Leading Curator and Scholar Advancing History of Scientific Instruments
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Harvard UniversitySara J. Schechner, the David P. Wheatland Curator of Harvard's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, has transformed understanding of scientific material culture and its history. After earning her Ph.D. in History of Science from Harvard in 1988, following degrees from Cambridge University and Harvard-Radcliffe, she has built an extraordinary career bridging museum curation and academic scholarship. As curator of one of the world's largest university collections of scientific instruments, containing over 20,000 objects, she has revolutionized the preservation and interpretation of scientific heritage. Her influential works include "Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology" and "Western Astrolabes," while her curatorial expertise has shaped numerous groundbreaking exhibitions exploring the intersection of science, society, and material culture. Her achievements have earned prestigious recognitions including the Paul Bunge Prize for History of Scientific Instruments and Legacy Fellow status from the American Astronomical Society. Through her leadership at Harvard's Department of History of Science and Museum Studies program, she continues to innovate in connecting historical instruments to broader cultural narratives while mentoring the next generation of curators and scholars.