User:Madelainebraver

Education, Accolades, Employment and Involvement

Carolyn Merchant received her A.B. in Chemistry from Vassar College in 1958( https://vq.vassar.edu/issues/2008/02/beyond-vassar/mixed-media.html ). She then went to the University of Wisconsin, Madison to earn an M.A. and Ph.D. in History of Science and later received a Doctor Honoris Causa from Umea University in Umea Sweden, where she was studying on a Fulbright Scholarship. Currently, she is a professor of environmental history, philosophy and ethics at University of California, Berkeley.

In 1954, as a high school senior, Merchant was a Top Ten Finalist for the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, a nationwide competition that has existed for over seven decades. Merchant was one of the first women to be awarded the E.B. Fred Fellowship, a program established to demonstrate that women could make significant contributions to professional fields at University of Wisconsin Madison. In 1963, Merchant, along with 13 other women, was awarded the three-year grant out of a pool of 114 applicants to fund field non-specific graduate research. In 1984 she was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar, at the University of Umea in Umea, Sweden where she taught in the Department of History of Ideas.

Prior to the University of California, Berkeley where she started in 1986 and still teaches, she was a lecturer in the History of Science,  Department of Physics and Natural Sciences Interdisciplinary Program at the University of San Francisco from 1969 to 1977. She was a one-time visiting professor at Oregon State University in the History of Science Department and General Science Department in 1969.

Merchant has been a member of the History of Science Society since 1962. She was chair of the Committee on Women of Science from 1973-1974 and co-chair from 1992-1994. From 1971-1972 she was co-president of the West Coast History of Science Society. She has had membership with the American Society for Environmental History since 1980 and has  held positions such as Associate Editor of the Environmental Review, Rachel Carson Prize Committee for best dissertation, vice-president and president.