Handling macromolecular structures: from wooden balls to photorealism

The representation of macromolecular structures, for research or publication purposes, was a particular challenge for 20th century scientists. Focusing on protein science, this talk will explore how scientists and their collaborators have developed and used various techniques, from physical models to photorealistic computer graphics, to represent these structures. It will particularly focus on how the domains of science, the mechanical arts, the visual arts and computer science intersected and criss-crossed as this culture of macromolecular representation changed and evolved through the second half of the 20th century.



Biographie

Eric Francoeur is a historian and sociologist of science who specializes on issues of visualisation and representation in science. He earned his Ph.D. in 1998 at the McGill University in Quebec, Canada. His work has focused particularly on the history of molecular modeling in chemistry and molecular biology. He was a research fellow at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation (École des mines de Paris) and at the Max-Planck Institute for the History of science. He is currently senior lecturer at the École de technologie supérieure in Montreal.