Every four years the History of Science Society, the British Society for the History of Science, and the Canadian Society for the History & Philosophy of Science meet jointly in mid-summer for multi-day sessions on the history of science. The "Three Societies Meeting" alternates among the US, Canada, and the UK. The History of Science Society will serve as host in 2012 and, thanks to a proposal submitted by the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, Philadelphia will provide the venue for this Three Societies Meeting.
The conference will attract hundreds of historians of science to Old City for the meetings. The main venues for the sessions will be the meeting rooms at the American Philosophical Society, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and the University of Pennsylvania. Attendees will stay in Old City hotels. Dorm rooms will be available as low-cost alternative housing.
"The history of science in America begins in Philadelphia," said Robert (Jay) Malone, Executive Director of the History of Science Society. "Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, and Joseph Priestley were among the first men of science in America and they were Philadelphians. It will be a great pleasure to bring together the leading scholars in the history of science here in the city where American science began."
Previous Three Society Meetings were at Oxford, UK (2008); Halifax, Nova Scotia (2004); St Louis (2000), Edinburgh (1996), and Toronto (1992).