Duncan, Dr Katy

Academic background

Current Postdoctoral Freer Fellow at the Royal Institution. PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge (2024); MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Bristol (2017); MSci in Physics and Philosophy, University of Bristol (2016). 

Research interests

Dr Duncan interests include the history of science from the 19th century onwards, particularly the physical sciences; material culture and instrument studies; general philosophy of science; and philosophy of science in practice. 

Recent Publications

Peer Reviewed Articles 

Katy Duncan “The most difficult thing imaginable: William Thomson and the fair weather electricity problem.”

Forthcoming. 

Katy Duncan (2023) “Between the Mountain, the Meadow, the Calm, and the Storm: Exner’s and Elster and  Geitel’s Electrical Atmospheres.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 53 (4): 349–388.  doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2023.53.4.349. 

Hasok Chang, Katherine Duncan, Kihyang Kim and Seoung-Hey Paik (2020) “Electrolysis: What the Textbooks Don’t Tell Us.” Chemical Education Research and Practice, 21, 806-822 doi: https://doi.org/10.1039/C9RP00218A. 

Katherine Duncan et al. (2017) “Characterisation of p-type ZnS: Cu transparent conducting films fabricated by high-temperature pulsed laser deposition.” ArXiv preprint 

Book Chapters 

Katy Duncan (invited, forthcoming 2027) Atmospheric Science in Philosophy of the Geosciences, Miguel Ohnesorge and Aja Watkins (Eds), Volume 5, Comprehensive Philosophy of Science, Sven Ove Hansson (Ed.) Elsevier 

Katy Duncan (2022). “Hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell electrode, by Clevite Corp. for United Aircraft, USA, 1965 Wh.6081” in J. Nall, J. Hyslop, and B. Jardine (Eds.), Materials for the History of Science, Whipple Museum of the History of Science (pp. 66-67). 

Book Reviews 

Katy Duncan (2025) Andrew Brown, Bound by Muscle: Biological Science, Humanism, and the Lives of A.V. Hill and Otto Meyerhof Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. 248. ISBN 978-0-19-758263-3. £27.99  (hardback). The British Journal for the History of Science. Published online 2025:1-2. doi: https://10.1017/S0007087425000056 

Katy Duncan (2024) Catherine Jackson, Molecular World: Making Modern Chemistry Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2023. Pp. 460. ISBN 978-0-262-54554-9. $75.00 (Paperback).” The British Journal for the History of Science, 1–2. doi: https://10.1017/S0007087424000049