Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Chair for the History of Science

German Version

Vita

Wessel de Cock studied History at the University of Amsterdam from 2015-2018 (Cum Laude) and obtained a Research Master in History: Politics, Culture, and National Identities, 1789 to the Present at Leiden University (2018-2020). Subsequently, he worked in science communication of clinical trials for two years before starting his PhD funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and supervised by Cornelius Borck (Lübeck) Mathias Grote (Berlin) in March 2023. From May 2023 to January 2024 he will be part of the Comparing at the Interface of the Physical and Life Sciences, 1960 to 2000 project at Bielefeld University.[1]
From March to June 2026: Visiting Researcher, University of Tokyo, Interdisciplinary Komaba school, Science and Technology Studies at Prof. Em. Masato Fukushima Laboratory.

Research Interests

• Historical Epistemology
• History of the neurosciences
• History of the Life Sciences
• Science and Politics in Big Science

Current Project

"It's all in the head." A comparative historical-epistemological history of neuroscience in the Decade of the Brain (1990-2000)

"It's all in the Head" comparatively examines the local entanglements of neuroscientific knowledge production on mental illness and political mental health reform projects in the Decade of the Brain of the 1990s. It focuses on the projects of the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany, but does so explicitly against the larger global context, particularly in Japan and the larger European framework of the European Commission.

The proclamation of the "Decade of the Brain" by the U.S. Congress in July 1990 was followed by increases in funding and public attention for neuroscientific research worldwide. Although historians of science and science studies scholars have almost unanimously argued that an unprecedented global "neuro-turn" occurred in the 1990s, the local historical differences inherent in these national projects have thus far been mostly ignored.

By comparatively examining these local developments within the global trend toward neuroscientific explanations of mental illness in the 1990s, the project aims to uncover the black box of the Decade of the Brain. It thereby connects historical research on three scientific and policy developments that accumulated in the 1990s but have mainly been studied in isolation: the rise of evidence-based medicine (EBM), market-oriented health reform projects, and big science projects in the life and human sciences such as the Human Genome Project, the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), and the Decade of the Brain.

By examining how the production of neuroscientific knowledge about mental illness has been shaped by entanglements with particular policy reform projects in different historical contexts, the project aims to help rethink the relationship between scientific research on mental health and policy today.

Abbildung: Campaign of the Dutch Hersenstichtingen (Brain Foundation) ''je hersenen ben jezelf'' ("You are your brains"), Copyright: Hans de Bakker, Haagsche Courant, 10.04.1995.

Publications

• 2026: de Cock, W., Narratives of contingency as historical evidence for philosophical arguments of contingency: pathway decisions in the early development of molecular genetics. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 48, 31.
• 2024: Narratives of contingency and practices of comparing in the emergence of German molecular genetics (1958-1968)", in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, October 2024, 107, 118-127. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39243666/), co-publication with Carsten Reinhardt.
• 2022: Achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical trials. An in-depth look at understanding and overcoming historical barriers to patient participation, in: Pharmaphorum, co-publication with Dr. Doris Wu.
• 2020: De discussie over de solidariteit met gewelddadig verzet tegen apartheid in de eerste Nederlandse anti-apartheidsbeweging: het Comité Zuid-Afrika (1960-1971), Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 132:4 581-607. [peer reviewed]
• 2019: Book review: Robbert Jan Wille, Mannen van de microscoop. De laboratoriumbiologie op veldtocht in Nederland en Indië, 1840-1910, De Moderne Tijd, 3.
• 2017: Hoe Iran sjiitisch werd. De bekering van Iran door de Safaviden en de creatie van een Iraanse identiteit’, Zem Zem. Tijdschrift over het Midden-Oosten, Noord-Afrika en islam 13, 102-111
• 2016: ‘Sultan Versus Sharia. Seculiere wetgeving in het vroege Ottomaanse Rijk’, Skript historisch tijdschrift 38:2, 41-49.

[1] https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/sfb/sfb1288/projektbereiche/d06/

Talks & Presentations

2026

• "Institutionalizing translational neuroscience in Japan in the 1990s Decade of the Brain", Japanese Philosophy of Medicine Workshop, Hokkaido University travel grant from Nakatsuji Foresight Foundation (March 31)
• "Narratives of contingency as historical evidence for philosophical arguments of contingency: pathway decisions in the early development of molecular genetics", Workshop Alternative Historical Paths for the Biological Sciences, Leeds University, (11 July)
• "Juncture moments in the development of the psy-sciences. A comparative analysis of the shift to neuroscience in the 1990s Decade of the Brain", European Society for the History of Science/History of Science Society Joint Meeting, Edinburgh University (13 July)

• "The Translational Imperative: Reshaping Depression Research in the 1990s Decade of the Brain", "Epistemic Passages: Knowledge in Translation", Gesellschaft für die Geschichte der Wissenschaften, der Medizin und der Technik (GWMT) Conference Prague (11 September)

2025

• “The Contingent Demise of Classical Genetics in the Molecular Revolution”, at How Science Ends Conference, University of Oxford.
•  “The Paradox of Brain Plasticity and Neurogenesis in the 1990s Decade of the Brain. Reductionism and Interdisciplinarity in Neuroscientific Knowledge Production on Depression”, at The learning brain. Theory and history of a problem Conference, Darmstadt University.
•  “Towards a Systematic Historical Epistemology. An exemplary case study of the integration of clinical psychology into neuroscientific experimental systems in the 1990s Decade of the Brain”, at 10th International Workshop on Historical Epistemology, Lübeck University.

2024

• “Alles nur im Kopf. eine politische Epistemologie der Entwicklung eines neurobiologischen diagnostischen Tests für Depressionen in der Dekade des Gehirns”, at Forschungskolloquium des Historischen Seminars, Luzern University.

2023

• “Alles nur im Kopf: Eine historischpolitische Epistemologie von neurobiologischen diagnostischen Tests für Depression in der Dekade des Gehirns”, Kolloquium zur Geschichte des Wissens at Humboldt University Berlin
• "The Global in the Local: Understanding the 1990s Global Neuro-Turn Through Transfer, Competition and Collaboration", at International Summer School: Global History in the 2020s, Leiden University.