Agustí Nieto-Galan is Full Professor of History of Science at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and ICREA Acadèmia Fellow (2009 & 2018). Following degrees in both chemistry (URL) and history (UB), he took his PhD in the History of Science at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and held postdoctoral positions in the Modern History Faculty, University of Oxford, and the Centre de Recherche en Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie/ CNRS, Paris. He has written widely on the history of chemistry and natural dyestuffs, and the history of the popularization of science (18th-20th centuries). He is a founding member of the international research group “Science and Technology in the European Periphery” (STEP), and former Director of the Centre d’Història de la Ciència (CEHIC) at the UAB

Research interests

Dr. Nieto-Galan focuses now on urban history of science, as a way to explore the complex interactions between science and the city in several cultural contexts. In that “urban” context, he also develops the “hunger artists’ project”, as a new research field on cultural history of science at a European level.

He also works on a new history of chemistry in twentieth-century Spain, with a particular emphasis on professional chemists’ role during Franco’s dictatorship and the coproduction of science and power in different political regimes.

In his new project, “Chemopolis” he plans to develop a new environmental history of chemistry in the twentieth century, which embraces the construction of risk, toxicity, and pollution, and the perception of technological progress in the public sphere.

Keywords

History of Science, Cultural History of Chemistry, Science Popularization, Urban History of Science, Science and Power