Susan Lindee is Appointed the Janice and Julian Bers Professor of History and Sociology of Science

M. Susan Lindee has been appointed the Janice and Julian Bers Professor of History and Sociology of Science in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Lindee is Associate Dean for the Social Sciences in SAS and former chair of the Department of History and Sociology of Science. Her research interests include the history of genetics, gender and science, science and popular culture, and science and war.

She has authored several books, including Moments of Truth in Genetic Medicine, The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon, and Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors of Hiroshima. Lindee worked as a journalist for 10 years prior to earning her Ph.D. from Cornell and joining Penn’s faculty in 1990.

Lindee received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004 and was awarded a Burroughs Wellcome Fund 40th Anniversary Award in 1997. She also received the Ida and Henry Schuman Prize (now known as the Nathan Reingold Prize) from the History of Science Society in 1988.

The Bers Professorship was established by alumni Janice and Julian Bers. Janice Smith Bers earned her B.A. in elementary education from Penn in 1939. The late Julian Bers, W’31, headed two major industrial ventures, culminating with Imperial Metal and Chemical Company. He served as a University trustee and board member of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

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