Deborah R. Coen
Dept. of History
Barnard College, Columbia University
410 Lehman Hall, 3009 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
(212) 854-7449
dcoen@barnard.edu
Barnard College, Columbia University
Assistant Professor of History.
Former Position
Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, 2004-2006.
Harvard University
Ph.D. 2004, History of Science.
University of Cambridge
M.Phil. 1998, History and Philosophy of Science.
Harvard University
A.B. magna cum laude 1997, Physics.
Intimate Universality: Local and Global Themes in the History of Weather and Climate,
co-edited with James R. Fleming and Vladimir Jankovic (Science History Publications,
2006).
published articles
“The Storm Lab,” forthcoming in a special issue of Science in Context, “The Laboratory of Nature: The Mountain as Object and Instrument of Science” (2008).
“The Greening of German History: A Review Essay,” Isis 99 (2008): 142-148.
“Liberal Reason and the Culture of the Sommerfrische,” Austrian History Yearbook 38 (2007):
145-159.
“A Lens of Many Facets: Science Through a Family’s Eyes,” Isis 97 (2006): 395-419.
“Living Precisely in Fin-de-siècle Vienna,” Journal of the History of Biology 39 (2006): 493-523.
“Scaling Down: The ‘Austrian’ Climate between Empire and Republic,” in Intimate Universality:
Local and Global Themes in the History of Weather and Climate, ed. J. Fleming, V.
Jankovic, and D. Coen (Science History Publications, 2006)
“Felix Exner and the Probabilistic Turn in Austrian Meteorology,” in From Beaufort to Bjerknes
and Beyond: Critical Perspectives on Observing, Analyzing, and Predicting the Weather
and Climate, eds. Stefan Emeis and Cornelia Lüdecke (Rauner Verlag, 2005), pp. 143-
156.
“Scientists’ Errors, Nature’s Fluctuations, and the Law of Radioactive Decay, 1899-1926.”
Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 32:2 (2002): 179-205.
Book Reviews
Review of Daniel M. Vyleta, Crime, Jews and News: Vienna 1895-1914, forthcoming in the European History Quarterly.
Review of Wilhelm Füßl, Oskar von Miller, 1855-1934: Eine Biographie, Isis 97 (2006): 768-9.
Invited Presentations
Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of the Imagination, New York, January, 2008.
Roundtable organizer and moderator: “Weather and the Imagination.”
Villa Garabald, Switzerland, June, 2007.
Workshop: “Laboratory of Nature: The Mountain as Object and Instrument of Science.”
Paper title: “Eddies in the Currents of Empire: Mountain Climates in Imperial Austria.”
Harvard University, May, 2007.
Conference: “Internationalizing the History of Eastern Europe.”
Paper title: “As Colorless as Waves of Air: The Climatography of Austria-Hungary.”
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, March, 2007.
Conference: “Cultural Alchemy of the Exact Sciences: Revisiting the Forman Thesis.”
Paper title: “Citizens of the Most Probable State: Vienna, 1908.”
Center for History of Science, University of Chicago, March, 2006.
Colloquium on “Science and Private Life.”
Vienna Circle Institute, Vienna, July 2005.
Assistant lecturer at two-week graduate summer program in history and philosophy of science on the topic, “Chance and Necessity.”
Vienna Circle Institute, Vienna, April 2004.
Conference: “Sigmund Exner—Physiologie, Psychologie, Ästhetik und empirische Kulturforschung um 1900.”
Paper title: “Into the Open: The Exners at Brunnwinkl.”
Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin, December 2003.
Workshop: “Muster/Pattern.” Paper title: “Towards a Universe of Forms.”
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Swarthmore College, April 2002.
Delivered presentation at departmental colloquium: “Taking Nature’s Pulse.”
Konrad Lorenz Institute, Altenberg, Austria, September 2002.
Conference: “Viennese Roots of Theoretical Biology: The Vivarium Centenary.“ Paper title: “The Przibram Brothers and the Border Regions of Biology.”
Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin, July 2000.
Workshop: “Hauptsache und Nebendinge/Pure Science and its Impurities.” Paper title: “’Fluctuation Phenomena’ in Vienna.”
Contributed Presentations
History of Science Society, Austin, Texas, November 2004.
Co-organized session: “All in the Family: Science and the Domestic Sphere.” Paper title: “Beyond Public and Private: Science and Liberalism in Imperial Austria.”
International Commission for the History of Meteorology, Polling, Germany, July 2004. Paper
title: “Scaling Down.”
History of Science Society, Cambridge, Mass., November 2003.
Organized session: “Local and Global Perspectives in Meteorology.” Paper title: “Mapping the ‘Austrian’ Climate Between Empire and Republic.”
History of Science Society, Denver, November 2001.
Organized session: “The Exners: Science in a Viennese Bildungsbürger Family.” Paper title: “Family History and the History of Science.”
History of Science Society, Vancouver, B.C., November 2000.
Paper title: “Schrödinger’s Crooked Path to What is Life?”
History of Science Society, Pittsburgh, November 1999.
Organized session: “Off Color: The Science, Art, and Politics of Seeing Beyond Black and White.” Paper title: “Color and Kultur: Physics and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Vienna.”
Mellon Environmental Science Minigrant, 2007.
Fel Grant, Harvard University, 2003.
Merit Fellowship, Harvard University, 2002.
Center for European Studies Krupp Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2001-2.
German-American Student Exchange (DAAD) Research Fellowship, 2001-2.
Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin, Pre-doctoral Fellow, fall 2001.
National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellowship, 1998-2001.
George Sarton Scholar award, Department of History of Science, Harvard University, 1998.
Harvard Center for European Studies Summer Language Training Grant, 1999.
Radcliffe Traveling Fellowship for Graduating Seniors, 1997.
Trinity College, Cambridge Overseas Student Award, 1997.
John Harvard Scholarship for academic achievement of high distinction, 1997.
Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Award for academic achievement of high distinction, 1997.
Editorial Advisory Board for the journal Isis, member beginning December 2007.
Search Committee in Russian/Soviet/East-Central European history, Columbia University,
member since September 2007.
Committee on Programs and Academic Standing, Barnard College, member since October
2007.
Manuscript Referee for University of Chicago Press, British Journal for the History of
Science, Quarterly Review of Biology, and Social Studies of Science.
Joint-Atlantic Seminar for the History of the Physical Sciences. Member of
organizing committee for 2003 meeting.
Department of History of Science, Harvard University. President of graduate student
association, 1999-2000.
Cambridge Rindge and Latin. Tutored recent-immigrant high school students in math and
science on a weekly basis. 1995-97.
Institut d’Astrophysique, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Saclay, France.
Physics intern, June-August 1996.
Institut de Physique NuclÉaire, Orsay, France. Physics intern, June-August 1995.
Hypres corporation, Elmsford, NY. Physics intern, June-August 1994.
Languages
German and French: fluent reading and speaking. Czech: basic knowledge.