Hasok Chang receives Fernando Gil International Award in Philosophy of Science

The 2013 Fernando Gil International Prize in Philosophy of Science was awarded to Hasok Chang for his book Is Water H2O? Evidence Realism and Pluralism. In the award-winning title, the author explores the history behind the formula H2O for representing water, moving on to its relationship with two central themes in the philosophy of science: scientific realism and pluralism.

In the 2013 edition, the jury also awarded an honorable mention to Mark Priestley for his book A Science of Operations: Machines, Logic, and the Invention of Programming. The relationship between logic and computing is the central theme of this title, which covers the period from before the invention of the computer to the development of programming languages up to 1970.

The Fernando Gil Award ceremony will take place on March 20 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. During the ceremony, philosopher Fernando Gil will be remembered in a tribute by Paulo Tunhas, and Hasok Chang will receive the award, followed by a lecture by the award winner entitled "History and Philosophy of Science in the service of Scientific Pluralism."

On the morning of the same day, a workshop will be held on the theme of Scientific Realism, in which Hasok Chang will address the topic "Scientific Realism in the context of chemistry." The program includes sessions by Henrique Leitão and Fernando Barriga, moderated by various members of the Fernando Gil Award jury. Registration is open until March 12.

Also as part of this award, the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon welcomes Hasok Chang for the conference "Bringing History and Philosophy of Science Back Together"on March 21.

The Fernando Gil International Prize in Philosophy of Science is a joint initiative of the Portuguese Government, represented by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Created in honor of the work and memory of philosopher Fernando Gil, this award was first presented in 2010, with this year marking its third edition. The award aims to recognize work of exceptional quality in the field of Philosophy of Science, considering general epistemological problems and problems related to specific scientific areas.