Dr Richard Noakes

I am a historian of science and technology with special interests in 19th and 20th century aspects of the physical sciences, telecommunications, psychic phenomena and the occult, the engagement of science and religion, and the relationship between science and literary texts. I have published this research in many articles, chapters in edited collections and most recently, in my book, Physics and Psychics: The Occult and the Sciences in Modern Britain (Cambridge, 2019). My interests in telecommunications have led to collaborations with PK Porthcurno Museum of Global Communications and BT Archives. My current research also includes a new project on the relationships between engineering creativity and science fiction in early twentieth century Britain.

I grew up in South East London and attended Eltham Green and Crown Woods comprehensive schools. I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, 1989-92, graduating with a BA in History and Philosophy of Science 1992. I remained in Cambridge for a PhD in the history of science which I completed in 1998. My PhD examined the relationship between science, technology and spiritualism in Victorian Britain. Between 1999 and 2002 I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the 'Science in the Nineteenth Century Periodical Project' at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, and between 2002 and 2007 I was British Academy-Royal Society Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the History of Science at Cambridge University. I was appointed Lecturer in History at the University of Exeter in 2007. I was promoted Senior Lecturer in 2012 and Associate Professor in 2020.

I have supervised undergraduate and postgraduate students on a range of research topics connected with the history of science, technology, occultism and Western Esotericism. I am especially keen to supervise students in the following broad areas:

• History of science and technology since 1700
• History of the occult and Western Esotericism since 1800
• History of the media and communication
• Popular science since 1800
• The engagement of sciences and religions
• Science fiction since 1800

Editorial board member, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London

Member, British Society for the History of Science

Member, History of Science Society

Associate Member, Society for Psychical Research

Member of the Peer Review College of the ESRC

Historical consultant for the Battle for Britain's Soul, Series 2, historical documentary, first broadcast by BBC 2 television, 3-24 October 2005

Principal historical and script consultant for, and contributor to, Science and the Séance, historical documentary, first broadcast by BBC 2 television, 31 August 2005

Contributor to The Long Search, a historical documentary, first broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 14 December 2003

Principal historical and script consultant for, and contributor to, Was Anybody There?, historical documentary, first broadcast by BBC 2 television as TV 17, A103, An Introduction to the Humanities, Open University, 29 January 1998