Nils Güttler is an assistant professor of the history of science at the University of Vienna, Austria. He is leading the project Science for the People: Social Movements and Knowledge Production, 1960–1990s.
Born in Germany, Güttler received an MA in modern and contemporary history from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, in 2005. He earned his doctorate in 2012/14 from Humboldt-Universität in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Güttler received his habilitation from ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 2022. He has held appointments at the University of Erfurt’s Gotha Research Centre (2012–2013) and fellowships at the Huntington Library (2012) and Harvard University (2014 Marie Curie Fellow). He served as a senior postdoctoral researcher in science studies at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, (2014–2022) and a research fellow at the IFK Vienna (2019/20). Güttler has been an assistant professor of the history of science at the University of Vienna since 2022.
Research Focus
Güttler’s work is situated at the intersection of the history of science, environmental history, media history, and the study of infrastructures. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to the history of the environmental sciences, citizen science and scientific activism. His research traces the entanglements of lay and academic epistemologies, from 19th century natural history to 20th century environmental controversies. His most recent work has examined the environmental history of the Frankfurt Airport and the role of infrastructures, regions and agglomerations as sites of environmental knowledge production, culminating in his book Nach der Natur (2023). Güttler has secured major research grants, including a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (2018–21). He is also co‑founder and co‑director of an independent scholar‑led publishing initiative.
Awards and Recognition
Güttler’s work has been honored with awards including the Förderpreis der GWMT (GWMT Research Prize) by the German Society for the History of Medicine, Natural Sciences, and Technology (2013), and the 2015 Georg Uschmann Award for the History of Science by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Feature image: Nils Güttler portrait by Thiemo Kronlechner. Right: The magazine Wechselwirkung was an important forum for the exchange of “alternative” knowledge in German-speaking social movements in the 1980s. (Scan: ETH Zurich Library)