The Science Museum supports a thriving programme of research which aims to promote new ways of understanding our collections, audiences and exhibitions.
Our researchers come from a range of academic disciplines and engage with the specific practices of the museum as well as more theoretical work on the themes of historical and contemporary science, technology and medicine.
The Research and Public History Department supports grant applications led by the Science Museum and partner universities as well as a growing programme of conferences, workshops and other events.
Team
Tim is Head of Research & Public History and a historian of the public culture of science. He is responsible for overseeing and developing the Science Museum Group’s Research & Public History programmes. His exhibitions include Health Matters (1994) and Making the Modern World (2000). His first book, Films of Fact, was published in 2008, and he is co-editor (with Frode Weium) of Artefacts: Material Culture and Electronic Sound (2013). For three years from November 2021, he is Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded project, The Congruence Engine: Digital Tools for New Collections-Based Industrial Histories, a Discovery Project under the Towards a National Collection funding stream. Tim was President of the British Society for the History of Science 2018–20, and has served on the AHRC Advisory Board.
Get in touch with Scott for all enquiries relating to research collaboration opportunities, the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme or the MaILHoC project.
Scott Anthony is Deputy Head of Research & Public History for the Science Museum Group. He is also a historian of propaganda, public relations and cultural diplomacy who received his DPhil from the University of Oxford. He has taught at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (where he created the first Public and Applied history programme in Southeast Asia), as well as the universities of Cambridge, Manchester and Warwick.
He has worked as a Strategic Communications Consultant to the UK government and as a journalist contributing to media including most recently the BBC, Times Higher, London Review of Books Blog, Air Mail and The Spectator. He has won major grants and fellowships in Africa, Asia, and North America. He has acted as researcher, consultant, and curator with institutions including the British Telecom Heritage, the Postal Museum & Archive, British Airways Heritage, and the British Film Institute. His books include The Story of Propaganda Film (2023), Shell: Art and Advertising (2021) and Public Relations and the Making of Modern Britain (2012).
Please note that Carol is currently on maternity leave.
As Research Support Officer, Carol is responsible for developing budgets for research grant applications and managing post-award project finance and reporting. She is the key contact for the research events programme, liaising with external and internal stakeholders to deliver research events. Carol also works with students, fellows and associates, and Research Department colleagues to ensure the smooth running of the department.
Carol is a UCL-trained museum researcher specialising in audience research and museum learning, and is experienced in managing international cultural projects and developing research in East Asian museum context. She has successfully delivered two AHRC-funded projects, including Time, Culture and Identity: the co-creation of historical research and the co-development of visitor experience in China and the UK (2019–2020) and Producing/Consuming Romantic Scotland: exhibition, heritage, nations and the Chinese market (2017–2018). Carol will be Co-Investigator for Communicating Time and Culture: Championing a global perspective in science and technology through public engagement, starting December 2022.
Get in touch with Kathleen for all enquiries relating to research grants and research collaboration opportunities with the Science Museum Group at kathleen.walker-meikle@sciencemuseum.ac.uk.
As Research Grants Manager for the Science Museum Group, Kathleen is responsible for the development and management of all grant-based research at Science Museum Group’s five national museum sites. Kathleen is also a historian of medicine and science and received her PhD from University College London. She has published various articles and a monograph (Medieval Pets, Boydell & Brewer, 2012 – the first study of companion animals in the medieval period) along with popular history books on animals. Her research focuses on premodern medicine, natural history and animal-human relationships, including medieval toxicology and animals bites (the focus of a Wellcome Trust Fellowship Grant, University of York), translations of medical and natural history texts from Arabic to Latin in the medieval period, premodern pharmacology, late medieval magic and cosmology (University College London), early modern ageing, skin disease and animal diseases and skin (King’s College London, Renaissance Skin project). She is currently working on a project examining premodern zoonotic disease, including rabies, plague, scabies and leprosy.
Get in touch with Vicki for all enquiries relating to research grants and research collaboration opportunities with the Science Museum Group at vicki.blud@railwaymuseum.org.uk.
Laura is Research Manager (Postgraduate and Skills) for the Science Museum Group, managing the Group's doctoral programme, including the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme for the Science Museums and Archives Consortium (SMAC). She is also responsible for convening the Science Museum's postgraduate teaching provision, developing the research skills training programme, and programming the Science Museum's research seminars.
In addition, she is part of the project team for the grant-funded network 'The Building Heritage Infrastructure Network: community, locality, and materiality in the museum storeroom,' based between the University of Westminster, SMG, Amgueddfa Cymru, and the Ingenium Centre (Ottawa).
Her Wellcome Trust-funded PhD project examined the role of libraries in treatment at nineteenth-century British lunatic asylums. She joined the Research and Public History Department following a year working at the Science Museum Group's new collections store in Wiltshire, with previous roles at organisations including the British Library, the National Trust, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the British Museum. Her own research centres around the histories of medicine and psychiatry, book history, and museum storage and ethics.
Get in touch with Emily if you are interested in the MaILHoC research project or the SMG Open Access Repository: Emily.rees@sciencemuseum.ac.uk
Get in touch with Lydia if you are interested in learning more about the SMG Open Access Repository: Lydia.ackrell@sciencemuseum.ac.uk
Kate is the Editor-in-Chief of the Science Museum Group Journal, the scholarly, open-access, online journal published by the Science Museum Group, which presents peer-reviewed articles from staff and external authors on topics of interest to science museums. Kate supports internal staff to develop writing and publishing skills as well as editing external submissions through to publication in two Journal issues per year. Forthcoming projects include an updating of the Journal’s design and architecture so that it works even better for readers and authors. Kate has degrees in both history and psychology and has worked in museums for over 20 years as a Learning Officer, an Exhibition Developer and as Head of Audience Research. Her publications include King, H, Steiner, K, Hobson, M, Robinson, A and Clipson, H, 2015, ‘Highlighting the value of evidence-based evaluation: pushing back on demands for “impact”’, JCOM: Journal of Science Communication (Vol 14, Issue 2).
Richard is the Assistant Editor of the Science Museum Group Journal, an online publication which presents the global research community with peer-reviewed papers relevant to the wide-ranging work of the Group. Richard has helped oversee the development of the Journal from its inception in 2014 through to the present day, and he is chiefly concerned with the Journal’s back-end functionality and editorial design. The Journal continues to enjoy a steady increase in readership numbers and contributions, and Richard is currently involved in a redevelopment of the Journal website and expansion of research outputs. He is also responsible for supporting internal staff to develop writing and publishing skills, as well as editing external submissions through to publication. Richard comes from a background in science journalism and science consultancy.
Get in touch with Tara for general enquiries relating to the Research and Public History Department and the Communicating Time and Culture research project at tara.panesar@sciencemuseum.ac.uk.
As Research Administrator, Tara is responsible for coordinating events and communications across the department of Research and Public History. A large part of her role is being a main point of contact for students, fellows and colleagues in the Research Department to ensure the smooth running of various programmes and projects. Alongside this, she is Engagement Fellow for the upcoming AHRC-funded public engagement Communicating Time and Culture project.
Dr Harry Parker, Postdoctoral Research Assistant. Get in touch with Harry if you are interested in the MaILHoC research project: harry.parker@sciencemuseum.ac.uk
Dr Catherine Elliott, Honorary Research Associate. Get in touch with Catherine if you are interested in finding out more about current research into the Africa collections: Catherine.elliott@sciencemuseum.ac.uk
Dr David Francis, Honorary Research Associate. Get in touch with David if you are interested in learning more about the Communicating Time and Culture Project: David.francis@sciencemuseum.ac.uk
