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Hasok Chang receives Fernando Gil International Prize in Philosophy of Science

The 2013 Fernando Gil International Prize in Philosophy of Science was awarded to Hasok Chang, for his book Is Water H2O? Evidence Realism and Pluralism. In the award-winning title, the author visits the history behind the formula H2O for representing water, setting out to explore its relationship with two central themes in the philosophy of science, scientific realism and pluralism.

In the 2013 edition, the jury also awarded an honorable mention to Mark Priestley for his book A Science of Operations. Machines, Logic and the Invention of Programming. The relationship between logic and computing is the central theme of this title, which follows the period before the invention of the computer through the development of programming languages until the 1970s.

The award ceremony for the Fernando Gil Prize will take place on March 20 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. In the ceremony's program, the philosopher Fernando Gil will be remembered in an evocation by Paulo Tunhas, and Hasok Chang will receive the award, followed by a lecture by the awardee under the title "History and Philosophy of Science in the service of Scientific Pluralism".

In the morning of the same day, a workshop will be held under the theme Scientific Realism in which Hasok Chang will address the topic "Scientific Realism in the context of chemistry". The program includes sessions by Henrique Leitão and Fernando Barriga, in interventions moderated by several members of the jury of the Fernando Gil Award. Registration is open until March 12.

Also as part of this award, the Faculty of Science of the University of Lisbon will host Hasok Chang for the conference "Bringing History and Philosophy of Science Back Together", on March 21st.

The Fernando Gil International Prize in Philosophy of Science is a joint initiative of the Portuguese Government, represented by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Created as a tribute to the work and memory of the philosopher Fernando Gil, this prize was awarded for the first time in 2010, and this year its third edition is being held. The prize aims to distinguish a work of exceptional quality in the field of Philosophy of Science, considering general epistemological problems and problems concerning specific scientific areas.