prof. dr. FH van Lunteren

Personal information

Contact via e-mail: Frans van Lunteren f.h.van.lunteren@vu.nl

Frans van Lunteren is a historian of science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He works at the Athena Institute, a research and education department at the Faculty of Science, that studies interfaces between science and society. His research interests include modern discipline formation, international collaboration, the laboratory, metrology, meteorology and physics, and the concept of the “laws of nature”. He teaches several courses on the history of science and medicine, as well as on research integrity. He is chair of the VU Stevin Centre for the history of science and humanities. He is also a member of CLUE+, the interfaculty Research Institute for Culture, Cognition, History and Heritage of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Contact Information

Dr. F.H. van Lunteren
Email f.h.van.lunteren@vu.nl
Telephone +31 (0)20 59 87979 / (0)6-42118921
VISITING ADDRESS: W&N-gebouw room A-644
POSTAL ADRESSS: Faculteit der Bètawetenschappen, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam

Research

Expertise:

• History of physics
• History of life sciences
• 19^th-century meteorology
• History of science and religion
• 19^th-century metrology
• International scientific collaboration
• Laws of nature

Selected Publications (articles)

• ‘The Laboratory Ethos, 1850-1900’, in K. van Berkel & E. Homburg, The Laboratory Revolution and the Creation of the Modern University, 1830-1940 (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2023), pp. 65-98. 
• ‘Clocks to Computers: A Machine-Based "Big Picture" of the History of Modern Science’, Isis 107, 4 (2016) p. 762-776.
• ‘Dutch Skies, Global Laws: The British creation of “Buys Ballot’s law”’, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 46, 1 (2016) p. 1-43, with A. Achbari.
• ‘Astronomers and the making of modern physics’, in Maas, A. & Schatz, H. (eds.), Physics as a Calling: Science for Society (Leiden: Leiden University Press 2013) p. 15-45.
• ‘Paul Ehrenfest and the dilemmas of modernity’, Isis 100 (2013) p. 504-536, with M. Hollestelle

Teaching

I am (co-)teaching the following courses at the VU/UvA

• History of science
• History of earth sciences
• History of life sciences
• History and philosophy of health sciences
• History and philosophy of pharmacy
• History and philosophy of chemistry
• Research integrity for science PhDs

I also contribute to the following VU courses:

• Honours course Science and Religion
• History of knowledge