Each year, all faculties of the university are invited to nominate a researcher who merits recognition for their work related to the history of the disciplines within their faculty. After evaluating these nominations, the Sarton Committee invites the selected researchers to deliver a lecture on the history of science at the nominating faculty and awards them the Sarton Medal of our university. Additionally, the Committee selects one of the medalists to deliver the inaugural lecture of the year as the symbolic chair holder. Click here for a list of all the previous chairholders. Click here for a list of all the previous medallists.
Awardees 2025-2026
Chairholder
At the proposal of the Faculty of Law and Criminology, the 42nd Sarton Chair is awarded to Prof. Dr. Holger Fleischer (Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg).
To mark his appointment to the chair, he will deliver a lecture titled: "From Outrage to Regulation: 300 Years of Corporate Scandals and their Legal Aftermath."
Medallists
In the present academic year, the Sarton Committee elected five medallists. Each of them will deliver a lecture on a topic from the history of science.
- Prof.Em.Dr. Eric Mortier (Universiteit Gent):
From Care to Commodity: A History of Medicine - Dr. Bill Addis (strategisch duurzaamheidsadviseur Buro Happold Londen):
Designing large buildings before and after the invention of statics - Prof.Dr. Kris Rutten (Universiteit Gent):
Rhetoric as Equipment for Living: In Conversation with Kenneth Burke - Prof. Frédéric Leroy (Vrije Universiteit Brussel):
Moralizing Foodscapes and the Challenge of Adequate Nourishment: The Interplay of Societal Anxieties and Scientific Management Across Two Centuries - Dr. Penelope Curtis (kunsthistorica en curator):
Sculpture on display: a review of the field
Agenda
Click here for more information about the dates, times, and locations of the lectures.