Member Bio
Simon Werrett is an historian of science with an interest in the long-term historical relationships of the arts and sciences, in particular the ways domestic, artisanal, and industrial skills, techniques, and performances have shaped the development of the sciences. His first book, Fireworks: Pyrotechnic Arts and Sciences in European History (University of Chicago Press, 2010), explored the interactions of pyrotechnic artisans and natural philosophers between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, revealing the geographical variation in relations of science and the arts, and the mutual construction of experimental science and pyrotechnics.
His next project examines exchanges of skills and techniques of repair, re-use, and recycling between urban, domestic, and industrial sites and early modern scientific laboratories. The project will contribute to the history of recycling and material stewardship, and offer new insights into the history and nature of scientific practice.
Projects
Remaking Natural Knowledge: Recycling and the History of Science and Technology (pdf, 13 KB)
Film Interview - Recycling and the History of Science and Technology - with Simon Werrett
Film Interview - The Origin of the Term 'Recycling' - with Simon Werrett
Website University of Washington, Department of History