The history of science collections at Penn support programs in the Department of the History and Sociology of Science, which has a standing faculty of 12 and enrolls approximately 25 students for the Ph.D. Additionally, research in a range of other departments, including Classics, History, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Sociology and Philosophy, as well as scholars in the physical and biological sciences, women's studies, and literary studies rely on the history of science collections for their research.
The research and curricular program of the Department of the History and Sociology of Science has a strong emphasis in applied science of the modern period (nineteenth and twentieth centuries), both U.S. and Europe (at present Britain and Russia), including especially the history of medicine, public health and health policy, psychiatry, social history, women in science, biochemistry, chemistry, technology, physics, and East Asian science. Science and technology in the third world are areas of developing interest, especially among graduate students. Working in the earlier periods of the history of science are faculty in the Classics, History and Philosophy departments.