Christian Joas

photograph of Christian Joas

Director
Niels Bohr Archive
University of Copenhagen
Blegdamsvej 17
DK-2100 Copenhagen

Associate Professor of History of 20th Century Science
Department of Science Education
University of Copenhagen
homepage at Department of Science Education

Contact:

E-mail: joas@nbi.ku.dk
Tel. no.: + 45 353-34654
Fax: + 45 353-25248
Location: Ke8, Blegdamsvej 17

Research Areas:

History of science, history of modern physics, history of quantum physics, history of many-body physics.

Concise CV:

  • since 2019: Associate Professor of History of 20th Century Science, Research Group on History and Philosophy of Science and Science Studies, Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen
  • since 2017: Director, Niels Bohr Archive, Copenhagen
  • 2012–2017: Assistant Professor, History Department, LMU Munich
  • 2015–2016: Research Fellow, Niels Bohr Archive, Copenhagen
  • 2009–2012: Research Scholar, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin
  • 2007–2009: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
  • 2007: PhD in theoretical physics (Dr. rer. nat.), Freie University Berlin

Professional Activities, Awards, Editorial Positions, Conference Committees:

  • since 2019: Editor of the journal Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte/History of Science and Humanities.
  • since 2019: Member of the International Advisory Board of the Center for History of Science, Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm (Sweden).
  • since 2019: Member of the International Advisory Board (Fachbeirat) for the permanent exhibition “Light and Matter” (together with Wolfgang Ketterle, Theodor Hänsch, Markus Greiner, and Rudolf Gross), Deutsches Museum, Munich (Germany).
  • Host of the conference Diplomats in Science Diplomacy: Promoting Scientific and Technological Collaboration in International Relations, Copenhagen, 19–20 July 2019.
  • since 2018: Member of the Board of the Danish Society for the History of Science.
  • 2017: Scientific Organizer (together with Thiago Hartz) of the Symposium Quantum Cultures: Historical Perspectives on the Practices of Quantum Physicists at ICHST 2017 (25th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, Rio de Janeiro, July 2017).
  • since 2017: Member of the Editorial Board, European Physical Journal H.
  • since 2017: Member of the Board of the Commission for the History of Physics, Division of History of Science and Technology, IUHPS.
  • 2016: Deutsches Museum Publication Award, awarded for: J. James and C. Joas, “Subsequent and Subsidiary? Rethinking the Role of Applications in Establishing Quantum Mechanics,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 45, no. 5 (2015): 641–702.
  • 2015: European Physical Journal epj.org Distinguished Referee 2015
  • 2015: Member of the Scientific Committee: “HQ-4: Fourth Conference on History of Quantum Physics,” Donostia/San Sebastian (Spain), 16 to 18 July, 2015.
  • 2014: Member of the Organizing Committee: “Global Science, Global Technology, Global Impacts: A Conference for Graduate Students and Early-Career Scholars,” American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD (USA), 30 March to 1 April, 2014.
  • 2013: Scientific organizer: Workshop “Transfer of Knowledge Across Disciplinary Boundaries,” Munich, 11 to 12 October, 2013.
  • 2013: Member of the Organizing Committee: “17th UK and European Meeting on the Foundations of Physics,” Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Munich (Germany), 29 to 31 July, 2013.
  • 2013: Scientific organizer, together with Christian Forstner, of the 15th History of Physics Conference, History of Physics Division of the German Physical Society, “Transfer of Knowledge in Physics,” Jena (Germany), 25 February to 1 March, 2013.
  • 2012: Scientific organizer, together with Alexander S. Blum, Kostas Gavroglu, and Jürgen Renn, of the conference “Towards a history of the history of science: 50 years since Kuhn’s Structure,” Berlin (Germany), 17 to 20 October, 2012.
  • 2011–2012: Coordinator of the Joint Weekly Colloquium of the Physics Department of Freie University Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
  •  2011–2021: Section Editor (History) of the journal Annalen der Physik (Wiley), responsible for historical submissions and the section “Then & Now” (together with Dieter Hoffmann).
  •  2011–2019: Member of the Board of the History of Physics Division of the German Physical Society.
  • 2011: Member of the Organizing Committee: “Continuity and Discontinuity in the Physical Sciences Since the Enlightenment. A Conference for Graduate Students and Early-Career Scholars,” American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD (USA), 28 to 31 July, 2011.
  • 2010: Member of the Organizing Committee: “HQ-3 Third International Conference on the History of Quantum Physics,” Berlin, 28 June to 2 July, 2010.
  • 2008: Exhibition “Max Planck—The Reluctant Revolutionary” (“Max Planck – Revolutionär wider Willen”), Deutsches Technik Museum (German Museum of Technology), Berlin.

Memberships