Helen Curry is a Senior Lecturer in the history of science at the University of Cambridge. She joined the Department in September 2012, having received her PhD in History from Yale University in May 2012.
Curry’s book Evolution Made to Order: Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth Century America (University of Chicago Press, 2016) traces the history of several early technologies used to modify genes and chromosomes, including their development as research tools in genetics and evolutionary biology, their application as novel methods of plant breeding, and their celebration in American popular culture as means of engineering life. Her current research considers the history of global conservation, in particular efforts made to preserve the genetic diversity of agricultural crop species through the practice of seed banking. This work is the focus of a CRASSH Pro Futura Scientia Fellowship from 2017–20 and has previously received funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Rockefeller Archive Center, and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities at the University of Cambridge.