Rebecca Jackson

Rebecca Jackson is a historian and philosopher of measurement and methodology, currently affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin. She earned her PhD in 2023 from Indiana University Bloomington, focusing on clinical measuring practices and the philosophy of measurement. Her research explores the historical and philosophical dimensions of biomedical validation, particularly the development of idiographic (individualized) indexes for health-related quality of life.

• Education: PhD in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine (2023), Indiana University Bloomington.
• Affiliation: Former Visiting Postdoctoral Research Fellow at MPIWG’s Research Group ‘Practices of Validation in the Biomedical Sciences’.

Her work bridges the history of science with contemporary debates in psychometrics and clinimetrics, analyzing how measurement practices evolve and intersect with clinical and technological contexts. She investigates boundary-work in disciplines, such as whether clinimetrics deserves recognition as distinct from psychometrics.

Recent publications highlight her focus on non-standard measurement systems (e.g., the ‘drop’ as a fluid unit) and historical case studies (e.g., the cervimeter). Her research employs interdisciplinary methods, integrating archival analysis and experimental reconstruction.

Scientific Awards:

• Maurice Daumas Prize (2023) by ICOHTEC for her work on 19th-century fluid units.
• Interdisciplinary Organized Session Prize (2021) by ISHPSSB for collaborative research on clinical precision.

Her contributions to the field emphasize the interplay between practical knowledge, technological development, and philosophical frameworks in shaping scientific validity.