Each ICOHTEC symposium begins with an opening lecture named after Melvin Kranzberg, one of the founders of our committee. As a society, we consider this a prestigious honour and invite the most eminent scientists to deliver the lecture in the hope that they will inspire and stimulate a lively scientific debate throughout the meeting. However, the Kranzberg Lecture is not given every four years, when ICOHTEC meets as part of the International Congress of the History of Science and Technology (ICHST).
As you look forward to the next intellectual feast, why not read about Melvin Kranzberg himself? Please take a moment to look at him through the eyes of Robert Post, who had the privilege of knowing him personally.
2023: 50th symposium, Tallinn/Tartu, Estonia
Mikael Hård (Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany)
Between Globalization Narratives and Microhistories of Technology
2022: 49th symposium, Ostrava, Czech Republic (Virtual)
Maria Paula Diogo (NOVA School of Science and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal)
Time and Human Agency: how can historians of technology contribute to present day debates?
2020: 47th symposium, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (virtual)
James Williams (Stetson University, FL, USA)
Humans, Technology, and Nature: A Recipe for Crises?
2019: 46th symposium in Katowice, Poland
Dagmar Schäfer (Max Planck Institute in Berlin)
Cotton and Silk. Capitalism, States and Market Regimes in Premodern Technological Change
2018: 45th symposium in Saint-Étienne, France
Robert Bud (Science Museum in London)
Conceptual history, branding and technology as part of the public sphere
2016 : 43rd symposium in Porto, Portugal
Helmuth Trischler (Deutsches Museum in Munich)
The Anthropocene: A Challenge to the History of Science, Technology, and Sustainability
2015 : 42nd symposium in Tel Aviv, Israel
Robert Fox (University of Oxford)
Mentality or Circumstance? The Dilemmas of Science-Based Industry in France, 1870–1920
2014 : 41st symposium in Brasov, Romania
Alexandre Herlea (Université de Technologie Belfort-Montbéliard)
The History of Technology and the European Unity
2012 : 39th symposium in Barcelona, Spain
Manuel Silva-Suaréz (University of Zaragoza)
2011 : 38th symposium in Glasgow, UK
Hans-Joachim Braun (Helmut-Schmidt University in Hamburg)
Creativity: Technology and the Arts
2010 : 37th symposium in Tampere, Finland
Håkon With Andersen (Norwegian University Of Science And Technology)
Reusing the Industrial Past – The Challenges of Interpretations
2008 : 35th symposium in Victoria, Canada
Robert Post
Invention and Enterprise: The Life and Times of Melvin Kranzberg
2007 : 34th symposium in Copenhagen, Denmark
Helge Kragh (University of Arhus)
(A lecture on interrelationship between technology and cosmology)
2006 : 33rd symposium in Leicester, UK
Arthur I. Miller (University College London)
Einstein, Picasso: The Role of Technology in the Discovery of Cubism and Relativity
2004 : 31st symposium in Bochum, Germany
Claude Debru (l’École normale supérieure in Paris)
Biotechnology: Scientific and philosophical aspects
2003 : 30th symposium in St. Petersburg/Moscow, Russia
Carroll W. Pursell
The Technological Gap and the Brain Drain
2002 : 29th symposium in Granada, Spain
Ruth Schwartz Cowan
Historical Reflections on the New Reproductive Technologies
2000 : 27th symposium in Prague, Czech Republic
Juan José Saldaña
1999 : 26th symposium in Belfort, France
Thomas Parke Hughes
Networks of Knowledge
1998 : 25th symposium in Lisbon, Portugal
Angus Buchanan