Max Bautista-Perpinyà

max.bautista@uclouvain.be

+32.497.22.70.27

0000-0002-5202-6961

oliviodare.com

Education

Ph.D. in Philosophy

• Institution: Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
• Projected graduation: 2026
• Thesis: “The success and deradicalisation of ecology. Forests, environmentalism, and values in the making of Spanish contemporary democracy (1982-2007)”

M.Sc. in History and Philosophy of Science, Cum Laude

• Institution: Utrecht University (the Netherlands)
• Year: 2020
• Thesis: “To be a molecular scientist. The negotiation of epistemic and social virtues in 1970s Nature’s marketplace”

M.Sc. in Neuroscience, High Honours

• Institution: Université de Strasbourg (France)
• Year: 2016
• Thesis: “Limbic morphology and emotion in Borderline Personality Disorder”

Research Interests

• History of Ecology
• Values in Science
• Environmental History
• Oral History
• Open Science and Research Ethics

Selected Research Experience

Working Group Member

• Project: “Exchange Zones in the Production and Regulation of Technoscience in the Iberian Peninsula: Academics, Activists and the Industry, 1930s-1990s (EXCHANGESCI)”, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Spain)
• Duration: January 2025 - ongoing

Visiting Researcher

• Institution: Institut d’Història de la Ciència (iHC), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain)
• Duration: January - July 2024
• Description: Archival work and interviews, presentation of preliminary results to the iHC community

Master Thesis Student

• Institution: Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, Utrecht University
• Duration: September 2019 - December 2020
• Thesis: “To be a molecular scientist. The negotiation of epistemic and social virtues in 1970s Nature’s marketplace”

Publications

Articles

• Devine, S., Bautista Perpinyà, M., Delrue, V., Gaillard, S., Jorna, T. F. K., Meer, M. van der, Millett, L., Pozzebon, C., & Visser, J. (2020). “Science Fails. Let’s Publish” Journal of Trial & Error, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.36850/ed1
• Burgos D.F., Cussó L., Sánchez-Elexpuru G., Calle D., Bautista Perpinyà M., Desco M., Serratosa J.M., Sánchez M.P. (2020). “Structural and Functional Brain Abnormalities in Mouse Models of Lafora Disease.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2020; 21(20):7771. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21207771

Book reviews

• Bautista Perpinyà, M. & Pence, C.H. (2023) “David Sepkoski’s Catastrophic Thinking,” BJPS Review of Books. https://www.thebsps.org/reviewofbooks/perpinya-pence-on-sepkoski/

Conferences

• “From Genetic Improvement to Biodiversity Conservation: Seed Orchards and Environmental Challenges in Spain in the Dismantling of the Forest Engineering Regime (1966-1999),” 7th Biennial Conference of the European Rural History Organisation (EURHO), Coimbra (Portugal), 2025
• “Semi-fictitious biographies to think about values in science. An attempt towards performance,” International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), Porto (Portugal), 2025
• “Databases, draught, Catalan nationalism and European scientific environmentalism in the Spanish democracy (1988-2004),” 11th Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, Barcelona (Spain), 2024
• “(Inter)nationalism in the making of the Ecological and Forest Inventory of Catalonia,” 10th Gewina Woudschoten Conference, Utrecht (the Netherlands), 2024
• “Historia ambiental e Historia de la Ciencia: tensiones e hibridaciones interdisciplinares para una academia comprometida,” IV Congreso de la Red Española de Historia Ambiental-RUED(H)A, Granada (Spain), 2024
• “Reading, listening, and reading. A collective walk on how we read and listen to the environment, history, and each other,” World Congress of Environmental History, Oulu (Finland), 2024
• “Scientific forestry in post-Franco Spain: making ‘better’ trees at a national network of experimental stations,” 9th Gewina PhD Conference in History of Science and Humanities, Soeterbeek (the Netherlands), 2023
• “‘Straight trunks’ and ‘original biocenosis’: production and conservation aims of Spanish foresters during the last third of the twentieth century at the Instituto Nacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza,” 10th Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, Brussels (Belgium), 2022
• “Descentralizando la historia de la biodiversidad: el conocimiento científico y su co-construcción con políticas nacionales ambientales en el ICONA,” III Congreso de la Red Española de Historia Ambiental-RUED(H)A, Granada (Spain), 2022
• “‘If You Need a New Microscope – Why Purchase an Old One?’ Scientific Advertisements in Nature and Their Role in the Printed Forum of the Laboratory Research Community,” British Society for the History of Science, 2021

Invited Lectures

• “Science and Action: Roundtable on the history and future of the relationship between research and management at La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park,” La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, Girona (Spain), 2024
• “¿Qué es una publicación científica? Reflexiones históricas, filosóficas, y críticas,” Jornadas sobre la carrera investigadora, Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Madrid (Spain), 2021
• “Ciencia Abierta: Globalidad y Localidad,” IV Conveción Científica Internacional. Sistemas latinoamericanos de indexación: ética o estética, Universidad Técnica de Manabí, Manabí (Ecuador), 2020
• “The Journal of Trial and Error meets the Early-Career Swiss Society for Neuroscience,” Second Swiss Early-career Researchers Symposium, University of Bern, Bern (Switzerland), 2020
• “The Journal of Trial and Error. Publishing science in the making: trying and erring in the age of open science,” Annual Graduate Student Symposium, University of Cambridge, Cambridge (United Kingdom), 2019

Teaching Experience

Internship Coordinator

• Institution: Journal of Trial and Error
• Years: 2021
• Roles: Design of internship goals and assessment of milestones for an intern of the Masters in History and Philosophy of Science (Utrecht University)

Workshop Instructor

• Institution: Life Sciences Faculty, Utrecht University
• Years: 2021-2022
• Roles: Design and facilitation of workshops: ‘Community Research Ethics and Publication Ethics’ and ‘Publication Possibilities, Scientific Outreach and Open Science’
• Audience: Introductory days for 500+ new master students

Student supervisor

• Institution: Biological & Personality Psychology Laboratory, Universität Freiburg
• Years: 2016
• Roles: Daily management of several undergraduates. Teaching a neuroimaging sectioning technique

Editorial Work

Co-founder, Journal of Trial and Error

• Years: 2018-2022
• Objectives: Initiative born from a productive mixture between HPS literature and the Open Science movement. Interdisciplinary journal providing an avenue for peer-reviewed articles of and about failure in science. Currently a Diamond Open Access journal. https://journal.trialanderror.org/
• Roles: developing working concepts and editorial policy, giving conference talks, contacting institutions, and coordinating design

Editorial Assistant, ARTECHNE ERC Project, Utrecht University

• Years: 2021
• Roles: Edition and management of two edited volumes: Histories of Conservation and Art History in Modern Europe (Routledge) and The Making of Technique in the Art (Brepols)

Assistant Managing Editor, Journal for the History of Knowledge

• Years: 2020
• Roles: Manuscript anonymisation, contact with reviewers, coordination with editors-in-chief

Professional Activities

Co-Organizer, 10th PhD Conference in History of Science, Medicine, and Humanities in Belgium and the Netherlands (April 2025), Beyond Switching Plastic Straws

• Institution: Belgian-Dutch Society for the History of Science and University (Gewina)
• Co-organised with Marieke Gelderblom (Utrecht University) and Martijn van der Meer (Erasmus University Rotterdam
• https://www.gewina.nl/cfp-beyond-switching-plastic-straws/

Co-Organizer, Disciplinary crossroads: history of science and environmental history, 2024

• Institution: Institut d’Història de la Ciència, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
• Co-organised with Carolina Granado (iHC-UAB) and Hèctor Isern (iHC-UAB)

Co-Organizer, Integrating the History and Philosophy of Biodiversity. Narratives of Diversity, Extinction, Conflict and Value, 2023

• Institution: UCLouvain and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
• Co-organised with Charles H. Pence
• https://pencelab.be/events/biodiversity-2023/

Awards and Honours

• ‘Aspirant’ Doctoral Fellow of the Belgian National Science Fund (FNRS). 4-year fully-funded scholarship
• Fellow, Collective writing residency ‘Earth Sciences: History, Science and Society,’ Faberllull Olot, 2024
• Fully-funded participant, International summer school ‘Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate and Biodiversity Crises: Historical evolutions, current realities, and future pathways for socio-ecological transformation,’ École Normale Supérieure and Centre Marc Bloch, Paris (France), 2023
• Vicent Peset Llorca Fellowship 2021-22, Inter-university Institute López Piñero for the History of Medicine and Science, Universitat de València, València (Spain)
• “What does it mean to die as a senior? The evolving narrative of death in Spain during the coronavirus pandemic,” (2020) ‘Coronavirus crisis speed research’, Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University

Languages

• Catalan: Native
• Spanish: Native
• English: Full Professional
• French: Intermediate