History of Science Department

Professor of the History of Science Donald deB. Beaver was on leave during the fall semester, 2006. He used that time to prepare two biographical sketches for the new Dictionary of Scientific Biography. One of the subjects is Sarah Eglonton Wallis Bowdich Lee (1791-1856), a relatively unknown British naturalist, traveler, author, and discoverer of numerous species of birds, fish, and plants. The other is Derek J. deSolla Price (1922-1983), physicist and historian of science, whose contributions to scientometrics, the relations between science and technology, and science policy were notable and pioneering in the 1960s and 1970s.

During the year, Prof. Beaver served on the International Editorial Board for The International Journal of Scientometrics and Infometrics and as a member of the editorial board for the COLLNET Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management.

He gave an invited plenary address at the Third International Workshop on Webometrics, Scientometrics, Science and Society and Eighth COLLNET Meeting, held at the ICAR Symposium Hall at the National Agricultural Science Complex in New Delhi, India. A short version of his address, “From Fragmentation and Complexity to Community and Common Cause,” appears in the Book of Papers of that conference, published by the Society for Information Science, New Delhi, March 2007.