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Brief Curriculum vitae and selected list of publications for
Nils Roll-Hansen
Curriculum Vitae
Nydalen Alle 5, apt. 111, Oslo, Norway
Tel.: 47 23 19 38 (mobile), 22 23 43 42 (home)
Fax (office): + 47 - 22 85 69 63
E-mail: nils.roll-hansen@filosofi.uio.no
Born 10.12.1938, cand. real. 1962, mag. art. 1968, dr. philos. 1979.
All these exams and degrees are from the University of Oslo.
Grad. student plant biochemistry with Professor Andy Benson UCLA and UCSD
1962-64.
Teaching and administrative appointments, research fellowships, etc at the
University of Oslo 1964-1976.
Professor in the theory of natural sciences, Roskilde University, Denmark, 1976-77.
Senior researcher Nordic Institute for Studies of Innovation, Research and Education
(NIFU) 1977-93.
Professor II in history and philosophy of science University of Oslo 1985-1993.
Full professor in history and philosophy of science, Department of philosophy/
Department of philosophy, classics, history of art and ideas University of Oslo from
1994 to 2007.
Main advisor for two successful doctoral theses and a number of masters these in
philosphy of science. Opponent at a number of doctoral disputations in Norway,
Sweden and Denmark.
Professor emeritus since 2007
Visiting research fellow at LSE (with Imre Lakatos) 1971-72.
Hambro fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge, academic year 1982-83.
Fellow at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, academic year 1987-88.
Visiting professor at Lederberg Laboratory, Rockefeller University, Febr.-Aug. 1993.
Visiting researcher Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin, JanuaryApril 2001.
Visiting professor, Yale University Program in history of science and Program in
agrarian studies, September-December 2002.
Member of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (Det Norske
Videnskaps-Akademi) since 1993.
Advisory board of Isis, 1992-94.
Editorial board of Biology and Philosophy from 1992.
Advisory board of Science Studies from 1994.
Editorial board of Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniia i Tekhniki from 1996.
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Member of Investigating commission concerning medical research on people
without their consent (“Granskningskommisjon vedrørende medisinsk forskning på
mennesker uten deres samtykke”) named by the Norwegian government October
2001.
Member of committee to evaluate Sweden’ Foundation for Environmental Strategic
Research (MISTRA) appointed October 2002.
Has organized a number of national and international workshops and conferences in
history and philosophy of science. Among them “Eugenics and Sterilization in
Scandinavia. Changing policies and practices 1934-2000”, Oslo, December 14-16,
2001, “Science and Politics: The case of Genetics”, Oslo, September 15-16, 2005.
Responsible for organizing and running the interdisciplinary Seminar in science
studies (Seminaret i vitenskapsteori) at the University of Oslo in long periods from
its start in the mid-1970s till 2006.
Active in governing bodies and administration at various levels in the University of
Oslo, e.g., leader of committee on alternative forms of organization for the
University, 1999-2000.
Chair of Committee on climate research in The Norwegian Academy of Science and
Letters 2009-2011.
Throughout his career active in public Norwegian debate on science and higher
education. In recent years, for instance: arguing against the formal use of
bibliometric s to evaluate quality of science; arguing that lacking understanding of
the difference between science and technology (or basic and applied research)
undermines sound science policy; arguing that the cultural (ideological) role of
natural science has been overlooked in favour of its instrumental usefulness;
emphasizing the positive historical role of (basic) genetic science against eugenic
excesses.
Main research interests: History and philosophy of biology, 19th and 20th century, in
particular history genetics with emphasis on the formation of classical genetics.
Environmental science and politics, e.g., acid rain and forest death. The nature and
role of reductionism in biology. Interaction of science and politics, e.g., Eugenics, and
Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union. Science policy.
Selected publications
"Experimental Method and Spontaneous Generation: The Controversy between
Pasteur and Pouchet 1859-64", Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied
Sciences, 34 (1979), 273-292.
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"Eugenics before World War II. The Case of Norway", History and Philosophy of
the Life Sciences, 2 (1980), 269-298.
"The death of spontaneous generation and the birth of the gene: two case studies
of relativism", Social studies of Science, 13 (1983), 481-519.
"A new perspective on Lysenko?" Annals of Science, 42 (1985), 261-278.
"The Crucial Experiment of Wilhelm Johannsen", Biology and Philosophy, 3
(1989), 303-329.
"Science, Politics and the Mass Media: On Biased Communication of
Environmental Issues", Science,Technology and Human Values, 19 (1994), 324341.
Gunnar Broberg and Nils Roll-Hansen (eds.) Eugenics and the Welfare state.
Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, East Lansing:
Michigan State University press 1996
"Studying natural science without Nature. Reflections on the realism of so-called
laboratory studies", Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and
Biomedical Sciences , 29 (1998), 165-187.
"The application of complementarity to biology: From Niels Bohr to Max Delbrück,
Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 30 (2000), 417-442.
“Theory and practice: the impact of mendelism on agriculture”, Comptes Rendues a
l’Academie des Sciences Paris, Life Sciences, 323 (2000), 1107-1116.
Ideological obstacles to scientific advice in politics? The case of “forest death” from “acid
rain”, Rapport nr. 48, November 2002, fra Makt- og demokratiutredningen.
The Lysenko Effect. The Politics of Science. New Jersey: Humanities Books, 2005.
“Sources of Wilhelm Johannsen’s Genotype Theory”, Journal of the History of Biology,
42 (2009): 457-493.
Why the distinction between basic (theoretical) and applied
(practical) research is important in the politics of science. Centre for Philosophy of
Natural and Social Science. Technical report No. 04/09. London School of Economics.
“Eugenics and the science of genetics”. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics.
Oxford University Press, 2010, Pp. 80-97.
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“Lamarckism and Lysenkoism Revisited”. Snaït Gissis and Eva Jablonka (eds.)
Transformations of Lamarckism. MIT Press, 2011. Pp. 77-88.
“Lessons from the history of science.” Essay review of N. Oreskes and E. Conway
Merchants of Doubt (2010). Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical
sciences, 42 (2011): 462-466..
“Niels Bohr and Max Delbrück: Balancing Autonomy and Reductionism in Biology.”
Phillip R. Sloane and Brandon Vogel (eds) Creating a Physical Biology. The Three-Man
Paper and Early Molecular Biology. University of Chicago Press, 2011. Pp. 145-178.
“Marxist roots of science studies”. Essay review of Gideon Freudenthal and Peter
McLaughlin (eds): The social and economic roots of the scientific revolution. Texts by Boris
Hessen and Henryk Grossmann. Boston studies in the philosophy of science, vol. 278.
Dordrecht: Springer, 2009. Metascience, published online 23 March 2012.