On Experimentation, Air, and Human Health: Considering Priestley’s Scientific Legacies

This event is free but registration is required. Streaming information for virtual attendees will be provided near the event date.

Join the American Philosophical Society and Scripps Research Institute for a public conversation with atmospheric chemist Dr. Kimberly A. Prather (APS 2022) on how early observations about the “air” continue to inform scientific understanding of the interrelationship between climate and human health. Dr. Prather is Distinguished Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry and a Distinguished Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego.

This conversation considers the legacy and work of Joseph Priestley, an 18th-century political philosopher, Unitarian minister, and pneumatic chemist whose experiments with different types of air helped identify, among other things, the gases now known as oxygen and carbon dioxide. An advocate for independent thinking in science as well as religion and politics, Priestley was also a strong supporter of the American Revolution and spent the last decade of his life living and working near Philadelphia. Taken together, Priestley’s ideas offer useful touchpoints for reflecting on the ways ideas about science, politics, and society have shaped one another both in the 18th century and in the present.

This conversation is part of “America’s Scientific Revolutionaries," a two-year initiative funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation highlighting the work of lesser-known scientists and physicians active during the Revolutionary era. You can learn more about this project here.

This event will be held onsite at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA.

Dr. Kimberly Prather is Distinguished Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry and a Distinguished Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego. Her work focuses on how human emissions are influencing the atmosphere, climate, and human health. In 2020, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and in 2019, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She is an elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also a Member of the American Philosophical Society (APS 2022).