In this issue: an introduction to San Francisco; a defense of HSS membership by outgoing HSS President Angela Creager; an interview with Manuscript Editor Joan Vandegrift on the occasion of her 30th anniversary with Isis; a job description for the newest member of the HSS Executive Office; an interview with Alice Dreger; memories of a collaboration between a scientist and an historian; a remembrance of William Provine (1942-2015); Notes from the Inside; Member News; and news from the profession.

The History of Science Society is paying close attention to innovation in the Digital Humanities. This year, for a second year in a row, HSS is sponsoring a THATCamp in conjunction with the annual meeting. The camp will be held on Thursday, November 19, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm in the conference hotel. The two morning workshops are designed to provide instruction in technologies that scholars might find useful in their research or in their teaching. The workshops are “Natural Language Processing” taught by Erick Peirson (ASU) and “Palladio: A Viewfinder for Historical Data” taught by Nicole Coleman(Stanford).

The IsisCB is also providing grants to help offset hotel costs for Wednesday night, November 18, for those wishing to attend THATCampHSS. Please visit the THATCamp website for more details.

Go to the website https://thatcamphss.wordpress.com/ to find out more, register, and propose some unconference session topics. Please join us for an interesting afternoon.

Sites for both meeting registration and hotel room reservations for the 2015 HSS Meeting in San Francisco are now available. We apologize for the delay in launching these, and thank you for your patience. More details can be found on the HSS Meeting page.

Meeting registration can be accessed here.

Hotel reservations may be made here. Please check the meeting page for details on grad student rooms.

The preliminary program for the 2015 HSS Meeting can be viewed here. If there are any corrections to be made, please email info@hssonline.org. Information about travel, hotel, and more can be found here.

The list of books received in the editorial offices of Isis from April-June 2015 can be found at the Isis Books Received page here. Any books purchased through links on the Books Received page will help support the History of Science Society.

The latest issues of Isis is available by clicking here. In this issue, editor H. Floris Cohen on his vision for the journal; “The Prehistory of Serendipity, from Bacon to Walpole,” by Sean Silver; “Building Networks for Science: Conflict and Cooperation in Nineteenth-Century Global Marine Studies,” by Azadeh Achbari; “A Drifting Concept for an Unruly Menace: A History of Psychopathy in Germany,” by Greg Eghigian; “The Invisible and Indeterminable Value of Ecology: From Malaria Control to Ecological Research in the American South,” by Albert G. Way. This issue also features a free access section titled “The History of Humanities and the History of Science” edited by Rens Bod and Julia Kursell, with articles by Jeroen Bouterse and Bart Karstens, Julia Kursell, Rens Bod, and Lorraine Daston and Glenn W. Most. It also contains news of the profession, two essay reviews, and many book reviews.

The History of Science Society joined six sister societies, including the American Historical Association and the Philosophy of Science Association, in sending a letter to the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau protesting the potential passage of a “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” in the state of Georgia. All of these organizations are planning on holding meetings in Atlanta in the near future, and the letter states that this legislation might precipitate moving the meetings to other cities where similar laws have not been passed. You can read the entire text of the letter by clicking here.

Early in 2013, the History of Science Society Executive Committee made a commitment to launch a structured strategic planning initiative to take on the tasks of reviewing the organization’s mission; agreeing on a vision; identifying and coping with changing circumstances; providing a framework of deliberate priorities to guide day-to-day decision-making and allocation of human and financial resources; evaluating performance and organizational effectiveness; and making a sound case for philanthropic support.

To view our goals, objectives, action steps, and evaluation procedures, as well as the rest of the strategic plan, click here.

The Elizabeth Paris Endowment for Socially Engaged History and Philosophy of Science honors the life and interests of Elizabeth Paris (1968-2009), a historian and philosopher of science and HSS member. The Endowment aims to provide for a regular public event that will bring to a wider audience an understanding of the value of the history and philosophy of science. The first event was a Baskes Lecture in History, presented by Peter Galison at the Chicago Humanities festival titled “From Einstein’s Clocks to the Refusal of Time.”

For more information on Elizabeth, the Endowment, and how to give