Each year, all faculties of the university are invited to nominate a researcher who merits recognition for their work related to the history of the disciplines within their faculty. After evaluating these nominations, the Sarton Committee invites the selected researchers to deliver a lecture on the history of science at the nominating faculty and awards them the Sarton Medal of our university. Additionally, the Committee selects one of the medalists to deliver the inaugural lecture of the year as the symbolic chair holder. Click here for a list of all the previous chairholders. Click here for a list of all the previous medallists.
Awardees 2025-2026
Chairholder
At the suggestion of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, the 41st Chair of History of Science was appointed to Prof. Dr. Frédéric Keck (CNRS).
On the occasion of his appointment as symbolical chairholder, he will deliver the following lecture: Collecting and Freezing Birds and Viruses: From "Cynegetic Power" to "Cryopolitics".
Medallists
In the present academic year, the Sarton Committee elected six medallists. Each of them will deliver a lecture on a topic from the history of science.
- Prof. Lucien Bély (Université Paris-Sorbonne): Les femmes dans la diplomatie aux temps modernes
- Prof. Marc Antrop (Universiteit Gent): The Tragedy of Landscapes – sublime or ordinary, everywhere and always
- Prof. Jan De Houwer (Universiteit Gent): On the relevance of B. F. Skinner for the future of behavioral science
- Prof. Thomas Mettenleiter (Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut): Tracing the roots of modern infectiology – Koch, Loeffler and the discovery of viruses
- Prof. Carl Nightingale (University at Buffalo): Building Our Urban Planet: Terraformation in History, Theory, and Practice
- Prof. Yves Segers (KU Leuven): Who Knows Best? Authority, Mediation and Resistance in Agrarian Knowledge Production and Circulation in Europe, 1800s-2000s
Agenda
Click here for more information about the dates, times, and locations of the lectures.