Owen Gingerich

Owen Jay Gingerich (* 1930 in Washington ( Iowa) ) is, among other things, a former Professor of Astronomy and History of Science at Harvard University.

As an astronomer, he was known among other things for models of the solar atmosphere and was a Senior Astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He also wrote popular science articles and books ( he was, for example several Scientific American anthologies about astronomy and the history of astronomy in the 1970s and 1980s out ) and held at Harvard for many years the course The Astronomical Perspective from which was intended primarily for students of other subjects. For his lectures, he was awarded the Radcliffe - Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Award.

1992 to 1993 he was chairman of the department History of Science at Harvard. In 2000 he became Professor Emeritus.

Gingerich is considered authority on Johannes Kepler and Nicolaus Copernicus. For three decades, he examined the world's more than 580 existing copies of Nicolaus Copernicus ' De revolutionibus orbium Coelestium, and reported it in the book that no one read, published in 2004. Was preceded by a theory that Copernicus ' work was originally found in 1543 hardly any attention. Gingerich found a copy with many comments of Erasmus Reinhold, and examined it, other known copies to trace the spread of the theory. For these studies, he received in 1981 a high Polish Order of Merit.

Gingerich issued translations of Theodor von Oppolzer's Canon of Eclipses and Max Caspar's Kepler biography.

Gingerich is also self collectors of rare books and of mussel and snail shells and also on his worldwide travels passionate observer of solar eclipses.

An asteroid is named after him. He was vice president of the American Philosophical Society and Chairman of the U.S. Committee for the International Astronomical Union. He also organized the historical division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS ), whose Doggett price he received in 2004. He also received the 2004 Teaching Award (Education Prize ) of the AAS and the 2006 Jules Janssen Award.

Writings

  • An annotated census of Copernicus ' De revolutionibus ( Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566 ). Leiden: Brill, 2002 ISBN 90-04-11466-1 ( Studia Copernicana Brill 's series; v. 2, 434 pages.)
  • The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus. New York, Walker 2004, ISBN 0-8027-1415-3, paperback by Penguin
  • God's universe: Thinking about open questions. Berlin University Press, 2008, ISBN 3-940432-18-0 (English: God's Universe, Harvard University Press 2006, William Belden Noble Lectures at Harvard, 2005)
  • The Great Copernicus Chase and other adventures in astronomical history, Cambridge University Press, 1992 ( collection of essays )
  • The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, American Institute of Physics 1993 ( collection of essays )
  • The Galileo Affair, Scientific American, August 1982
  • Physical Sciences in the 20.Century, Scribner 1989
  • With Barbara Welther: Planetary, Lunar and solar positions, new and full moons, 1650-1805, American Philosophical Society 1983
  • With Kenneth R.Lang (Editor): Source Book in astronomy and astrophysics from 1900 to 1975, Harvard UP 1979
  • With James MacLachlan: Nicolaus Copernicus - making the earth a planet, Oxford University Press 2005
Gutenberg Bible Washington (Iowa) Prix Jules Janssen Astrophysics Data System Name Authority File
628343
de