John Pickstone: a personal tribute.

I met John in 1995. I had enrolled for the University of Manchester’s unique M.A. in History and Social Anthropology of Science, Technology and Medicine, which was jointly run by the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine and the Department of Social Anthropology. This degree was one of many interdisciplinary activities that John had initiated. Soon after my arrival, during one of several drink receptions that form an integral part of induction weeks at British universities, John treated me like an old friend. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and offered me a funded Ph.D. project: he had been approached by an organisation of Swiss orthopaedic surgeons who wanted their history written, the AO (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen). It was necessary to read German to do this. I decided that I was not ready to work on the history of the AO. The project went to the University of Freiburg, where Thomas Schlich turned it into into a fine book, published in the book series that John edited 1. The project John had in mind for me was a typical example of how his work on local Manchester issues extended outwards and eventually went global. He had developed an interest in orthopaedic surgery when researching his book on Medicine and industrial society while based at the institution down the road, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology