[1] Sven Widmalm was awarded a Ph.D. in History of Science and Ideas in 1990 from Uppsala University.
From 2005 to 2016 he was a member of the board of Uppsala University's Centre for Science and Technology Studies.
Between 2009 and 2011 he was Chair of the Unit for Technology and Social Change at Linköping University.
Widmalm has worked on the History of science from the 18th century onwards, and has published on the history of astronomy, geodesy, cartography, experimental physics, genetics, biochemistry and high-energy physics, focussing on cultural and political aspects of science, as well as on technical, economic and research policy aspects.
He has also worked on the intellectual connections between Sweden and Nazi Germany and on the history of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.