The Life Sciences Foundation is Making Biotech History
Jan 24, 2012
The Life Sciences Foundation (LSF) has been established to record, preserve and make known the history of biotechnology — that complex mixture of brilliant science, daring entrepreneurship and socio-political reality that has become central to human hope in the 21st Century. The foundation aims to collect and curate the historical record, enrich it through research and publication, and share it with institutions and organizations engaged in education, heritage or public policy.
The history of biotechnology is one of the great hidden stories of our age. According to LSF CEO Arnold Thackray, “History has to be made by historians; otherwise everything that happens is just stuff. If we’re going to create the history of biotechnology, enriching it with documents and records, the time is now."
We’re all so oriented toward tomorrow, but history is a vehicle to provide perspective to the public and those employed in the biotech field. The public benefits by gaining a broad understanding of how science, technology and innovation can improve human life. Those employed in the biotech industry benefit by understanding the national and increasingly global story of biotechnology. The goal of LSF is to disseminate the lessons of the past, and kindle the spirit of enterprise in young people.
The LSF staff is actively gathering archival materials in cooperation with leading research universities and libraries. Also central to the mission of LSF is an oral history initiative. Researchers are conducting interviews with biotech pioneers in order to capture the perspectives of those who made biotech a reality.
The Life Sciences Foundation is a non-profit organization, headquartered in San Francisco. Its board members are drawn from among industry leaders in biotechnology and life sciences, academic colleagues and associated non-profits. For more information, visit www.biotechhistory.org. To sign up for the foundation’s monthly newsletter or to contribute archival materials or ideas, email alicia@biotechhistory.org.
