Asger Aaboe
Asger Hartvig Aaboe ( born April 26, 1922 in Copenhagen, † January 19, 2007 in North Haven, Connecticut) was a Danish mathematics and astronomy historian.
Aaboe studied from 1940 mathematics, astronomy, physics and chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, where he studied under the student of Otto Neugebauer Olaf Schmidt ( 1913-1966, Professor of History of Science in Copenhagen) in 1947 his diploma ( Candidatus magisterii ) made ( The determination of areas and volumes in the ancient world, particularly in the works of Archimedes ). 1947/48 he was a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis. There he met his wife, Joan Armstrong, whom he married in 1950 and with whom he had four children. After a time as a teacher in Denmark, he went in 1952 as an instructor at the Tufts University. He studied from 1955 next to the History of Science at Otto Neugebauer at Brown University, his Astronomical cuneiform texts published straight. In 1957 he received his doctorate in Neugebauer (On Babylonian Planetary Theories ).
Aaboe remained until 1962 at Tufts University, where he associate professor in 1959, and then went to the newly established Faculty of History of Science at Yale University, where he was an associate professor and in 1967 professor of mathematics and history of science ( from 1977 also for Ancient Near Eastern Languages ). 1968 to 1971 he was Director of the Department of History of Science. In 1992, he went into retirement.
Aaboe was a specialist in Babylonian astronomy history.
He was a member of the International Academy of the History of Science, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, which he was president from 1970 to 1980. In 1962 he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm (pre- Ptolemaic Greek astronomy).
Writings
- Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics. Singer, New York 1964, Mathematical Association of America in 1998 (the book was translated into several languages and is aimed at students)
- Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy. Springer Verlag 2001