Professor David Edgerton FBA

Professor David Edgerton (Chemistry, 1977) graduated from St John’s in Chemistry and from Imperial College London in History. From 1984 he taught first the economics, and then the history of science and technology in the University of Manchester. In 1993 he became the founding director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Imperial College London (1993–2003) where he became Hans Rausing Professor of the History of Science and Technology in 2002. He led the Centre to its new home in King’s College in 2013, where he is Hans Rausing Professor of the History of Science and Technology and Professor of Modern British History. He also co-directed the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War.

Professor Edgerton has worked mainly in two areas, the history of science and technology and twentieth-century British history. Perhaps his best-known books are Warfare State: Britain 1920–1970 (Cambridge University Press, 2005), The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900 (Profile 2007, 2019) and The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth-Century History (Penguin, 2019). He has also written on the history and political economy of research policy and been engaged in discussion on contemporary research policy with parliament, government departments and learned societies. He is a regular contributor to the press, especially the Guardian and the New Statesman, mainly on current politics.

Awards and distinctions

Professor Edgerton was a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellow, 2006–9, and gave the 2009 Wilkins–Bernal–Medawar Prize Lecture at the Royal Society in 2009. He is a member of the Council of the Architectural Association and has chaired the judges of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.