December 2024 Inaugural lecture, University of Greifswald ‘Von Gaia zu OneHealth? Eine Geschichte des Wissens von Menschen, Mikroben und Umwelten’

2024 Co-editor of Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Editorial Board Member of the Journal for the History of Biology

Since October 2023 Heisenberg Professorship for History of Knowledge at the Department of History at the University of Greifswald

2022-23: Substitute Chair for Historical Studies of Science at Bielefeld University

Summer semester 2022: Parental leave

Winter semester 2021/22: Fellow at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald

2021: Venia Legendi in Modern and Contemporary History at the Faculty of Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Since February 2021: Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation

Summer semester 2020: Substitute Chair for the History of Science, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

2014–2020: Postdoctoral teaching and research associate at the Chair for the History of Science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

2016: Visiting Fellow, Department of History, Princeton University

2015: Research Fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia

2013: Guest residency at the Centre Cavaillès of the École Normale Supérieure Paris; funded by a scholarship from the DAAD and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme

2011–2014: Postdoctoral research associate at the Institute of History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Literature at TU Berlin

2010: Research Fellow at the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis) at the University of Exeter, UK

2009: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin

2008: Doctorate at the Institute of Biology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

2005 – 2008: Doctoral candidate in the Bacterial Physiology Working Group at the Institute of Biology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

1999–2004: Studied biology and philosophy (M.A.) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Université de Nantes, France

1. History and Philosophy of Science

Monographs

• Grote, M. und Oesterhelt, Dieter (2022). Leben mit Licht und Farbe. Ein biochemisches Gespräch (Reihe: Lives in Chemistry - Lebenswerke in der Chemie). GNT-Verlag GmbH.
• Grote, M. (2019). Membranes to Molecular Machines. Active Matter and the Remaking of Life. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Rezensiert in Biospektrum, FASEB Journal, Isis, N.T.M., Small Things Considered, Choice

Journal Articles

• Grote, M. „Planetary microbes: Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, the agency and the politics of microbes, 1840s-1850s,“ Isis 116, Nr. 1 (2025), 82-103. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/733998
• Grote, M., Anke Te Heesen, und Dieter Hoffmann. „Bausteine zu einer Oral History der Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Interview mit Dieter Hoffmann“. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 46, Nr. 4 (Dezember 2023): 378–412. https://doi.org/10.1002/bewi.202300029
• Grote, M. (2023) „Gaia’s Tissue“. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 53, S. 434–443. https://online.ucpress.edu/hsns/article-abstract/53/4/434/197389/Gaia-s-Tissue
• Grote, M. (2022). Microbes before Microbiology: Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg and Berlin’s Infusoria. Endeavour, Juni 2022, 100815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2022.100815. [Übersetzung von Grote, HiN, 2021.]
• Grote, M., Hopwood, N., Müller-Wille, S. et al. (2021). Cycles and circulation: a theme in the history of biology and medicine. In: History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 43, Artikel Nr. 89.
• Grote, M. (2021). „Aus dem Kleinen bauen sich die Welten“ – Christian Gottfried Ehrenbergs ökologische Mikrobiologie avant la lettre. In: HiN XXII, 42, S. 13-26.
• Grote, M., Onaga, L., Creager, A. et al. (2021). The molecular vista: current perspectives on molecules and life in the twentieth century. In: History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 43, Artikel Nr. 16.
• Grote, M. (2021). Von Enzyklopädien zu Wikipedia und zurück? In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, Wissen, 70. Jahrgang, 3-4/2021, 18. Januar 2021, S. 15-21.
• Grote, M., Creager, A. und Leong, E. (2020). Learning by the book: manuals and handbooks in the history of science. In: BJHS - Themes, Vol 5, Learning by the Book: Manuals and Handbooks in the History of Knowledge, 1-13.
• Grote, M. (2020). Total knowledge? Encyclopedic handbooks in the twenitieth-century life and the chemical sciences. In: BJHS - Themes, Vol 5, Learning by the Book: Manuals and Handbooks in the History of Knowledge, 187-203.
• Grote, M. (2018). Petri dish versus Winogradsky column: a longue durée perspective on purity and diversity in microbiology, 1880s–1980s. In: "New Perspectives in the History of the Life Sciences", R. Meunier und K. Nickelsen (Hgg.), History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 40, 11.
• Grote, M. (2016), Das Patchwork der Mikroben. Bio-Technologien, Leben und Wissenschaft jenseits der großen Erzählungen. In: Wissen, ca. 1980, N. Güttler, M. Pratschke, M. Stadler (Hgg.), Nach Feierabend. Zürcher Jahrbuch für Wissensgeschichte 12, 35-51.
• Grote, M. und Keuck, L. (2015). Conference report “Stoffwechsel. Histories of metabolism”, workshop organized by Mathias Grote at Technische Universität Berlin, November 28–29th, 2014. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 37: 210-218.
• Grote, M. (2013a). Vintage physiology. Otto Warburgs „Labor-Kochbücher” und Apparaturen. NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin 21: 171-185.
• Grote, M. (2013b). Purple matter, membranes and 'molecular pumps' in rhodopsin research (1960s-1980s). Journal for the History of Biology 46:331-368.
• Grote, M. (2011). Jeewanu, or the 'particles of life. The approach of Krishna Bahadur in 20th century origin of life research. Journal of Biosciences 36(4), 563-570.
• Grote, M. und O'Malley M.A. (2011). Enlightening the lifesciences: the history of halobacterial and microbial rhodopsin research. FEMS Microbiology Reviews 35(6): 1082-1099.
• Grote, M. (2010). Surfaces of action. Cells and membranes in electrochemistry and the life sciences, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Biology and the Biomedical Sciences 41: 183-193.
• Grote, M. (2008). Hybridizing bacteria, crossing methods, cross-checking arguments: The transition from episomes to plasmids (1961-1969), History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 30: 407-430.
• Grote, M. (2007). Die „Kräfte des Organischen“. Transformationen des Naturbildes in C.F. Kielmeyers Karlsschulrede, Verhandlungen zur Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie 13: 165-175.

Editorship

• Creager, A., Grote, M. und Leong, E. (2020), Learning by the Book: Manuals and Handbooks in the History of Knowledge, BJHS - Themes, Vol. 5.
• Grote, M. und Stadler, M. (2015), Surfaces in the History of Modern Sciences: Inscribing, Separating, Enclosing. Topical Section/Introduction, Science in Context 28, Issue 3.
• Grote M. und Stadler M. (2011), Membranes Surfaces Boundaries. Interstices in the History of Science, Technology and Culture. Preprint 420, Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (print/online).

Book Contributions and other Publications

• Grote, M. (2024), Moderne Wälzer. in: I. Barner, S. Graf, N. Güttler, N. Rhyner, V. Wolff, M. Wulz (Hgg.), Über Bücher. 101 Texte und Bilder für Michael Hagner, Göttingen: Wallstein, S. 219-222.  https://www.wallstein-verlag.de/9783835358508-ueber-buecher-101-texte-und-bilder-fuer-michael-hagner.html
• Grote, M. (2021): "Wir sind Virus": Zur Aktualität  biologischer Symbioseverhandlungen. In: Nassehi A. und Felixberger P. (Hg.), Kursbuch 208 - "Koalitionen".
• Grote, M., te Heesen, A., McLaughlin, P. und Rheinberger, H.-J. (2021). „Ordnung und Organisation“. Interview zur Historiographie der Biologie mit Hans-Jörg Rheinberger und Peter McLaughlin. In: Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 44 (2021), 267-280.
• Grote, M. (2020). Petri dish (boîte de Petri, Petrischale). In: Bauer S., Schlünder M., und Rentetzi M. (Hgg.), Boxes: A Field Guide. Manchester: Mattering Press, 459-470. [kurze Geschichte der Petrischale].
• Stadler, M., Güttler, N., Rhyner, N., Grote, M. et. al. (2020). Gegen|Wissen, Zürich 2020. [u.a. Symbiosen - Das gute, kleine Leben?, Naturpolitiken - Biotopia] (Onlineversion hier)
• Grote, M. (2015). What could the 'longue durée' mean for the history of modern sciences? Working Paper, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris  [FMSH-WP-2015-98; online, open access, in English].
• Grote, M. (2014). From enzymes to 'molecular machines': Materiality in research on rhodopsins, 1970s:. In: Reinhardt C. & Klein U., (Hgg.), Objects of chemical inquiry, Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications, 343-368.
• Grote, M. (2011). Jeewanu. In: Azzouni S., Brandt C., Gausemeier B., Kursell J., Schmidgen H. und Wittman B. (Hgg.), Eine Naturgeschichte für das 21. Jahrhundert: hommage à, zu Ehren von, in honor of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger. Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 222-224 (Neuauflage 2014 im Alpheus Verlag, Berlin).

Blog Contributions

• Grote, M. (2018), The Politics of the Handbook, History of Knowledge, July 31, 2018, https://historyofknowledge.net/2018/07/31/politics-of-the-handbook/.
• Grote, M. (2018), Who Has Been to Ames, Iowa? Or: Handbooks as an Unappreciated Dimension of Science. History of Knowledge, May 25, 2018 https://historyofknowledge.net/2018/05/25/who-has-been-to-ames-iowa-or-handbooks-as-an-unappreciated-dimension-of-science/
• Grote, M. (2018), Why Manuals and Handbooks? Why Now?, History of Knowledge, May 2, 2018, https://historyofknowledge.net/2018/05/02/why-manuals-and-handbooks-why-now/
• Grote, M. (2018), Petri's dish vs. Winogradsky's column - shifting boundaries between purity and mixture of microbes. Small things considered [Blog der American Society of Microbiology].
• Grote, M. (2016), Take your kids to the microbes - Micropia, the world's only microbe zoo in Amsterdam. Small things considered [Blog der American Society of Microbiology].

Newspaper, Podcast, Video and other Media

• Grote, M., Gibt es eine Medizin für den Planeten? (Gastkommentar), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7.5.2025, Seite N2
• Grote, M., Leben mit Licht und Farbe. Ein Gespräch über Biochemie. [Interview mit Dieter Oesterhelt]. Newsroom der MPG am 24. September 2021.
• "The 'How' of 'How-To?'"—Handbooks and Knowledge Democracy with Mathias Grote and Elaine Leong. Folge 4 des Podcasts Science Social: Conversations on History, Science, and Society des MPIWG, 18.03.2021, verfügbar auch auf iTunes und Spotify.
• Grote, M., Mehr als die Verpackung des Impfstoffs, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 27.01.2021, S. N2 [Geschichte und Metaphorik der Lipidnanopartikel].
• Grote, M., Ein Feind und Helfer. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13.5.2020, S. N2 [Geschichte der Mensch-Mikroben-Beziehung].
• History of Science ON Call: Mathias Grote. Videointerview des Max-Planck-Instituts für
  Wissenschaftsgeschichte Berlin, 20.4.2020.
• Die Renaissance des Notizbuchs. Podcampus der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Folge 7, 15.1.2020, mit Anke te Heesen, Alrun Schmidtke und Cora Knoblauch.

Selected Reviews and Encyclopaedia Entries

• Grote, Mathias, „Chargaff, Erwin“ in: NDB-online, veröffentlicht am 01.07.2024, https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/dbo024816.html#dbocontent
• Grote, M. (2022), Victoria Lee: The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan. University of Chicago Press 2021, in: The FASEB Journal 36 (5) [Onlinepublikation].
• Grote, M. (2020) „Onur Erdur: Die epistemologischen Jahre. Philosophie und Biologie in Frankreich, 1960–1980. Zürich 2017,“ in: H-Soz-Kult 08.04.2020 [Online-Publikation].
• Grote, M. (2020), Inépuisables surfaces. Philosophie de la Chimie, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent und Richard Eastes (Hg.), Paris: deboeck supérieur, 267–270.
• Grote, M. (2018), Wissenschaftsgeschichte als Handbuchwissenschaft, Sammelrezension zu M. Sommer, S. Müller-Wille und C. Reinhardt (Hg., 2017), Handbuch Wissenschaftsgeschichte und S. Bauer, T. Heinemann, T. Lemke (Hg., 2017), Science and Technology Studies – Klassische Positionen und aktuelle Perspektiven, NTM. Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin, 1-11.
• Grote, M. (2015), Khorana, Har Gobind, eLS Encyclopedia of the Life Sciences, DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0002845 [online publication].
• Grote M. (2013), Rezension: Biomedical Computing. Digitizing Life in the United States von Joseph C. November. Biology, Computing, and the History of Molecular Sequencing. From Proteins to DNA, 1945–2000 von Miguel García-Sancho. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 36:200-202.
• Grote M. & Méthot P.O. (2012), Michel Morange: La vie, l’évolution et l’histoire. Metascience 21, 507-508.
• Grote M. & O'Malley M.A. (2010), History of science is good for you. Nature Reviews Microbiology 8: 752.

2. Life Sciences

Selected Journal Articles

• Grote, M., Engelhard M. & Hegemann, P. (2014). Of ion pumps, sensors and channels – Perspectives on microbial rhodopsins between science and history (Review). Biochimica et Biophysica Acta Bioenergetics 1837, 533-545.
• Grote M., Polyhach Y., Jeschke G., Steinhoff H.-J., Schneider E. and Bordignon E. (2009). Transmembrane signaling in the maltose ABC transporter MalFGK2-E: Periplasmic MalF-P2 loop communicates substrate availability to the ATP-bound MalK dimer, Journal of Biological Chemistry 284: 17521-17526.
• Grote M., Bordignon E., Polyhach Y., Jeschke G., Steinhoff H.-J. and Schneider E. (2008). A comparative EPR study of the nucleotide-binding domains’ catalytic cycle in the assembled maltose ABC-importer. Biophysical Journal 95: 2924-2938.

Encyclopedias of the short 20th century

The history of modern science has primarily been concerned with the question of how new
knowledge has been created. In contrast, it has gone amiss that the systematization and
preservation of knowledge has always been of great relevance to productive research, to its
role in society, especially in times of inflation of knowledge, controversy or doubt.
Historically, encyclopedias or handbooks have served this philosophical and political purpose.
The project examines well-known encyclopedias and handbooks of the 20th century (e.g. the
International Encyclopedia of Unified Sciences by Otto Neurath et al.) as well as large-scale
documentation and information projects of the natural sciences (see here). Which actors and
institutions dedicated themselves to the systematization of the constantly growing body of
knowledge? Which forms of books or technical media (databases and search engines avant la
lettre) were established long before personal computers and the Internet in order to render
large bodies of knowledge accessible? To what extent did these projects combine an
epistemological and political understanding of science with economic motivations as well as
media and technical innovations? In light of the current changes in academic writing,
publishing and reading (e.g. paywalls/open access, large publishers or preprints), this complex
of problems is pivotal for a historically informed, critical reflection on the practice of science
and its role for society.

An ecological history of microbes, humans and environments

The recent pandemic has once again highlighted the complex relationship between humans
and microbes: insights into the omnipresence, diversity and variability of microbial life or the
OneHealth perspective contrast to a historically deeply rooted friend-foe scheme. Moreover,
in the light of microbiome research, the productive role of microbes for life as well as the
development of the biosphere has become established. The research project investigates the
history of this recent change in understanding microbes in the biological and geosciences and
the rise of an ecological perspective on life and coexistence since around 1970 at the level of
concepts (e.g., “community”), practices and actors (e.g. Lynn Margulis). The project aims to
liberate the history of microbiology from a narrow focus on the “Golden Age” of Louis
Pasteur and Robert Koch and its consequences, to contribute to a better understanding of the
scientific present and to critically reflect on the current fascination with microbes (see here).
The project is part of a collective, international research project on human and animal health,
antibiotic resistance, biotechnologies, epidemiology, infection biology and taxonomy, first
results of which have been presented here.