Mary Jo Nye

Mary Jo Nye (born December 5, 1944) is an American historian of science and Horning Professor in the Humanities emerita of the History Department at Oregon State University. She is known for her work on the relationships between scientific discovery and social and political phenomena.

Early life and education

Nye was born December 5, 1944, to Joe Allen and Mildred Mann of Nashville, Tennessee. She began her undergraduate studies as a chemistry major at Vanderbilt University, but became interested in history of science after taking a class from Robert Siegfried. In 1964 she left Vanderbilt to attend the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, where she completed her BA in Chemistry in 1965.

She married Robert A. Nye, also a historian, on February 17, 1968. They traveled to France to do doctoral research in 1968: their trip coincided with revolutionary unrest and offered them opportunities to learn French cooking. Mary Jo Nye completed a Ph.D. in history of science at the University of Wisconsin in 1970, advised by Erwin N. Hiebert, whom Nye credits for his egalitarian support of women students. At the time, students studying the 19th and 20th century were also a minority in the field. Nye's generation of scholars is credited with creating a shift that embraces international perspectives and examines the interactions of politics and science. At OSU she became interested in Linus Pauling, whose papers are held by the university and whose career covers much of the 20th century. Nye retired from Oregon State University in 2009.

Research interests The history of chemistry and physics since the eighteenth century in Western Europe, Great Britain and the United States The social and cultural history of science, including laboratory science, university education, and the political activities of scientists The philosophy of science, especially relations between theory and evidence Studies of Michael Polanyi and P.M.S. Blackett

Awards and honors 2020 Franklin-Lavoisier Prize 2017 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics Recipient from the American Physical Society 2013 John and Martha Morris Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Modern Chemistry, from the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 2013 Roy G. Neville Prize in Bibliography or Biography from the Chemical Heritage Foundation for her book Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science 2006 History of Science Society's George Sarton Medal for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement 2005 Elected as a Corresponding Member of the Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences 1999 Dexter Award for outstanding achievement in the history of chemistry of the American Chemical Society 1998 Elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 1993 Elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Publications (selections)

As author Molecular reality; A perspective on the scientific work of Jean Perrin, London: MacDonald, 1972 Science in the Provinces: Scientific Communities and Provincial Leadership in France, 1860-1930, University of California Press, 1986, From chemical philosophy to theoretical chemistry : dynamics of matter and dynamics of disciplines, 1800 - 1950, Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1993 Before Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics, 1800-1940, Harvard University Press, Reprint 1999, Was Linus Pauling a Revolutionary Chemist? (Award Address - Dexter Award) in: Bull. Hist. Chem. 25 (2000), 73-82. Blackett. Physics, War, and Politics in the Twentieth Century, Harvard University Press, 2004 - - about the English physicist Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science, The University of Chicago Press, 2011.

As editor The invention of physical science : intersections of mathematics, theology and natural philosophy since the seventeenth century; essays in honor of Erwin N. Hiebert, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1992 The Cambridge History of Science, Vol. 5: The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge University Press, 2002,

Personal life Mary Jo Nye lives in Oregon with her husband, historian of sexuality Robert A. Nye. They have one daughter, Lesley.