Sabine Baier earned her PhD in philosophy of science from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) at the chair for philosophy. Her dissertation “Feuerphilosophen – Alchemie und das Streben nach dem Neuen” (“Philosophers of Fire. Alchemy and the Strive for the New”, published 2015) reflects from a philosophical perspective on the nature of innovation resp. the creation of the new by studying early modern transmutational alchemy. Furthermore, her thesis elaborates on the distinction between a performative material philosophy of creation and a text and output oriented logo-centric philosophy by following the historic terminology of “fire philosophy” on the one hand and “book philosophy” on the other.

She received a Swiss National Foundation scholarship to conduct her postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins. Her research focuses mainly on historical and modern theories of innovation, narrative theories, general philosophy of science and epistemology with special consideration of philosophy of synthetic chemistry and the pharmaceutical sciences. Her current book project explores the epistemological role of narratives in the process of modern drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry.

Contact: sbaier1@jhmi.edu