Fara began her career as a physics teacher but returned to graduate studies as a mature student to specialise in History and Philosophy of Science, completing her PhD thesis at Imperial College, London, in 1993.
Research and writing
Her areas of particular academic interest include the role of portraiture and art in the history of science, science in 18th-century England during the Enlightenment, and the role of women in science. She has written about numerous women in science, mathematics, engineering and medicine, including: Hertha Ayrton, Lady Helen Gleichen, Mona Chalmers Watson, Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, Isabel Emslie Hutton, Flora Murray, Ida Maclean, Marie Stopes, and Martha Annie Whiteley. Fara has argued for expanded access to childcare as a means of increasing the retention of women in science. She has written and co-authored a number of books for children on science. Fara is also a reviewer of books on history of science. She has written the award-winning Science: A Four Thousand Year History (2009) and Erasmus Darwin: Sex, Science, and Serendipity (2012). Her most recent book is A Lab of One's Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War (2017). In 2013, Fara published an article in the journal Nature, stressing the fact that biographies of female scientists perpetuate stereotypes.
↑"The new President"(PDF). Antiquarian Horology. 37 (2): 178. 2016. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
↑Moulds, Alison (15 February 2018). "Patricia Fara on In Our Time". The British Society for the History of Science (BSHS). Retrieved 17 January 2019.
12Baldwin, Melinda (10 August 2018). "Q&A: Patricia Fara on the British women scientists who broke barriers". Physics Today (8). doi:10.1063/PT.6.4.20180810a. S2CID240330712.