The project’s central aim has been to promote a “diplomatic turn” in the history of science by bridging science and technology studies, diplomatic history, and the history of science and technology. From its outset, the PI made a concerted effort to advance this agenda through original research, conferences, seminars, and publications. One of the most important achievements in this respect is the establishment of a new book series on Science Diplomacy with Brepols, edited by the PI. She has also taken on the editorship of Almagest, which she aims to transform into a journal dedicated to creating the kind of transnational and interdisciplinary space that will enable early-career scholars to publish innovative work often overlooked by traditional disciplinary journals. By now, the PI is recognized as an expert in the field of science diplomacy and has been invited to consult for the EU, UNIDIR, and the IAEA. The project’s visibility reached an estimated audience of 500,000 people when an interview with the PI was published in Germany’s leading newspaper Die Zeit.
A central strand of the research examined the IAEA’s technical assistance programs and their material culture, demonstrating how radiation technologies circulated globally not as neutral tools but as diplomatic objects embedded in political negotiations and institutional agendas. Publications on dosimetry as a “global experiment,” mobile laboratories, and radiation dummies along with studies of nuclear agriculture in India, Soviet responses to the establishment of the IAEA, and the development of the Greek nuclear program, revealed the entanglement of science and diplomacy across multiple arenas. A second strand traced the geopolitics of nuclear regulation, highlighting how Cold War divisions shaped the IAEA’s rise to dominance within the UN system and produced an asymmetrical international nuclear order. A third strand focused on standardization, arguing that the IAEA’s safety standards remain the most powerful form of international nuclear governance. This work also opened new perspectives on gender in radiation protection, including the use of female phantoms in dosimetry studies.
The project’s dissemination strategy combined scholarship and public history. The exhibition Living with Radiation, hosted by the Siemens Healthineers MedMuseum, and its accompanying visual history volume created a publicly accessible narrative of scientific diplomacy. Two edited volumes ("The Missing Interaction", Brepols, and the forthcoming "Negotiating Radiation Protection in the Nuclear Age", Pittsburgh UP) will consolidate the project’s scholarly contributions along with several publications and special journal issues.
The project leaves behind a durable legacy: new conceptual frameworks for studying science diplomacy, lasting scholarly networks, improved access to the IAEA archives, and a generation of researchers prepared to carry forward the critical study of science, diplomacy, and radiation governance.
