library project designed to collect, edit and publish the correspondence of Charles Darwin. She authored two volumes: “Charles Darwin: Voyaging” (1995), then “Charles Darwin: The Power of Place (2002).” According to Brown, “her work has sought to frame a biographical study whose intention was to explore the ways in which scientific knowledge was created, distributed and accepted, moving from private to public.” The biography was awarded the James Tait Black award for non-fiction (2004), the W.H. Heinemann Prize from the Royal Literary Society, and the Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society. Prior to her appointment with Harvard, Browne was with the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, where she taught in graduate and undergraduate courses in the history of science, biology, and medicine. She has been editor of the British Journal for the History of Science and president of the British Society for the History of Science. Browne’s present focus includes an examination of natural history specimens, including teaching the course “Bringing Nature Indoors: Museums, Laboratories and the Field.” She is currently working on a visual and cultural history of the gorilla (including King Kong).