Information for prospective students 
Many people think of history as something divided chronologically and
geographically. A historian might say that she specializes in Japanese history or the history of the Middle Ages. History of science, however, is a thematic division. A historian of science might study the history of vaccination, the history of celestial mechanics, or the history of scientific institutions.
History of science students at Berkeley can be found in several departments, including history, art history, English, and philosophy. The Department of History offers a graduate field (MA/PhD) in the history of science. Graduate students in the history of science at Berkeley enjoy a kind of dual citizenship: not only are they enrolled in a top-ranked doctoral program, but they also have full access to the resources available in the Office for History of Science and Technology.
At Berkeley, students learn to see the practice of science as related to its cultural, intellectual, and historical context. The paired resources of OHST and the departmental doctoral program provide PhD students with a strong grounding in both the special field of the history of science and the larger discipline into which it fits.
Completion of the PhD generally takes five to seven years, and upon graduation students have gone on to teach (at institutions including Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, among many others), while others have chosen other career tracks -- including careers as museum scientists, archivists, science education specialists, or even stockbrokers and software engineers. Faculty members' research foci are described here. History of science is always interested in students with research interests outside of these areas, though, so prospective students should not be discouraged if their interests do not completely overlap with those of the faculty members. In recent years, graduate students have worked in areas as diverse as the history of modern computing, medicine in colonial Cambodia, and the creation of European scientific horticulture.
OHST provides graduate students with access to a wide range of professional and community resources. Through the OHST colloquium series, production of the journal Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, and participation in the International Summer School in History of Science, graduate students are exposed to current work in all areas of the history of science. In addition, OHST maintains a close relationship with history of science programs at other local universities, including Stanford and UC Davis, and the program in History of Health Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.
If you have questions about the graduate offerings in history of science at Berkeley, or would like to arrange a visit to OHST, please contact us by calling 510-642-4581 or emailing Diana Wear at diana@berkeley.edu. If you are interested in applying to the History Department's graduate program, contact the department for application materials and information.
