JOSE RAMON BERTOMEU SÁNCHEZ  is senior lecturer at the University of Valencia and director of the Institute for the History of Medicine and Science. He has been founding member of the STEP (Science and Technology in the European Periphery) group and editor of Ambix book reviews. His publications included papers, edited volumes and books on the history of science education, chemistry textbooks, scientific popularization, material culture of science and nineteenth-century chemistry in France and Spain. During the last decade, his research was focused on nineteenth-century forensic medicine. He has written several studies on the biography of the Spanish-French toxicologists Mateu Orfila (1787-1853). He has also worked on the emergence of scientific policing in twentieth-century Spain, particularly on the works of Federico Olóriz and Antonio Lecha-Marzo. He has published (with Agustí Nieto-Galan), Chemistry, Medicine and Crime: Mateu Orfila (1787-1853) (Science History Publications, 2006); “Popularizing Controversial Science: A Popular Treatise on Poisons by Mateu Orfila (1818)” (Medical History, 2009);  (with J. Vidal), Mateu Orfila: Autobiografia i Correspondència (IME, 2011); “Animal Experiments, Vital Forces and Courtrooms: Mateu Orfila, François Magendie and the Absorption of Poisons” (Annals of Science,  2012); 'Managing Uncertainty in the Academy and the Courtroom: Normal Arsenic and Nineteenth-Century Toxicology' (Isis, 2013). And the  book is “The Truth about the Lafarge affair: Science, Justice and Law in Nineteenth-Century France” (In Spanish, Barcelona, 2015). One of his last research project is “Living in a Toxic World” (1800-2000) which covers several aspects of the regulation of toxic risks in Spain and France during the last two centuries (HAR2015-66364-C2-2-P).

Enric Novella (MD, MA, PhD) is Associate Professor of History of Science at the University of Valencia. He is the author of the books Der junge Foucault und die Psychopathologie (Berlin, 2008), La ciencia del alma (Madrid/Frankfurt, 2013), El discurso psicopatológico de la modernidad (Madrid, 2018), and Las políticas de la locura (Valencia, 2023), and has also published several articles and essays on the history and philosophy of psychiatry, psychology and medicine in leading international journals such as Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, Health Care Analysis, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, History of Psychiatry, Social History of Medicine, History of the Human Sciences, Paedagogica Historica and Medical History.

After graduating in Physics at the University of Valencia, he read for a D.Phil. in History of Science at the University of Oxford. He worked for several years as Head of the Departmanet of Research and Documentation at the Spanish National Museum of Science and Technology in Madrid and later as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy and at the Centre d'Història de la Ciència (CEHIC) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Member of the López Piñero Institute for Historical and Social Studies of Science, Technology, Medicine and Environment, his research and publications have mostly focused on the history of astronomy and astrophysics, science in the public sphere and scientific instruments.

Articles (selection)

• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Diálogos entre ciencia y literatura: notas sobre Frankenstein o el moderno Prometeo, de Mary W. Shelley”, Acta Scientiarum. Language and Culture, 43 (2021), e55061.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Los orígenes del MUNCYT y la construcción del patrimonio científico-tecnológico en la España de la transición”, Dynamis 40 (2020), 479-503.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “José M. Melià Bernabéu «Pigmalión» y la divulgación de la astronomía en la Valencia de la primera mitad del siglo XX”, Dynamis 37 (2017), 433-455.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Making telescopes and partying with the stars: Amateur astronomy in Spain during Franco’s dictatorship”, Journal for the History of Astronomy 47 (2016), 194-209.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “La Gran Guerra i la recerca científica i tecnológica”, Afers 82 (2015), 647-662.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “La collection scientifico-médicale de l’Université de Valence: réflexions sur la construction de la connaissance scientifique”, THEMA. La revue du Musée de la civilisation, 1 (2014), 165-174.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Seeing the Invisible: The Introduction and Development of Electron Microscopy in Britain, 1935–1945”, History of Science 51 (2013), 221-249.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Ignacio Suay Matallana, Juan Marcos Bonet Safont, “El cometa de Halley y la imagen pública de la astronomía en la prensa diaria española de principios del siglo XX”, Dynamis 33 (2013), 169-193.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Priority claims and public disputes in astronomy: E.M. Antoniadi, J. Comas i Solà and the search for authority and social prestige in the early twentieth century”, British Journal for the History of Science 44 (2011), 509-531.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “El estado de la astronomía en la España de la II República”, Llull 33 (2010), 109-122.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Los desafíos de los museos de ciencia”, Museologia e Patrimônio 2 (2009), 98-105.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Els eclipsis totals de Sol: un punt d’inflexió en el desenvolupament de l’astronomia i l’astrofísica a l’Espanya de principis del segle XX”, Actes d’Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica 2 (2009), 235-252.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Scientific instruments for education in early twentieth-century Spain”, Annals of Science 65 (2008), 519-527.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Robert Ball y la divulgación de la astronomía en la Gran Bretaña Victoriana”, Cronos 7 (2004), 105-127

Books and book chapters (selection)

• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Pablo Soler Ferrán, ENUSA (1972-2022): Cincuenta años de tecnología del uranio en España (Madrid: ENUSA, 2024).
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Historia de la tecnologia a través de veinte objetos (València: Institució Alfons el Magnànim, 2023).
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Melodías de ciencia (Salamanca: Amarante, 2021).
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Reflexiones sobre la importancia de la historia y del patrimonio en los museos de ciencia y tecnología”, in F. Magalhães, L. Ferreira da Costa, F. Hernández Hernández, A. Curcino (coords.), Museología e património – Volume 7 (Leira: Escola Superior de Educação e Ciências Sociais - Politécnico de Leiria, 2021), pp. 45-57.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Scanning Electron Microscopy”, in C. C. M. Mody, J. D. Martin (eds.), Between Making and Knowing: Tools in the History of Materials Research (Singapore: World Scientific, 2020), pp. 503-512.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Setanta anys de ciència al País Valencià”, in G. Muñoz (ed.), El Magnànim: setanta anys de cultura valenciana (València: Institució Alfons el Magnànim, 2018), pp. 155-173.
• Antoni Roca, Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “The sky above the city: Observatories, amateurs and urban astronomy”, in O. Hochadel, A. Nieto-Galan (eds.), Barcelona: An Urban History of Science and Modernity, 1888-1929 (London, New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 181-199.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell (ed.), Beyond Public Engagement: New Ways of Studying, Managing and Using University Collections (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015).
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “L’astronomia a les Illes Balears: de la Restauració a la Guerra Civil”, in Història de la Ciència a les Illes Balears. Volum V. De la Restauració a la Guerra Civil (Palma de Mallorca: Govern de les Illes Balears, 2015), pp. 93-100.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Aspectes històrics dels estudis astronòmics”, in Història natural dels Països Catalans. Suplement: La Terra i l’Univers (Barcelona: Enciclopedia Catalana, 2012), pp. 17-30.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Twentieth-century scientific instruments: new resources for a new history of science in Spain”, in Catherine Ballé, Catherine Cuenca, Daniel Thoulouze (dirs.), Patrimoine scientifique et technique. Un projet contemporain (Paris: La documentation Française, 2010), pp. 223-226.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Una aproximación al patrimonio científico en España”, in Marcus Granato, Marcio F. Rangel (coord.), Cultura Material e Patrimônio da Ciência e Tecnologia (Rio de Janeiro: Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins, 2009), pp. 64-77.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Astronomy and astrophysics in Spain (1850-1914) (Newscastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).
• Josep Simón, Néstor Herrán, Tayra Lanuza, Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Ximo Guillem (eds.), Beyond Borders: Fresh Perspectives in History of Science (Newscastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).
• Néstor Herrán, Josep Simón, Ximo Guillem, Tayra Lanuza, Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Jaume Navarro (eds.), Synergia: Primer Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores en Historia de la Ciencia (Madrid: CSIC, 2007).
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Gema Hebrero Domínguez, María José Martínez Pérez, Instrumentos de Topografía y Geodesia. Catálogo del Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Madrid: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, 2007).
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Microscopios. Catálogo del Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Madrid: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, 2007).
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Instrumentos científicos en la colección de Vincencio Juan de Lastanosa”, in Vincencio Juan de Lastanosa (1607-1681). La pasión de saber (Huesca: Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses, 2007), pp. 159-165.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, “Els eclipsis totals de Sol de 1900 i 1905”, in A. Roca Rosell (coord.), Josep Comas i Solà astrònom i divulgador (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004), pp. 109-130.
• Pedro Ruiz-Castell, José R. Bertomeu Sánchez, J. Simón Castel, “Los fabricantes de instrumentos de la Universitat de València”, in J. R. Bertomeu, A. García Belmar (eds.), Abriendo las cajas negras (Valencia: Universitat de València, 2002), pp. 367-380.