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SPRU’s director receives award for 'outstanding contribution to the history of technology'

Professor Johan Schot, Director of SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, has been awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal by the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) for his "outstanding contribution to the history of technology".

Johan SchotProfessor Johan Schot

At an award ceremony last Friday (9 October), SHOT acknowledged that Professor Schot’s leadership of several large-scale international collaborations had not only advanced strong scholarly programmes involving international collaboration, but also enabled historians of technology to make significant public policy contributions within broad interdisciplinary conversations.

Professor Schot said: “I feel privileged and honoured to be awarded the Leonardo da Vinci medal. It feels like a recognition from my history of technology soul mates, which is especially important precisely because I so often travel far away from my roots, and then wonder whether historians of technology would still accept me when I come back.

“It is great to feel they value my work so much. As Director of SPRU, I aim to continue to weave history of technology insights into my work on transitions to sustainable development.”

Professor Schot’s work as a historian of technology has almost always involved projects of large scope and scale with multiple partners and investigators, including:

Professor Schot has also published widely on technology and social change through a number of articles, book chapters and books.

Read Professor Schot’s address, ‘The Historical Imagination', given at the SHOT annual meeting in Albuquerque, USA from 8–11 October.

The Leonardo da Vinci Medal is the highest recognition from SHOT, which is dedicated to the historical study of technology and its relations with politics, economics, labour, business, the environment, public policy, science, and the arts.