CV

Susanne Schmidt is a historian of science and SNF Professor at the University of Basel. Her book Midlife Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2020) provides the first historical study of the controversial concept of midlife crisis, which gained traction as a feminist idea in the United States in the 1970s before it was redefined by psychologists and psychiatrists. Susanne received her Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge in 2018. She was a Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin in Global History at Freie University Berlin (2018–20) and in History of Science at the Humboldt University Berlin (2020–25), and visiting fellow at the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University, the Center for Science and Society at Columbia University, and the Department of History at Stanford University as well as at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC.

Susanne received the first-book award of the German History of Science Society (GWMT) and the prize for the best article published in N.T.M. (2021). In 2021–22, she held a Career Development Award, awarded young scholars from any discipline by the Humboldt, Freie, and Technical Universities and Charité Berlin. Her research has been supported by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Max Weber Foundation, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Kurt Hahn Trust, and others. She is currently the recipient of a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Starting Grant. You can learn more about her current research on the history of the marshmallow test and delayed gratification in this interview.