Chaokang Tai is a historian of science who recently completed his PhD at the University of Amsterdam. In May 2021, he will start as postdoctoral researcher at the University of Regensburg as part of the DFG project `Astronomy's Glass Archive: Photographic Practices at the Observatory, 1850-1950’. His main interests are in how science is constructed and what it means to be a scientist, especially during the late modern period. 

In his PhD research, Tai investigated the scientific research of the influential Marxist and astronomer Anton Pannekoek. In particular, he focused on Pannekoek’s implementation of astrophotography, the epistemic virtues he pursued in his research, and the relation between his scientific methodology and his political philosophy. 

Tai has taught various classes, including the graduate course Philosophy of Science and the undergraduate course History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Amsterdam, and the undergraduate course History of Modern Physics at Utrecht University.

Recent publications include Anton Pannekoek: Ways of Viewing Science and Society (Amsterdam University Press, 2019), edited with Bart van der Steen and Jeroen van Dongen, and “Left Radicalism and the Milky Way: Connecting the Scientific and Socialist Virtues of Anton Pannekoek” in Historical Studies of the Natural Sciences 47 (2017): 200-254.

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Relevant Publications:

C. K. Tai, “Anton Pannekoek, Marxist Astronomer: Photography, Epistemic Virtues, and Political Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century Astronomy” (PhD Thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2021).

C. K. Tai, “The Milky Way as Optical Phenomenon: Perception and Photography in the Drawings of Anton Pannekoek” inAnton Pannekoek: Ways of Viewing Science and Society, eds.Chaokang Tai, Bart van der Steen, and Jeroen van Dongen (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019) pp. 219-249.