Mary Jo Nye

Professor Mary Jo Nye is Emerita Professor of History and Horning Professor in the Humanities in the School of History, Philosophy and Religion at Oregon State University. Previously, she served as the George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the History of Science at the University of Oklahoma. Her research and teaching focus on the history of science, especially the intellectual, social and cultural history of chemical and physical sciences since the eighteenth century in Western Europe, Great Britain and the United States. Her earlier scholarship centered on science and scientific institutions in modern France, along with more general histories of chemistry and physics. Current work has focused on the science and politics of three modern figures: the British physicist P.M.S. Blackett, the American chemist Linus Pauling, and the Hungarian-born physical chemist and philosopher of science Michael Polanyi. Professor Nye has been awarded the Sarton Medal for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement, the Dexter Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry, the Roy G. Neville Prize, and the John and Martha Morris Award.