John L. Heilbron

John Lewis Heilbron ( born March 17, 1934 in San Francisco) is an American historian of science, especially the history of physics and astronomy.

Life and work

Heilbron studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he in 1955 his bachelor's degree, a master's degree in 1958 and 1964 did his PhD with Thomas S. Kuhn in physics history. It was during this time the Sources for the History of Quantum Physics project. In 1964 he was an assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and from 1967 back to Berkeley, where he was professor and director of the 1973 Department of Science and technology history. 1990 to 1994 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Berkeley, before he retired in 1994. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University ( 1985-1991 ), Caltech (1997 ) and 2002 to 2004 at Yale University. Since 1996 he has been a researcher at the Oxford Museum for History of Science at Oxford University and a Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford.

Heilbron engaged in many areas of physics history, such as the use of church towers as solar observatories in the early modern period, Max Planck, the history of electricity in the Baroque, Ernest Lawrence, Henry Moseley, the development of geometry. He also takes into account the social, political and institutional context of scientific work.

He is a longtime editor of Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, under his leadership, starting in 1986, with the inclusion of biology.

Heilbron was the 1993 George Sarton Medal - the History of Science Society and the 2004 Pictet Prize of the Association for the History of Science and the Société de Physique et d' Histoire Naturelle. In 2006 he received the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics of the American Physical Society. He is a multiple honorary doctorates ( Universities of Bologna, Pavia, Uppsala ). Since 1987 he is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988 ), the American Philosophical Society (1990) and the Académie Internationale d' Histoire des Sciences, which he was president too.

Writings

  • The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories. Harvard University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-674-85433-0. 2001 paperback: ISBN 0-674-00536-8 ( he received the 2001 Pfizer Prize of the History of Science Society)
  • Publisher: The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science. Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-195-11229-6.
  • The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science. Harvard University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-674-00439-6.
  • Electricity in the 17th and 18th Century: Study of Early Modern Physics. University of California Press 1979, Dover 1999, ISBN 0-486-40688-1.
  • Geometry Civilized: History, Culture, Technique. Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-850078-5, paperback 2000: ISBN 0-198-50690-2.
  • With Robert W. Seidel Lawrence and His Laboratory: A History of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. University of California Press, 1989, ISBN 0-520-06426-7.
  • HGJ Moseley: The Life and Letters of an English Physicist, 1887-1915. University of California Press, 1974, ISBN 0-520-02375-7.
  • Ernest Rutherford and the explosion of atoms. Oxford University Press, 2003
  • Historical studies in the theory of atomic structure. , Arno Press, New York 1981
  • Introductory Essay to mathematics and physics at John Dee John Dee on Astronomy: Propaedeumata aphoristica. University of California Press 1978, ( editor and translator Wayne Shumaker )
  • Elements of early modern physics. University of California Press, 1982
  • With Bruce R. Wheaton: Literature on the history of physics in the 20th Century. University of California Press, 1981
  • Publisher: The Oxford Guide to the History of Physics and Astronomy. Oxford University Press 2005, ISBN 0195171985
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