Floris Winckel, PhD Student

Credit: Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg, Anatoli Oskin

I am a PhD student in the History of Science, based at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich. My doctoral project explores the science of snowflakes from the early-17th to mid-20th century. I shed light on the value of studying snowflakes to scientists, and what this tells us about the history of modern natural science. The project is being carried out as part of the international doctoral programme ‘Rethinking Environment: The Environmental Humanities and the Ecological Transformation of Society‘, run jointly by the Environmental Science Center WZU (Augsburg) and the Rachel Carson Center.

As a historian of science I am chiefly interested in histories of the physical and environmental sciences, including their material and visual cultures. I am also broadly interested in the way these histories relate to contemporary debates about climate science and geoengineering. My previous work has focused on episodes in the history of 18th-century Dutch science, including the meaning of “useful” science and the emergence of electrotherapeutic theory and practice.

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Research Interests:

Earth and environmental sciences
Cryosphere
Weather and climate modification
Visual cultures of science
Aesthetics of science
Environmental humanities

News and Updates

Oct 16, 2025

🎉I succesfully defended my doctoral dissertation today! For their encouraging feedback, I'd like to thank my committee: Helmuth Trischler, Kärin Nickelsen, and Jens Soentgen.

Jun 24, 2025

📘 I submitted my doctoral dissertation to the LMU's Promotionsamt today.

Jan 28, 2025

📺 I had the pleasure of making a short video contribution on what we can learn from snowflakes for the MoMA R&D Salon "It's cold outside!" (27 January 2025). Youtube link available under "Read more"🔗

Contact

floris[dot]winckel[at]rcc[dot]lmu[dot]de

Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society

Leopoldstraße 11A
80802 München
Deutschland

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