He was awarded best teacher at British Universities for his teaching of history of science at Cambridge University (1992) and has received various scholarly awards like the Paul-Bunge-Prize (1994) for the best publication in history of science, as well as the scientific excellence grant from the Max Planck Society, Germany (1998).
He was a visiting researcher and professor at various institutions: Cambridge University, Tel Aviv University, Professeur invité (directeur de recherche) at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (2008), visiting professor at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science (2008, 2009, 2010) and at Si-Mian Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at East China Normal University, Shanghai (2010).
Otto Sibum’s research covers the history of the physical sciences from the 18th century until present.
His studies are dedicated to exploring new approaches in social and cultural history of the sciences.
He has recently worked on laboratory practices, instruments and the historical experiment in research.