Margaret Gowing: An Appreciation

Abstract

I cannot think of any episode in my period as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford on which I look back with more satisfaction than the University’s decision, after much debate, to establish a chair in the history of science. For a university in which science has been studied since the Middle Ages, which contributed to the foundation of the Royal Society and which has long been a major centre of historical studies, the decision had been long delayed. Fortunately, the board of electors¹ proceeded to make an appointment which proved successful beyond our hopes and more than compensated for the delay.