People

Ursula Klein

Affiliated Scholar (Feb 2020-Dec 2025)

Prof. Dr.

Ursula Klein is a historian of science associated with the MPIWG and adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Konstanz. She was the leader of an independent research group (1998–2004) and a group leader (2004–2020) at the MPIWG. From 1996–1998 she was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and from 1997–1998 a senior resident fellow at the Dibner Institute (MIT, Cambridge). In 2007 the University of Vienna offered her the chair for history and philosophy of science (which she declined). She is a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher/Leopoldina (since 2008), and a member of AcademiaNet. In 2016 she received the HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry sponsored by the American Chemical Society.

She is a member of the editorial boards of AmbixAnnals of Science, Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Centaurus, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, and Hyle.

In 2000 she achieved her habilitation in philosophy at the University of Konstanz, where she also completed her PhD in philosophy in 1993 (summa cum laude; dissertation award of the district of Konstanz). In 1979 she took the Higher State Exam in chemistry and biology at the Free University of Berlin, and from 1980–1988 she was a teacher of chemistry and biology.

  

 

 

Current Projects

A Cultural History of Chemistry
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Deep History of ESS
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Epistemic Configurations: The Formation of Anthropocene Knowledge
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Political Epistemology of ESS
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Technoscience in the Anthropocene
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Completed Projects

"Useful Sciences," State Bureaucracy, and Industrialization in Prussia (ca. 1760–1830)
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Historia Experimentalis
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Materials in the History of Science and Technology
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Expertise in Industrial Europe
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Chemical Technoscience
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Selected Publications

Upcoming Events

Lecture

Science and Diplomacy. The Max Planck Society and German Foreign Policy - Soviet Union and China in Comparison (1955–1995) - Prof. Em. Dr. Carola Sachse

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Lecture

The Max Planck Society in the Process of German Unification 1989-2002. A Political History of Science

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Colloquium

Signals of Planetary Evolution: How Earth Became a Matter of Information

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Colloquium

The Formalization of Historical Reasoning

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Colloquium

Earth System Science in Political Context

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Colloquium

Energy Demand Forecasts: Constructing Demand or a Means to Save Energy?

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The Development of the Max Planck Society in the Context of Contemporary German History of the FRG 1945–1990

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Colloquium

Whose History Are We Reading? Bringing (Local) Knowledge from Africa into the Global Discourse

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Lecture

Structures of Research in the Max Planck Society 1948–2002

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Past Events

Colloquium

Hierarchies. The Max Planck Society in Gender Trouble

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Colloquium

ModelSEN—Socio-Epistemic Networks: Modelling Historical Knowledge Processes

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Colloquium

Reapproaching the Great Acceleration from a Historical Critical Perspective

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Colloquium

Humboldts Preußen

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Conference

The Making of Useful Knowledge

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Lecture

Knowledge in the Context of Planning: Examples from Prussia

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Workshop

Down-To-Earth Chemistry: Between the Country and the City

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News & Press

VerbundJournal by Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. interviews Affiliated Scholar Ursula Klein

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Affiliated Scholar Ursula Klein in Die Zeit on experts in the corona crisis and history

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Research Scholar Ursula Klein quoted in Süddeutsche Zeitung on Alexander von Humboldt

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