“Disciplinary genesis between the natural sciences and the humanities: The historian of chemistry Edmund von Lippmann as a pioneer in the history of science”
The Leopoldina Academy Circle of Friends reg. ass. once again awarded the Johann-Lorenz-Bausch-Scholarship in 2021. At that time, itwas worth a maximum of €5,000 and named after the Academy's founder Johann Lorenz Bausch. The scholarship is aimed at young academics who are working in the field of history of science, in the narrower and in the broader sense. The place of work during the maximum four-month funding period is the Leopoldina Centre for Science Research in Halle (Saale).
The biography of the scientist and Leopoldina member Edmund Oskar Ritter von Lippmann (1857-1940) is characterised by a remarkably multi-layered activity at the interface of industry, the natural sciences and the humanities. As a chemist, Lippmann was a leading expert in the sugar industry around 1900. But during the course of his life, he was also always a historian of science. Lippmann devoted himself fully to his work in the history of science from 1925 onwards at the University of Halle, when it created a professorship for him in the history of chemistry. Such a professorship was an absolute novelty in the German academic landscape. It marked the beginning of the institutionalisation and professionalisation of German history of science. Lippmann's numerous publications on the history of science suggest the decisive contribution he made to the then young field. As part of her fellowship, Josephine Musil-Gutsch will study Lippmann's significance for the history of German science in detail. The Leopoldina also played an important role in this: the idea of appointing Lippmann to the professorship for the history of chemistry in Halle arose in the Academy's meetings.