HomeLifetime Achievement Honorees

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT HONOREES

2024

Zoubeida R. Dagher
University of Delaware, USA

Dr. Zoubeida R. Dagher is a professor of Science Education at the School of Education, and a faculty fellow at the Center for Science, Ethics, and Public Policy at the University of Delaware. A distinguished member of the academic community, she served as the President of IHPST from 2017-2019 as well as contributed to writing the original bylaws of the organization. Dr. Dagher's research profoundly impacts science education, focusing on the nature of scientific methods and practices, as well as representations of scientific epistemology within educational curricula. Her lifetime commitment to enhancing science education, particularly in diverse and global contexts, positions her as an inspiring leader deserving of the IHPST Lifetime Achievement Award.

2022

Mercè Izquierdo Aymerich
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

She began as a chemistry teacher, both in secondary school (in the 1960s and 1970s) and at the UAB-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1970s and 1980s). Starting in 1987, she joined the Department of Didactics of Mathematics and Experimental Sciences of the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the UAB as Professor of Didactics of Experimental Sciences and History of Chemistry, a position she held until her retirement in 2023. She became Full Professor, Emerita and Honorary Professor at the UAB. For more than three decades, she has belonged to the institutionally recognized research group LIEC-Language and Science Teaching, which aims to investigate the development of communicative competencies within the framework of science learning. Her research focuses primarily on the foundation of science teaching (especially chemistry), based on philosophy and the history of science. She has especially dedicated herself to scientific language in reports of experimental work and in textbooks. For her merits, the Generalitat of Catalonia awarded her the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2021.

2019

Fabio Bevilacqua
Pavia University, Italy

Since 2001 Fabio Bevilacqua has been full professor of History of Science at the “A. Volta” Department of Physics in the Science Faculty of Pavia University.His main research interests are history of physics (history of the principle of conservation of energy, of relativity, of classical electromagnetism, of optics) and the application of history of physics to the diffusion of scientific culture through science museums and digital technologies; he is particularly interested in the preservation of scientific cultural heritage (instruments, books, archives). Professor Bevilacqua served as the IHPST President 1999-2001, hosted the IHPST Conference in Como, Italy, and also served on the editorial board for Science & Education. Fabio Bevilacqua’s lifetime of contributions to the IHPST group are deeply appreciated.

2017

W. Ian S. Winchester
University of Calgary, Canada

For 22 years Ian Winchester was a professor and department head of two departments in the Ontario Institute For Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He has taught courses, written articles and papers and given guest lectures in a variety of topics in historical methodology, history and philosophy of science, higher education, aesthetics and theory of knowledge. Professor Winchester has served as conference chair of two IHPST conferences at the University of Calgary (1997 and 2007) and has also served on the Advisory Council that proposed the first set of bylaws adopted officially by participants the IHPST 2007 conference. Ian Winchester's longstanding and significant contributions to the IHPST group are greatly appreciated.

2015

Michael Matthews
the University of New South Wales, Australia

In 1989 Michael Matthews successfully brought together historians, educators, philosophers, and sociologists from around the world to engage in friendly, scholarly discourse at what became the first IHPST conference. Since then IHPST conferences have been biennially. His early efforts to ensure the sharing of multiple, diverse perspectives set the tone for IHPST which can still be seen today with the friendly and collegial nature of the group. Michael ensured that the group met every other year at the Biennial Conference and that this conference rotated to various parts of the world. Under his direction IHPST's journal, Science & Education, flourished during his 20+ years as editor. Michael Matthews impact on the IHPST group is immeasurable.