“LIFE, the popular name for the activity peculiar to protoplasm…”*

I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I study the history of scientific imagery and representation, especially in the life and molecular sciences, as well as the history of the scientific disciplines, scientific publication, and the history of scientific instruments. My current research is in the history of cell biology and microscopy in the cell theory’s first century, i.e. from the 1830s through the 1930s. I am also one of the few experts in the history of colloid physical chemistry, which can be considered a precursor to current research in the field of cell condensates.

I received my PhD in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2016, under the supervision of Prof. Lynn K. Nyhart. Before joining the iSchool @ UIUC I was a research associate with Prof. Dr. Kärin Nickelsen’s Chair for the History of Science at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität-München, working on the DFG-supported project Nr. 463389772 “Lebende Substanz unter dem Mikroskop: Protoplasmatheorie, wissenschaftliche Mikroskopie, und die Molekularisierung des Baues der Zelle, 1840–1940.”

Image credit: Nadya Lev, Coilhouse, 2009.