Gary Werskey

Last updated
Gary Werskey
Alma mater Northwestern University
Harvard University
Scientific career
Fields History of science
Institutions Edinburgh University
University of Bath
Imperial College London
University of New South Wales

Gary Werskey is a biographer and cultural historian of art and science. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1965, majoring in History (BA, with distinction). He entered Harvard University's Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in the same year as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. After taking his MA in History in 1966, he embarked on his doctoral studies as a Wilson Dissertation Fellow and was awarded his PhD in History in 1973.

In the first phase of his career Werskey was based in the UK between 1970 and 1986, teaching at the Universities of Edinburgh and Bath before joining the Industrial Sociology Unit at Imperial College in 1978. His research focused primarily on the relationship between Marxism and science. He provided a new introduction to Science at the Crossroads when it was republished in 1971, and published his The Visible College: A Collective Biography of British Scientists and Socialists of the 1930s in 1978 (reprinted in 1988). [1] Werskey was also a member of the Radical Science Journal and later discussed this experience in his memoir "Marxist critiques of capitalist science -–A history in three movements?" [2] Here he discussed two British radical science movements firstly in the 1930s–40s, and secondly in the 1960s–70s, and speculated about the possibilities of a third movement. [3]

While at Imperial College, Werskey developed a new interest in comparative engineering education, which led him to undertake research on how the training and career development of Japanese engineers contrasted with that of their British counterparts. It was this work which prepared him for taking up the position of Director of Professional Studies in the University of New South Wales's Faculty of Engineering in 1987. There he created the UNSW Co-op Program to attract high-achieving students into engineering and applied science courses before working across several faculties to launch an innovative online post-graduate course, the 'MBT' (Master of Business & Technology). Thirty years later, both of these programs are still going strong. Following a stint as UNSW's Director of External Affairs, Werskey left the university to work as a management consultant, co-founding The Leading Partnership, from which he retired in the early 2000s.

In 2009 Werskey co-founded the Blackheath History Forum to encourage the discussion and popularization of important debates in Australian history. For the next decade he turned his attention to the field of Australian art history between the 1880s and the 1920s. His research has been supported by the University of Sydney's Department of History in the School of Philosophical & Historical Inquiry, where he is currently an Hon. Associate. His research has culminated in 2021 with both the publication by NewSouth Books of his Picturing a Nation: The Art & Life of A.H. Fullwood and the launch of an exhibition at the National Library of Australia in Canberra -- A Nation Imagined: The Artists of the Picturesque Atlas—which he has co-curated with the Art Gallery of NSW's Curator of Australian & Pacific Art, Natalie Wilson. This show will run from March 12 to July 11, 2021.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial College London</span> Public university in London, England

Imperial College London is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cultural area that included the Royal Albert Hall, Victoria & Albert Museum, Natural History Museum and several royal colleges. In 1907, Imperial College London was established by royal charter, unifying the Royal College of Science, Royal School of Mines, and City and Guilds of London Institute. In 1988, the Imperial College School of Medicine was formed by merging with St Mary's Hospital Medical School. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School.

The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive universities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheffield Hallam University</span> British university

Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate Crescent Campus is about two miles away in the Broomhall Estate off Ecclesall Road in south-west Sheffield. A third campus at Brent Cross Town in the London Borough of Barnet is expected to open for the 2025-26 academic year.

The University of Wollongong is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2023, the university had an enrolment of more than 33,000 students, an alumni base of more than 176,000 [LC1] and over 2,400 staff members including 16 Distinguished professors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tokyo Metropolitan University</span> Japanese University

Tokyo Metropolitan University, often referred to as TMU, is a public research university in Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bauhaus University, Weimar</span> University located in Weimar, Germany

The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is a university located in Weimar, Germany, and specializes in the artistic and technical fields. Established in 1860 as the Great Ducal Saxon Art School, it gained collegiate status on 3 June 1910. In 1919 the school was renamed Bauhaus by its new director Walter Gropius and it received its present name in 1996. There are more than 4000 students enrolled, with the percentage of international students above the national average at around 27%. In 2010 the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar commemorated its 150th anniversary as an art school and college in Weimar.

Mark Sebastian Wainwright is an Australian chemical engineer and emeritus professor of the University of New South Wales, and institutional leader within the Australian academic and technological sectors. He served as seventh vice chancellor and president of the UNSW from 2004 to 2006. In 2004 he was appointed a member of the Order of Australia for services to chemical engineering as a researcher and academic, and to tertiary education. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science by the University of New South Wales. He was born 20 Oct.,1943.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenjiro Shoda</span> Japanese mathematician

Kenjiro Shoda was a Japanese mathematician.

Stuart Forbes Macintyre was an Australian historian, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1999 to 2008. He was voted one of Australia's most influential historians.

Kathleen Marie Blee is an American sociologist. She is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. Her areas of interest include gender, race and racism, social movements, and sociology of space and place. Special interests include how gender influences racist movements, including work on women in the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

The Faculty of Engineering is a constituent body of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. UNSW was formed on 1 July 1949, and the Faculty was established on 8 May 1950 with the inaugural meeting of the Faculty taking place on 7 June 1950. It was one of the first three University faculties which were established by Council, and was initially formed of four departments including Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Mining Engineering, headed by Dean Professor Harold Brown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNSW Faculty of Science</span> Part of the University of New South Wales in Australia

The Faculty of Science is a constituent body of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. It is UNSW's second largest Faculty. It has over 400 academic staff and over 700 research staff and students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Baxter</span> British chemical engineer

Sir John Philip Baxter was a British chemical engineer. He was the second director of the University of New South Wales from 1953, continuing as vice-chancellor when the position's title was changed in 1955. Under his administration, the university grew from its technical college roots into the "fastest growing and most rapidly diversifying tertiary institution in Australia". Philip Baxter College is named in his honour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arran Gare</span> Australian philosopher

Arran Emrys Gare is an Australian philosopher known mainly for his work in environmental philosophy, philosophy of science, philosophy of culture and the metaphysics of process philosophy. He currently holds the position of Associate Professor in the Faculty of Life and Social Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoshikazu Uchida</span> Japanese architect

Yoshikazu Uchida was a Japanese architect and structural engineer. He designed many buildings on the campus of the University of Tokyo, and served as the 14th president of the university.

James A. Herrick is an American academic. He is the Guy Vanderjagt Professor of Communication and former communication chair at Hope College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Bashford</span> Australian historian

Alison Caroline Bashford, is an historian specialising in global history and the history of science. She is Laureate Professor of History at the University of New South Wales and Director of the Laureate Centre for History & Population. Alison Bashford was previously Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge (2013–2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London</span>

The Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London is the centre of teaching and research in chemical and process engineering at Imperial College London, occupying the Aeronautics and Chemical Engineering Extension (ACEX), Bone and Roderic Hill buildings, on the South Kensington campus. Formally inaugurated in 1912, the department has over 40 faculty members, 100 postdoctoral researchers, 200 PhD researchers, 80 taught postgraduates, and 500 undergraduates. The department ranks 7th on QS's 2018 world rankings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Computing, Imperial College London</span>

The Department of Computing (DoC) is the computer science department at Imperial College London. The department has around 50 academic staff and 1000 students, with around 600 studying undergraduate courses, 200 PhD students, and 200 MSc students. The department is predominantly based in the Huxley Building, 180 Queen's Gate, which it shares with the Maths department, however also has space in the William Penney Laboratory and in the Aeronautics and Chemical Engineering Extension. The department ranks 7th in the Times Higher Education 2020 subject world rankings.

References

  1. Sheehan, Helena. "Marxism & Science Studies: a sweep through the decades" (PDF). Core ac. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  2. Hales, Mike. "Activist lives -radical science". FoP RoP. Hales. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  3. Hales, Mike (7 November 2018). "Peer-to-peer-commons - The historical 'third movement' of radical science? It can only get better". P2P Foundation. P2P Foundation. Retrieved 18 July 2020.