Recent Events

Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry - Spring Meeting, 2026
University of Oxford - Maison Française

My talk discussed Lavoisier and diamond burning in the early 1770s and the beginning of reduction firing at the Sèvres Porcelain Maufactory over the same period. Although Lavoisier's discovery of oxygen has been covered in detail by numerous scholars, none have noticed the effect that the unfired vs. fired clay crucibles had on the outcomes of the early experiments in diamond burning. I showed that the porcelain kilns at Sèvres were a key laboratory site in Lavoisier's early research.

Burning Diamonds: Lavoisier, Guettard, and the 1771 Development of Reduction Firing and Hard-Paste Porcelain in Paris

SHAC Spring Meeting 2026 Webpage

HSS/ESHS Joint Conference
July 2026 - Edinburgh

My talk discussed the relationships between Alexandre Brongniart, Georges Cuvier, Etienne Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, and the controversy over transformism and the practice of natural history. I showed that Brongniart often tried to bridge the difficulties between Cuvier and Geoffroy, but that his own career did not allow him to wade into the biggest debate between Geoffroy and Cuvier –– that of transformism and the fundamental practices of natural history itself.

Brongniart, Cuvier, and Geoffroy: Rivalry, Friendship, and Debate in Early Nineteenth-Century Natural History

HSS/ESHS 2026 Conference Webpage

"...not theorising is an act. . . It takes considerable effort to see the facts (and remember them) while withholding judgment and resisting explanations."

-Nassim Nicholas Taleb,

The Black Swan