Agnes Bolinska is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina's Department of Philosophy, where she is a McCausland Faculty Fellow. Her research examines the ways in which concrete and abstract scientific models enable learning about the physical systems they represent. She aims to understand what is distinctive about the kind of representation performed using these models and what makes them effective cognitive aids. She is particularly interested in the roles that different kinds of representations play in contemporary and historical practices of molecular structure determination. Currently, she is engaged in two projects, on…
Agnes Bolinska is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina's Department of Philosophy, where she is a McCausland Faculty Fellow. Her research examines the ways in which concrete and abstract scientific models enable learning about the physical systems they represent. She aims to understand what is distinctive about the kind of representation performed using these models and what makes them effective cognitive aids. She is particularly interested in the roles that different kinds of representations play in contemporary and historical practices of molecular structure determination. Currently, she is engaged in two projects, one examining how models of protein structure produced by different experimental techniques can be integrated to understand protein structure and function, and the other considering how historical case studies should be used to draw normative philosophical conclusions about scientific practice.