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Emeritus Professor Nicolas Rasmussen

Emeritus Professor Nicolas Rasmussen

Emeritus Professor

MA Chicago, MPhil Cambridge, PhD Stanford, MPH Sydney

Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA)
School of Humanities & Languages

Nicolas Rasmussen is a Professor in the School of Humanities. He has higher degrees in history and philosophy of science, developmental biology, and public health.

His research has dealt with the role of instrumentation in shaping scientific knowledge, the history of biotechnology, molecular biology and its cultural and intellectual history, the history of drug abuse and pharmaceuticals in the United States since 1900, and the influence of industry sponsorship on biomedical research. He has been principle investigator on several NSF (USA) and ARC grants.

His current major project concerns obesity research and public health policy in the 1950s USA. His monograph on the history of genetic engineering with Johns Hopkins, entitled _Gene Jockeys: Life Science and the Rise of Biotech Enterprise__, was published in 2014, and another monograph entitled _Fat in the Fifties: America's First Obesity Crisis_ is forthcoming in 2019 from the same press.


Phone
9385 2361
Location
314 Morven Brown
  • Books | 2019
    Rasmussen N, 2019, Fat in the Fifties America's First Obesity Crisis, Johns Hopkins University Press,
    Books | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, Gene Jockeys: Life Science and the Rise of Biotech Enterprise, hardback (1st), Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA,
    Books | 2008
    Rasmussen N, 2008, On Speed The Many Lives of Amphetamine, New York University Press, New York and London
    Books | 2002
    2002, Metascience, Rasmussen N, (ed.), Springer
    Books | 1997
    Rasmussen N, 1997, Picture Control: The Electron Microscope and the Transformation of Biology in America, 1940-1960, Original, Stanford University Press, Stanford
  • Book Chapters | 2021
    Rasmussen N, 2021, 'Biomedicine and Its Historiography: A Systematic Review', in Historiographies of Science, Springer International Publishing, pp. 195 - 215,
    Book Chapters | 2018
    Rasmussen N, 2018, 'Biomedicine and Its Historiography: A Systematic Review', in Dietrich M (ed.), Handbook of the Historiography of Biology, Springer Nature, Switzerland, pp. 1 - 21,
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Rasmussen N, 2015, 'DNA Technology: ‘Moratorium’ on Use and Asilomar Conference', in , Wiley, pp. 1 - 5,
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, 'Biology's Day at the Races INTRODUCTION', in GENE JOCKEYS: LIFE SCIENCE AND THE RISE OF BIOTECH ENTERPRISE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, pp. 1 - +,
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, 'Biology, Industry, and the Cold War', in GENE JOCKEYS: LIFE SCIENCE AND THE RISE OF BIOTECH ENTERPRISE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, pp. 9 - 39,
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, 'Epo The Making of the Biotech Blockbuster', in GENE JOCKEYS: LIFE SCIENCE AND THE RISE OF BIOTECH ENTERPRISE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, pp. 131 - 159,
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, 'Growing Pains Commercial Strains on a Way of Life', in GENE JOCKEYS: LIFE SCIENCE AND THE RISE OF BIOTECH ENTERPRISE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, pp. 72 - 100,
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, 'Science, Business, and Medicine in the First Age of Biotech CONCLUSION', in GENE JOCKEYS: LIFE SCIENCE AND THE RISE OF BIOTECH ENTERPRISE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, pp. 183 - 191,
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, 'The Insulin Trophy', in GENE JOCKEYS: LIFE SCIENCE AND THE RISE OF BIOTECH ENTERPRISE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, pp. 40 - 71,
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, 'The Interferon Derby Markets in Credit, Tournaments of Value', in GENE JOCKEYS: LIFE SCIENCE AND THE RISE OF BIOTECH ENTERPRISE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, pp. 101 - 130,
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, 'tPA The End of the Beginning', in GENE JOCKEYS: LIFE SCIENCE AND THE RISE OF BIOTECH ENTERPRISE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, pp. 160 - 182,
    Book Chapters | 2012
    Rasmussen N, 2012, 'Goofball Panic: Barbiturates, "Dangerous" and Addictive Drugs, and the Regulation of Medicine in Postwar America', in Greene J; Watkins ES (ed.), Prescribed: Writing, Filling, Using, and Abusing the Prescription in Modern America, edn. Original, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pp. 23 - 45
    Book Chapters | 2008
    Rasmussen N, 2008, 'Amphetamine Epidemics, International', in Kranzler HR; Korsmeyer P (ed.), Encyclopedia of drugs, alcohol & addictive behavior, edn. third, Gale Cengage, pp. 153 - 162
    Book Chapters | 2003
    Rasmussen N, 2003, 'Molecular Biology', in Dictionary of American History Third Edition, edn. Original, Charles Scribner`s Sons, New York
    Book Chapters | 2002
    Rasmussen N, 2002, 'Innovation in Chemical Separation and Detection Instruments: Reflections on the Role of Research-technology in the History of Science', in Morris P (ed.), From Classical to Modern Chemistry: The Instrumental Revolution, Royal Society of Chemistry, London, pp. 251 - 258,
    Book Chapters | 2001
    Rasmussen N; Chalmers A, 2001, 'The role of theory in the use of instruments; or, how much do we need to know about electrons to do science with an election microscope?', in Buchwald JZ; Warwick A (ed.), Histories of the electron: the birth of microphysics, edn. Original, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 467 - 502
    Book Chapters | 2001
    Rasmussen N, 2001, 'Biotechnology before the `Biotech revolution`: life scientists, chemists and product development in 1930s-1940s America', in Reinhardt C (ed.), Chemical Sciences in the 20th Century, edn. Original, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, pp. 201 - 227
  • Journal articles | 2022
    Rasmussen N, 2022, 'David Herzberg. White Market Drugs: Big Pharma and the Hidden History of Addiction in America. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2020. Pp. 400. Cloth $27.50', American Historical Review, 127, pp. 1982 - 1983,
    Journal articles | 2022
    Rasmussen N, 2022, 'René Dubos, the Autochthonous Flora, and the Discovery of the Microbiome', Journal of the History of Biology, 55, pp. 537 - 558,
    Journal articles | 2021
    Rasmussen N, 2021, 'The Black Box of Biology: A History of the Molecular Revolution', SOCIAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 35, pp. 1048 - 1049,
    Journal articles | 2020
    Lexchin J; Rasmussen N, 2020, 'The Rise and Fall of the Neurotic Housewife: Patient Sex in Psychotropic Drug Advertising to Physicians 1946–1990', International Journal of Health Services, 50, pp. 292 - 298,
    Journal articles | 2019
    Rasmussen N; Proctor RN, 2019, 'From maverick to mole: John C. Burnham, Tobacco consultant', ISIS, 110, pp. 779 - 783,
    Journal articles | 2019
    Rasmussen N, 2019, 'Downsizing obesity: On Ancel Keys, the origins of BMI, and the neglect of excess weight as a health hazard in the United States from the 1950s to 1970s', Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 55, pp. 299 - 318,
    Journal articles | 2019
    Rasmussen N, 2019, 'The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America', BULLETIN OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 93, pp. 286 - 288,
    Journal articles | 2018
    Rasmussen N, 2018, 'Group Weight Loss and Multiple Screening: A Tale of Two Heart Disease Programs in Postwar American Public Health', Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 92, pp. 474 - 505,
    Journal articles | 2017
    Rasmussen N, 2017, 'Controlling" America’s Opium": Barbiturate Abuse, Pharmaceutical Regulation, and the Politics of Public Health in the Early Postwar United States', Journal of Policy History, 29, pp. 543 - 568,
    Journal articles | 2016
    Rasmussen N, 2016, 'The Genealogy of a Gene: Patents, HIV/AIDS, and Race.', ISIS, 107, pp. 903 - 905,
    Journal articles | 2015
    Rasmussen N; Keizers P, 2015, '"History Full Circle: ‘Novel’ Sympathomimetics in Supplements"', Drug Testing and Analysis, 8, pp. 283 - 286,
    Journal articles | 2015
    Rasmussen N, 2015, 'Amphetamine-Type Stimulants: The Early History of Their Medical and Nonmedical Uses', International Review of Neurobiology,
    Journal articles | 2015
    Rasmussen N, 2015, 'Amphetamine-type stimulants: The early history of their medical and non-medical uses', Int Rev Neurobiol, 120, pp. 9 - 25,
    Journal articles | 2015
    Rasmussen N, 2015, 'Stigma and the addiction paradigm for obesity: Lessons from 1950s America', Addiction, 110, pp. 217 - 225,
    Journal articles | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, 'Psychostimulanzien steigern nicht die kognitive Leistung. Lehren aus der Geschichte.', WestEnd, 2014, pp. 69 - 80,
    Journal articles | 2012
    Parr J; Rasmussen N, 2012, 'Making Addicts of the Fat: Obesity, Psychiatry and the ‘Fatties Anonymous’ Model of Self-Help Weight Loss in the Post-War United States', Advances in Medical Sociology, 14, pp. 181 - 200,
    Journal articles | 2012
    Rasmussen N, 2012, 'Weight stigma, addiction, science, and the medication of fatness in mid-twentieth century America', Sociology of Health and Illness, 34, pp. 880 - 895,
    Journal articles | 2011
    Rasmussen N, 2011, 'Medical Science and the Military: The Allies’ Use of Amphetamine during World War II', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 42, pp. 205 - 233
    Journal articles | 2010
    Rasmussen N, 2010, 'Maurice Seevers, the stimulants and the political economy of addiction in American biomedicine', Biosocieties: An interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Studies of Life Science, 5, pp. 105 - 123,
    Journal articles | 2009
    Rasmussen N; Lee K; Bero LA, 2009, 'Association of trial registration with the results and conclusions of published trials of new oncology drugs', Trials, 10, pp. 116,
    Journal articles | 2008
    Rasmussen N, 2008, 'America`s first amphetamine epidemic 1929-1971 - A quantitative and qualitative retrospective with implications for the present', American Journal of Public Health, 98, pp. 974 - 985
    Journal articles | 2006
    Rasmussen N, 2006, 'Lives of a blockbuster drug', Minerva, 44, pp. 229 - 234,
    Journal articles | 2006
    Rasmussen N, 2006, 'Making the first anti-depressant: Amphetamine in American medicine, 1929-1950', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 61, pp. 288 - 323
    Journal articles | 2005
    Rasmussen N, 2005, 'The drug industry and clinical research in interwar America: Three types of physician collaborator', Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 79, pp. 50 - 80,
    Journal articles | 2004
    Rasmussen N, 2004, 'The moral economy of the drug company-medical scientist collaboration in interwar America', Social Studies of Science, 34, pp. 161 - 185
    Journal articles | 2003
    Rasmussen N, 2003, 'The creation of psychopharmacology', SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE, 33, pp. 453 - 458,
    Journal articles | 2003
    Rasmussen N, 2003, 'The life of a virus: Tobacco mosaic virus as an experimental model, 1930-1965.', BULLETIN OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 77, pp. 221 - 223,
    Journal articles | 2002
    Rasmussen N, 2002, 'Designs for life - Molecular biolog after world war', SCIENCE, 297, pp. 2000 - 2001,
    Journal articles | 2002
    Rasmussen N, 2002, 'Of `Small Men`, Big Science and Bigger Business: The Second World War and Biomedical Research in the United States', Minerva: A Review of Science Learning and Policy, 40, pp. 115 - 146,
    Journal articles | 2002
    Rasmussen N, 2002, 'Steroids in Arms: Science, Government, Industry, and the Hormones of the Adrenal Cortex in the United States, 1930-1950', Medical History, 46, pp. 299 - 324
    Journal articles | 2001
    Rasmussen N, 2001, 'Evolving scientific epistemologies and the artifacts of empirical philosophy of science: a reply concerning mesosomes', Biology and Philosophy, 16, pp. 629 - 654,
    Journal articles | 2001
    Rasmussen N, 2001, 'Plant hormones in war and peace:science, industry and government in the development of herbicides in 1940s America', Isis, 92, pp. 291 - 316,
    Journal articles | 1999
    Rasmussen N, 1999, 'Mapping the cell: Advent of the thin section and characterization of the ER', Nature Cell Biology, 1, pp. E99 - E101,
    Journal articles | 1999
    Rasmussen N, 1999, 'Mapping the cell: advent of the thin section and characterization of the Endoplasmic Reticulum', Nature Cell Biology, 1, pp. E99 - E101
    Journal articles | 1999
    Rasmussen N, 1999, 'The forgotten promise of thiamin: Merck, Caltech biologists, and plant hormones in a 1930s biotechnology project', Journal of the History of Biology, 32, pp. 245 - 261,
    Journal articles | 1999
    Rasmussen N, 1999, 'What moves when technologies migrate? `Software` and hardware in the transfer of biological electron microscopy to postwar Australia', Technology and Culture, 40, pp. 47 - 73,
    Journal articles | 1997
    Rasmussen N, 1997, 'The early history of the electron microscope - German - Qing,L', ISIS, 88, pp. 167 - 167,
    Journal articles | 1997
    Rasmussen N, 1997, 'The mid-century biophysics bubble: Hiroshima and the biological revolution in America, revisited', HISTORY OF SCIENCE, 35, pp. 245 - 293,
    Journal articles | 1997
    Rasmussen N, 1997, '`The Midcentury Biophysics Bubble: Hiroshima and the Biological Revolution in America`', History of Science, pp. 245 - 293
    Journal articles | 1996
    Rasmussen N, 1996, 'Cell fractionation biochemistry and the origins of 'cell biology'', TRENDS IN BIOCHEMICAL SCIENCES, 21, pp. 319 - 321,
    Journal articles | 1996
    Rasmussen N, 1996, 'Making a machine instrumental: RCA and the wartime origins of biological electron microscopy in America, 1940-1945', STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, 27, pp. 311 - 349,
    Journal articles | 1995
    Rasmussen N, 1995, 'Mitochondrial structure and the practice of cell biology in the 1950s', JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY, 28, pp. 381 - 429,
    Journal articles | 1993
    RASMUSSEN N; GREEN PB, 1993, 'ORGANOGENESIS IN FLOWERS OF THE HOMEOTIC GREEN PISTILLATE MUTANT OF TOMATO (LYCOPERSICON-ESCULENTUM)', AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY, 80, pp. 805 - 813,
    Journal articles | 1993
    RASMUSSEN N, 1993, 'FACTS, ARTIFACTS, AND MESOSOMES - PRACTICING EPISTEMOLOGY WITH THE ELECTRON-MICROSCOPE', STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, 24, pp. 227 - 265,
    Journal articles | 1993
    RASMUSSEN N, 1993, 'FREUND ADJUVANT AND THE REALIZATION OF QUESTIONS IN POSTWAR IMMUNOLOGY', HISTORICAL STUDIES IN THE PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 23, pp. 337 - 366,
    Journal articles | 1991
    RASMUSSEN N, 1991, 'THE DECLINE OF RECAPITULATIONISM IN EARLY 20TH-CENTURY BIOLOGY - DISCIPLINARY CONFLICT AND CONSENSUS ON THE BATTLEGROUND OF THEORY', JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY, 24, pp. 51 - 89,
    Journal articles | 1987
    RASMUSSEN N, 1987, 'A NEW MODEL OF DEVELOPMENTAL CONSTRAINTS AS APPLIED TO THE DROSOPHILA SYSTEM', JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY, 127, pp. 271 - 299,
    Journal articles | 1985
    ZETTER BR; RASMUSSEN N; BROWN L, 1985, 'METHODS IN LABORATORY INVESTIGATION - AN INVIVO ASSAY FOR CHEMOATTRACTANT ACTIVITY', LABORATORY INVESTIGATION, 53, pp. 362 - 368,
  • Other | 2017
    Rasmussen N, 2017, Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, ,
    Other | 2015
    Rasmussen N, 2015, Generic: The Unbranding of Modern Medicine, OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, ,
    Other | 2014
    Rasmussen N, 2014, Banking on the Body: The Market in Blood, Milk, and Sperm in Modern America., ORGANIZATION AMER HISTORIANS, ,
    Other | 2013
    Rasmussen N, 2013, Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, ORGANIZATION AMER HISTORIANS, ,
    Other | 2012
    Rasmussen N, 2012, Hormones of Life: Endocrinology, the Pharmaceutical Industry, and the Dream of a Remedy for Sterility, 1930-1970, UNIV CHICAGO PRESS,
    Other | 2012
    Rasmussen N, 2012, Pills, Power, and Policy: The Struggle for Drug Reform in Cold War America and Its Consequences, UNIV CHICAGO PRESS, ,
    Other | 2011
    Rasmussen N, 2011, Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA., JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS,
    Other | 2008
    Rasmussen N, 2008, The Medium Is The Message, ,
    Other | 2008
    Rasmussen N, 2008, The medium is the message, ,
    Preprints |
    Hemminki E; Lexchin J; Rasmussen N, Evolution of Physician-Industry Relationships in Producing Knowledge of Drug Therapy - Comparison of the United States and Finland, ,

Residential Fellowship, Center for Advanced Studies in Social and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, autumn 2015

“Highly Commended”, British Medical Association Book Awards, for Gene Jockeys, 2015

Australian Research Council “Discovery Project” Large (sole PI) Grant for research on history of obesity, heart disease research, and public health policy in early Cold War USA (A$180,000), 2014-16

Countway Library Fellowship in History of Medicine, Harvard and Boston Medical Library, 2013-14

Australian Research Council “Discovery Project” Large (sole PI) Grant for research on history of biotechnology policy and rDNA drug development in 1970s-80s USA (A$165,000), 2009–12

2008 Stanley Jackson Prize for best article published in the Journal of the History of Medicine in a three year interval, for “Making the First Antidepressant"

2007 J. Worth Estes Prize for best scholarly article on history of drugs or pharmacology, American Association for the History of Medicine, for “Making the First Antidepressant”

Australian Research Council “Discovery Project” Large Grant (as sole PI) for research on history of pharmaceutical development in early and mid-20th C USA (A$132,000), 2004–06

Senior Visiting Fellowship, MIT-Dibner Institute for History of Science and Technology, winter 2004

2000 Book Prize, History of Science Society, Forum for the History of Science in America, for best book on the history of American science by a junior author, for Picture Control.

1999 Paul Bunge Prize for best work on history of scientific instruments (awarded by the German Chemical Society on behalf of the Hans Jenemann Foundation), for Picture Control.

National Science Foundation (USA) senior research grant (as independent scholar, and sole PI) for research on history of plant physiology in early and mid-20th C USA (US$56,000), 1998

Senior Visiting Fellowship, MIT-Dibner Institute for History of Science and Technology, autumn 1998

My Teaching

Current and recent courses taught:

ARTS2303: On Drugs: Medicine, Science and Industry since 1900
ARTS3270: History Capstone
ARTS3242: Environmental History
Life Science in the 20th Century: The Molecular Revolution (not currently taught)
Agriculture and Civilisation in Environmental Perspective (not currently taught)