College of Arts and Sciences

Education:

• BA, Interdisciplinary Major in History of Science, Evolutionary Biology, and Russian Language and Areas Studies, University of Minnesota, 1997 
• PhD, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Johns Hopkins University, 2004

Curriculum Vitae:

Research Interests:

• History of Science
• History of Biology
• History of Ecology
• Russian History
• Soviet History
• Environmentalism

Bio:

Dr. Ackert’s scholarly interests lay at the intersection of the history of microbiology, Russian and Soviet history, and the history of ecology, and are best represented by his scientific biography “Sergei Winogradsky and the Cycle of Life” (2012). Ackert is currently investigating the life and work of Ruth Patrick (1907-2013), a limnologist and ecologist whose career at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (Drexel University) from 1933-2005. Most recently, presented this research at the ISHPSSB meeting in Oslo. Over the past two years, he has served as the ISH Listserve Moderator and was then elected as the Secretary of that organization.

His academic background includes degrees from the University of Minnesota (BA), the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Johns Hopkins University (PHD), a two-year post-doc at Yale University. Since 2007, he has worked at Drexel University teaching courses in History of Science, Medicine and Technology and a wide range of courses at the Pennoni Honors College. He has filled many service roles, including as a Senator on the Faculty Senate and chairs of numerous committees across the Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences, and for Drexel University. Since 2019, he was selected as a Research Associate at the Academy of Natural Science, first in the Patrick Center for Environmental Research and then in the Academy’s Libraries and Archives.

Selected Publications:

• Lloyd Ackert, Sergei Vinogradskii and the Cycle of Life: From the Thermodynamics of Life to Ecological Microbiology, 1850-1950, Vol. 34 (Dordrecht: Springer Press, 2013). https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-5198-9
• "The 'Cycle of Life' in Ecology: Sergei Vinogradskii’s Soil Microbiology, 1885-1940,” Journal of the History of Biology, Volume 40, No. 1, March 2007, 109-145.
• Lloyd Ackert, w/ Benno Warkentin, “Introduction,” Footsteps in the Soil: People and Ideas in Soil History (Elsevier, 2006), ed. Benno Warkentin.
• "The Role of Microbes in Agriculture: Sergei Vinogradskii's Discovery and Investigation of Chemosynthesis, 1880-1910," Journal of the History of Biology, Volume 39, 2006, No. 2.