26th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, Prague 2021, https://www.ichst2021.org/

The main topic of the 26th International Congress
of History of Science and Technology will be:
“Giants and Dwarfs in Science, Technology and Medicine”

WELCOME REMARKS

The development of human understanding has not been balanced. Since time immemorial, it has depended on many objective and subjective factors. This unevenness is not merely chronological. Development also differed from region to region in a single era of history. Moreover, in a single region and a single era there may be great differences in the support of disciplines, teams, prominent figures. The title of the congress therefore features the terms “dwarfs” and “giants”, which symbolise this difference.

We can find a number of areas in which we, as science historians, use both terms figuratively. In what particular sense? We generally use these terms to refer to entities that stand out for their unusual size, i.e. entities that are visibly bigger than one might expect, or, on the other hand, considerably smaller.

Giants and dwarfs amongst scientific figures

First of all, we need to ask what are the criteria for the size of a scientific figure? Have they always been the same? To what extent do they relate to the criteria used today to evaluate science at the global or national levels? When classifying a particular scientist as a “giant”, does a historian make the decision based on that person’s scientific contribution, or rather how that individual was perceived and rated by his or her peers? Are the size, importance and respect of such figures also proof of their unity of status (e.g. scientific titles, membership of societies of excellence, receipt of national and international awards or awards within their field, etc.)? read more here

Petr Svobodný, Chair of the LOC
Milada Sekyrková, Scientific Secretary of the LOC

IMPORTANT DATES

Call for submission of symposia proposals	October 1, 2019
Deadline for submission of symposia proposals (including all individual abstracts within symposia)	April 30, 2020
Call for stand-alone abstracts opens	May 1, 2020
Decisions on accepted symposia announced	June 30, 2020
Deadline for proposals of visits and excursions	November 2, 2020
Deadline for submission of revised abstracts within symposia	November 30, 2020
Deadline for submission of stand-alone abstract proposals	November 30, 2020
Early registration opens	February 1, 2020
Decisions on stand-alone abstracts announced	February 10, 2021
Program (first version) released online	April 1, 2021
Early registration closes	April 30, 2021
Final date for registration	July 5, 2021
On-site registration	July 6, 2021
ICHST 2021	July 25-31, 2021