Given developments with the COVID-19 pandemic the award ceremony bestowing the Gerda Henkel Prize on Prof. Lorraine Daston took place in the autumn of 2022.

Prof. Lorraine Daston (Berlin)

“Historian of science Lorraine Jenifer Daston is one of the most internationally acclaimed representatives of the discipline. From 1995 until she retired in 2019, she was Director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, having previously taught at the universities of Harvard, Princeton, Göttingen and Chicago. From the very outset of her career, her research has focused on the fascination that is ‘science’, with its origins in amazement and curiosity which, as long ago as Aristotle, constituted the root of all scientific knowledge. By combining a philosophical approach with historical contextualization, Daston seeks to get to the bottom of the fundamental categories of science, such as natural laws, rationality, objectivity and scientific practices including observation, measurement, experiment and visualization, by exploring how they have evolved through history. Her numerous books and articles cover an immense range of themes and periods: from Early Modern times through to the 21st century, from the chambers of miracles of the Baroque period through to scientific quantification. Her publications meld analytical acuity and an impressive knowledge of the subject with exceptional clarity in the argumentation and stylistic brilliance. With her innovative research, Prof. Daston has emphatically influenced not only her own particular field, but the humanities as a whole. Moreover, she succeeds most impressively in ensuring that her research on categories such as truth, proof or fact can be fruitfully used in central debates of today. The prize-winner’s research in the history of science is of exceptional importance and highly topical, precisely in an age in which the value and credibility of scientific knowledge has been relativized or fundamentally questioned in a quite unexpected manner.” (The jury's reasoning)

Prof. Lorraine Jenifer Daston studied at Harvard University where, after completing a diploma at the University of Cambridge, she was awarded a doctorate in the history of science. After spells teaching at the universities of Harvard, Princeton, Brandeis, Göttingen and Chicago, from 1995 to 2019 she was Director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Since 2005 she has been a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Moreover, Lorraine Daston is a Permanent Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. She has received numerous prizes and distinctions for her work. Her books include Against Nature (2019); with P. Galison: Objectivity (2007); and with K. Park: Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1100-1750 (1998).

Lorraine Daston
Der Traum von der Einheit der Wissenschaft
The Dream of the Unity of Science
Verleihung des Gerda Henkel Preises 2020
Gerda Henkel Vorlesung
Gerda Henkel Lecture on the occasion
of the award of the Gerda Henkel Prize
published by the Gerda Henkel Foundation
2023, 56 pages, 4 articles, 20 illustrations,
stitched soft back, EUR 9.80
ISBN 978-3-86887-053-4

Acceptance Speech of Prof. Lorraine Jenifer Daston

Acceptance Speech of Prof. Lorraine Jenifer Daston

The Dream of the Unity of Science

Panel Discussion

Prof. Lorraine Daston in conversation with Prof. Peter Geimer