Meg Briers

MPIWG-IMPRS

Boltzmanstrasse 22

Berlin, 14195

PhD student in the History of Science, studying women, gender and all things nineteenth-century British astronomy. Member of the International Max Planck Research School: Knowledge and its Resource, based at the Max Planck Research Institute for the History of Science.

Computer scientist and mathematician in a previous life, making some use of those skills by managing the website for the British Society for the History of Mathematics. Otherwise found running when my knees hold themselves together for long enough and doodling on the U-Bahn commutes.

news

Feb 05, 2026	Tickets are released for my public talk in Berlin in March, see Brewing Minds for more.
Feb 04, 2026	2026 as the year of new websites Finally got around to shifting my personal website from Notion to Jekyll, after admiring the website of a fair few academics. Hoping to keep the world more updated with what I’m doing and where I am, the latter of which being quite hard to keep up with. Have to spend more time in Berlin this year… Also launched recently is the BSHM website, graciously designed by Alexander Stoeger. With the remake of the website, we’ve relaunched the blog - be sure to check out the recent posts.

Feb 05, 2026

Tickets are released for my public talk in Berlin in March, see Brewing Minds for more.

Feb 04, 2026

2026 as the year of new websites

Finally got around to shifting my personal website from Notion to Jekyll, after admiring the website of a fair few academics. Hoping to keep the world more updated with what I’m doing and where I am, the latter of which being quite hard to keep up with. Have to spend more time in Berlin this year… Also launched recently is the BSHM website, graciously designed by Alexander Stoeger. With the remake of the website, we’ve relaunched the blog - be sure to check out the recent posts.

selected publications

Towards a Global History of the 1860 Total Solar Eclipse

Deborah Kent, Jesse Garrison, Megan Briers, and 3 more authors

HoST - Journal of History of Science and Technology, Jun 2025

Abs DOI

Abstract The path of eclipse totality across North America, Spain, and Northern Africa on 18 July 1860 was accessible to a wide range of observers in diverse geographical and socio-political contexts, the infrastructures of which shaped individual expedition logistics. This joint paper combines in a single frame of reference accounts from British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Algerian, and North American expedition parties. A focus on the scientific objectives of these observers with varied circumstances, institutions, and funding sources raises the question of a global approach to the history of observing the total solar eclipse in 1860.