García-Sancho, Miguel

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

The youngest of the senior scholars: a tribute to 
John V. Pickstone
Miguel García-Sancho (*)
(*)  orcid.org/0000-0001-5101-6027. Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, 
University of Edinburgh. 
miguel.gsancho@ed.ac.uk
Dynamis 
[0211-9536] 2015; 35 (1): 201-205 
http://dx.doi.org/10.44321/S0211-953620150001000011
Everything started an unusually sunny morning in Manchester. It was 
the last day of the 2007 Annual Conference of the British Society for the 
History of Science (BSHS) and I was standing at the entrance of the Simon 
Building. The day before, I had presented the conclusions of my Ph.D., 
which was then close to submission. Suddenly, a deep voice on my back 
asked: «Are you the chap from Imperial?» I turned around and saw John 
Pickstone, staring at me with his eyes always full of curiosity. That was 
the beginning of a long-standing relationship and, as was later revealed, a 
crucial moment in my career.
I was the chap from Imperial. In 2003, I had moved to London and started 
an M.Sc. programme which led to a Ph.D. at the Centre for the History of 
Science, now at King’s College but then based in Imperial College. After 
recognising Pickstone, I realised that a close collaborator of his had attended 
my presentation the day before. Pickstone started making questions about 
my Ph.D. and, as the sessions of the BSHS resumed, he asked whether I was 
travelling again in the near future. The following month, I was presenting 
at a conference in Exeter and, although Pickstone would not attend, he 
would send more questions via Jon Harwood, who was planning to go. On 
the train back to London, I felt that something important was going on.
At this point, I should make a confession that hope readers will grasp 
with due historical perspective. I was aware of Ways of knowing but in the 
life of a graduate student, with a long list of ever impending readings, had 
not paid the necessary attention to Pickstone’s arguments. However, in a 
Miguel García-Sancho 
Dynamis 2015; 35 (1): 201-205
202
fateful coincidence, I was due to discuss a recent article of Pickstone in a 
reading group at Imperial. In this article, he revisited his ways of knowing and 
working, and proposed a new analytical category, working knowledges, which 
was especially appropriate to study late twentieth century biomedicine 1. I 
had a printout of the paper in my bag and started to read it with avidity. By 
the time I was in London Euston Station, I felt that the missing narrative 
of my thesis had finally been found.
Sequencing, genomics and WoKs
Before the trip to Manchester, I had had a meeting with my Ph.D. supervisor, 
Andrew Mendelsohn. We had discussed the first full draft of my thesis and 
he did not seem entirely happy with it. All the empirical material was there, 
but the historiographical relevance of my research remained unclear. Over 
the last three years, I had carefully explored the history of biomolecular 
sequencing, starting with the first protein techniques in the 1940s and 50s, 
and finishing in 2000 with the completion of the Human Genome Project. 
I had talked to all the relevant scientists and investigated their personal 
archives. However, the point of writing a history of sequencing was still 
absent in my story. What differentiated my thesis from the innumerable 
popular literature on genomics? «Go to Manchester and see if you find 
inspiration», said Mendelsohn. «Maybe you could think of sequencing as a 
particular form of scientific work (…)» he added as I was leaving the office.
The reading of Pickstone’s paper brought me back to this last minute 
comment. Sequencing was a form of work because it fitted neatly with his 
proposed ways of knowing and working (or WoKs and WoWs, as Pickstone 
liked calling them). Once back at Imperial, I returned to the book and realised 
that if the development of sequencing was seen as a history of WoKs and 
WoWs interacting over time, my thesis could go beyond a confined case 
study. Sequencing, at a first glance, appeared as a form of molecular analysis, 
but in its history had mobilised the other WoKs proposed by Pickstone: 
natural history —in the attempt of collecting and comparing sequences in 
databases and experimentation— in the necessary bench workinvolved in 
the development of the techniques. Furthermore, at the level of WoWs the 
 1. Pickstone, J. V. Working knowledges before and after circa 1800. Isis, 2007; 98 (3): 489-516.
John Victor Pickstone (1944-2014): in memoriam
Dynamis 2015; 35 (1): 201-205
203
transition from manual to automated sequencing methods squared with 
a shift from craft to rationalised production, and sequencing in the age of 
genomics was meant to enable biomedical innovation.
Sequencing was thus a form of work in the sense that it encompassed 
WoKs and WoWs in historical action. This perspective provided my thesis 
with a narrative in which sequencing was a means for recasting the history 
of contemporary biomedicine beyond teleological disciplinary frameworks 2. 
In other words, sequencing from a WoKs and WoWs perspective was 
something more than the culmination of the accumulated progress of 
molecular biology, and had the potential of challenging the accepted story 
which started with the elucidation of the double helix of DNA and led to 
the determination of the sequence of the human genome.
A short but intense spell
When I met Harwood in Exeter, he inquired me specifically about the 
historiographical significance of my research. Luckily, I had done the 
necessary homework and, on my return to London, I had an email from 
Pickstone inviting me to meet again in Manchester. At that point, he fully 
disclosed his plans and explained that he had been pursuing a Wellcome 
Trust application to explore the reconfiguration of recent biomedicine, 
together with Carsten Timmermann and Duncan Wilson. He offered me 
to be involved and explained that they would try to get bridging funding to 
bring me to Manchester and prepare the long-term project proposal. Part 
one of the plan was successful, and one rainy morning of January, shortly 
after defending my WoKs and WoWs reframed thesis, I changed the Centre 
for the History of Science at Imperial for that in Manchester.
Unfortunately, the second phase did not work that well and, despite 
favourable peer-review, the grant application was rejected. This meant that 
my spell in Manchester only lasted for six months, but the consequences for 
 2. The relevance of WoKs and WoWs for the study of contemporary biomedicine was further reflected 
in a 2011 special issue of History of Science edited by Pickstone. In it, Bruno Strasser and Soraya 
de Chadarevian highlighted the importance of exemplars and comparative frameworks in 
the experimental practices of molecular biology: Strasser, Bruno J.; de Chadarevian, Soraya. 
The comparative and the exemplary: revisiting the early history of molecular biology. History 
of Science. 2011; 49 (3): 317-336.
Miguel García-Sancho 
Dynamis 2015; 35 (1): 201-205
204
my career were far reaching. The key for this was the active community at 
the department and, particularly, Neil Pemberton, another postdoc working 
with Mick Worboys. One day, shortly before I was leaving, he told me 
over drinks «do you know that John has got a book series with Palgrave?» 
This gave me the idea of proposing Pickstone to transform my thesis into 
a book. His reaction was initially cautious: I would have to write a formal 
proposal to the publisher. This was probably my first piece of writing in 
my new postdoc at the Institute of Philosophy of the Spanish National 
Research Council (CSIC).
I was worried that, after leaving Manchester, Pickstone’s support would 
turn less enthusiastic. Quite the opposite, after the proposal was accepted, 
Pickstone took personally the editing of the book and read word-per-word 
the 200-page manuscript for three times. Knowing of his busy schedule, 
I was embarrassed of sending him drafts, especially after his health got 
weaker. His feedback was crucial for the book being published and, by 
coincidence, I received the hard copies a few days before the interview 
for my current job in Edinburgh. I had the inspiration of taking the book 
with me and subtly displaying it to the selection panel. It was a much more 
formal interview than the one with Pickstone-incarnated-in-Harwood, 
and the book surely helped because I got the job and am now based in 
the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS). A 
recent review of the book defined me as someone «under the influence of 
John Pickstone» 3. It is a great honour to be regarded like this!
Epilogue: support and legacy
A feature of Pickstone was that he never gave in. He continued to pursue 
his interest in the recent transformation of biomedicine and, a few years 
after my departure, he supported Niki Vermeulen to acquire a Wellcome 
fellowship to study the emergence of systems biology. Vermeulen has recently 
been appointed lecturer in Edinburgh after a highly competitive selection 
 3. Cowan, Ruth Swarth. Review of: Müller-Wille, Staffan; Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg. A cultural history 
of heredity and Miguel García-Sancho. Biology, computing, and the history of molecular 
sequencing: from proteins to DNA, 1945-2000. The American Historical Review. 2013; 118 
(3): 827.
John Victor Pickstone (1944-2014): in memoriam
Dynamis 2015; 35 (1): 201-205
205
process. Her office is one floor above mine and we always remember 
Pickstone in our conversations.
It has now been a year since Pickstone, sadly and prematurely, passed 
away. His memorials have offered a detailed portrait of a career which started 
with Pickstone’s interest in nineteenth century physiology and finished with 
his work on contemporary biomedicine. One should also emphasise the 
continued support of Pickstone to young scholars, such as Vermeulen and 
myself. In my case, the entrance into Pickstone went the other way around, 
starting with his latest work and then realising that the bigger picture —as 
he liked putting it— provided the necessary historical texture to my work.
I have often wondered about the reasons why Pickstone, a consolidated 
academic, provided such a generous support. A possible answer is that he 
never stopped being the «chap from Manchester», as much as I was the 
chap from Imperial. I hope that, as was the case with Harwood, I suffer a 
Pickstone reincarnation every time I talk to students. This would ensure 
that I teach them to never lose their enthusiasm and, especially, always 
remember the circumstances they come from. œ



The youngest of the senior scholars : a tribute to John V. Pickstone

Diposit Digital de Documents de la UAB

The youngest of the senior scholars: a tribute to John V. PickstoneMiguel García-Sancho (*)(*)  orcid.org/0000-0001-5101-6027. Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, University of Edinburgh. miguel.gsancho@ed.ac.ukDynamis [0211-9536] 2015; 35 (1): 201-205 http://dx.doi.org/10.44321/S0211-953620150001000011Everything started an unusually sunny morning in Manchester. It was the last day of the 2007 Annual Conference of the British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) and I was standing at the entrance of the Simon Building. The day before, I had presented the conclusions of my Ph.D., which was then close to submission. Suddenly, a deep voice on my back asked: «Are you the chap from Imperial?» I turned around and saw John Pickstone, staring at me with his eyes always full of curiosity. That was the beginning of a long-standing relationship and, as was later revealed, a crucial moment in my career.I was the chap from Imperial. In 2003, I had moved to London and started an M.Sc. programme which led to a Ph.D. at the Centre for the History of Science, now at King’s College but then based in Imperial College. After recognising Pickstone, I realised that a close collaborator of his had attended my presentation the day before. Pickstone started making questions about my Ph.D. and, as the sessions of the BSHS resumed, he asked whether I was travelling again in the near future. The following month, I was presenting at a conference in Exeter and, although Pickstone would not attend, he would send more questions via Jon Harwood, who was planning to go. On the train back to London, I felt that something important was going on.At this point, I should make a confession that hope readers will grasp with due historical perspective. I was aware of Ways of knowing but in the life of a graduate student, with a long list of ever impending readings, had not paid the necessary attention to Pickstone’s arguments. However, in a Miguel García-Sancho Dynamis 2015; 35 (1): 201-205202fateful coincidence, I was due to discuss a recent article of Pickstone in a reading group at Imperial. In this article, he revisited his ways of knowing and working, and proposed a new analytical category, working knowledges, which was especially appropriate to study late twentieth century biomedicine 1. I had a printout of the paper in my bag and started to read it with avidity. By the time I was in London Euston Station, I felt that the missing narrative of my thesis had finally been found.Sequencing, genomics and WoKsBefore the trip to Manchester, I had had a meeting with my Ph.D. supervisor, Andrew Mendelsohn. We had discussed the first full draft of my thesis and he did not seem entirely happy with it. All the empirical material was there, but the historiographical relevance of my research remained unclear. Over the last three years, I had carefully explored the history of biomolecular sequencing, starting with the first protein techniques in the 1940s and 50s, and finishing in 2000 with the completion of the Human Genome Project. I had talked to all the relevant scientists and investigated their personal archives. However, the point of writing a history of sequencing was still absent in my story. What differentiated my thesis from the innumerable popular literature on genomics? «Go to Manchester and see if you find inspiration», said Mendelsohn. «Maybe you could think of sequencing as a particular form of scientific work (…)» he added as I was leaving the office.The reading of Pickstone’s paper brought me back to this last minute comment. Sequencing was a form of work because it fitted neatly with his proposed ways of knowing and working (or WoKs and WoWs, as Pickstone liked calling them). Once back at Imperial, I returned to the book and realised that if the development of sequencing was seen as a history of WoKs and WoWs interacting over time, my thesis could go beyond a confined case study. Sequencing, at a first glance, appeared as a form of molecular analysis, but in its history had mobilised the other WoKs proposed by Pickstone: natural history —in the attempt of collecting and comparing sequences in databases and experimentation— in the necessary bench workinvolved in the development of the techniques. Furthermore, at the level of WoWs the  1. Pickstone, J. V. Working knowledges before and after circa 1800. Isis, 2007; 98 (3): 489-516.John Victor Pickstone (1944-2014): in memoriamDynamis 2015; 35 (1): 201-205203transition from manual to automated sequencing methods squared with a shift from craft to rationalised production, and sequencing in the age of genomics was meant to enable biomedical innovation.Sequencing was thus a form of work in the sense that it encompassed WoKs and WoWs in historical action. This perspective provided my thesis with a narrative in which sequencing was a means for recasting the history of contemporary biomedicine beyond teleological disciplinary frameworks 2. In other words, sequencing from a WoKs and WoWs perspective was something more than the culmination of the accumulated progress of molecular biology, and had the potential of challenging the accepted story which started with the elucidation of the double helix of DNA and led to the determination of the sequence of the human genome.A short but intense spellWhen I met Harwood in Exeter, he inquired me specifically about the historiographical significance of my research. Luckily, I had done the necessary homework and, on my return to London, I had an email from Pickstone inviting me to meet again in Manchester. At that point, he fully disclosed his plans and explained that he had been pursuing a Wellcome Trust application to explore the reconfiguration of recent biomedicine, together with Carsten Timmermann and Duncan Wilson. He offered me to be involved and explained that they would try to get bridging funding to bring me to Manchester and prepare the long-term project proposal. Part one of the plan was successful, and one rainy morning of January, shortly after defending my WoKs and WoWs reframed thesis, I changed the Centre for the History of Science at Imperial for that in Manchester.Unfortunately, the second phase did not work that well and, despite favourable peer-review, the grant application was rejected. This meant that my spell in Manchester only lasted for six months, but the consequences for  2. The relevance of WoKs and WoWs for the study of contemporary biomedicine was further reflected in a 2011 special issue of History of Science edited by Pickstone. In it, Bruno Strasser and Soraya de Chadarevian highlighted the importance of exemplars and comparative frameworks in the experimental practices of molecular biology: Strasser, Bruno J.; de Chadarevian, Soraya. The comparative and the exemplary: revisiting the early history of molecular biology. History of Science. 2011; 49 (3): 317-336.Miguel García-Sancho Dynamis 2015; 35 (1): 201-205204my career were far reaching. The key for this was the active community at the department and, particularly, Neil Pemberton, another postdoc working with Mick Worboys. One day, shortly before I was leaving, he told me over drinks «do you know that John has got a book series with Palgrave?» This gave me the idea of proposing Pickstone to transform my thesis into a book. His reaction was initially cautious: I would have to write a formal proposal to the publisher. This was probably my first piece of writing in my new postdoc at the Institute of Philosophy of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).I was worried that, after leaving Manchester, Pickstone’s support would turn less enthusiastic. Quite the opposite, after the proposal was accepted, Pickstone took personally the editing of the book and read word-per-word the 200-page manuscript for three times. Knowing of his busy schedule, I was embarrassed of sending him drafts, especially after his health got weaker. His feedback was crucial for the book being published and, by coincidence, I received the hard copies a few days before the interview for my current job in Edinburgh. I had the inspiration of taking the book with me and subtly displaying it to the selection panel. It was a much more formal interview than the one with Pickstone-incarnated-in-Harwood, and the book surely helped because I got the job and am now based in the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS). A recent review of the book defined me as someone «under the influence of John Pickstone» 3. It is a great honour to be regarded like this!Epilogue: support and legacyA feature of Pickstone was that he never gave in. He continued to pursue his interest in the recent transformation of biomedicine and, a few years after my departure, he supported Niki Vermeulen to acquire a Wellcome fellowship to study the emergence of systems biology. Vermeulen has recently been appointed lecturer in Edinburgh after a highly competitive selection  3. Cowan, Ruth Swarth. Review of: Müller-Wille, Staffan; Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg. A cultural history of heredity and Miguel García-Sancho. Biology, computing, and the history of molecular sequencing: from proteins to DNA, 1945-2000. The American Historical Review. 2013; 118 (3): 827.John Victor Pickstone (1944-2014): in memoriamDynamis 2015; 35 (1): 201-205205process. Her office is one floor above mine and we always remember Pickstone in our conversations.It has now been a year since Pickstone, sadly and prematurely, passed away. His memorials have offered a detailed portrait of a career which started with Pickstone’s interest in nineteenth century physiology and finished with his work on contemporary biomedicine. One should also emphasise the continued support of Pickstone to young scholars, such as Vermeulen and myself. In my case, the entrance into Pickstone went the other way around, starting with his latest work and then realising that the bigger picture —as he liked putting it— provided the necessary historical texture to my work.I have often wondered about the reasons why Pickstone, a consolidated academic, provided such a generous support. A possible answer is that he never stopped being the «chap from Manchester», as much as I was the chap from Imperial. I hope that, as was the case with Harwood, I suffer a Pickstone reincarnation every time I talk to students. This would ensure that I teach them to never lose their enthusiasm and, especially, always remember the circumstances they come from. œ

http://ddd.uab.cat/pub/dynamis/dynamis_a2015v35n1/dynamis_a2015v35n1p201.pdf

The youngest of the senior scholars : a tribute to John V. Pickstone

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

Diposit Digital de Documents de la UAB