Dr Sarah Dry
Associate Member
Faculty of History/Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology
I am an historian of science and writer. I write for a general readership about topics in the history of science which I hope can deepen contemporary debates about important subjects, most recently and especially, climate change.
My research has been supported by a Public Scholar grant from the US National Endowment for the Humanities, the Leverhulme Trust, the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council and a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Until 2024 I was a research associate on Making Climate History project at the University of Cambridge. I have also served as a facilitator for the Oxford Scenario Planning Programme. I am currently a trustee of The Oxford Trust. From 2016-2021, I was a trustee of the Science Museum Group where I chaired the Collections and Research Sub-committee.
Research Interests
I am currently working on a book about the history of systems thinking for global problems, focussed on the life of Dana Meadows, author of The Limits to Growth.
I also research the history of climate science, with a particular focus on the history of the creation of global temperature indices in the 20th century.
I have previously written books on the history of Isaac Newton’s manuscripts, global health policy and the life of Marie Curie.
