Rebecka Mikaela Mähring

Research Interests: History of physics; labor history; material and visual culture; scientific visualizations; history of photography; history of technology; sociology of science; history of observation.

Rebecka Mikaela Mähring is a PhD student in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. She works on nineteenth and twentieth century history of physics, with a particular interest in scientific communities and hierarchies, the relationship between labor organization and instrument design, and the intertwined histories of observation and visual representations. Mähring has previously worked on the 1919 solar eclipse expedition to Sobral, and on the history of dark matter and theories of galactic dynamics. 

Prior to joining Harvard, Mähring worked at a press office for science news in London, UK. She has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Princeton University and a master’s in history of science from the University of Cambridge.

Presentations:

“Bringing Greenwich to Sobral: Craftsmanship and Instrumentation on the 1919 Solar Eclipse Expedition,” ESHS/HSS Joint Meeting, Edinburgh (UK), July 2026. 

“Disciplining Photographs: Labor Organization and Photography at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,” American Institute of Physics 6th Early-Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences, Salvador (Brazil), August 2025. 

“Negotiating Presence, Crafting Memory: The Elusive Life and Legacy of Hilde Levi,” American Physical Society April Meeting, Sacramento (US), April 2024.

Previous Degrees:

A.B., Physics, Princeton University
M.Phil., History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, University of Cambridge