David R. Oldroyd

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David Roger Oldroyd (born January 20, 1936 in Luton , † November 7, 2014 in Sydney ) was an Australian geologist and science historian of geology and evolutionary theory.

Oldroyd studied chemistry (and geology) at the University of Cambridge (Emmanuel College) and was then initially a teacher, while studying history of science at University College London . In 1969 he went to Australia, where he taught at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and also received his doctorate in 1974 on the history of mineralogy in connection with chemistry. He was an Associate Professor of the School of Science and Technology Studies at UNSW. In 1996 he retired. He died of a brain tumor.

In 1994 he became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities .

Oldroyd was editor of Earth Sciences History , Secretary General of the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences from 1996 to 2004 and then Vice President. He was President of the Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science. In 2002 he became a corresponding member and in 2008 a full member of the International Academy of the History of Science .

He is known as the author of a standard work on the history of geology ( Thinking about the Earth ) and other books on the history of geology, for example The Highland Controversy by Roderick Murchison . He was also the co-editor of several compilations on the history of geology for the Geological Society of London .

In 1994 he received the Sue Tyler Friedman Medal of the Geological Society of London for his book on the Highland Controversy and his series of articles on the Archaean Controversy (Annals of Science 1991-1995) and the History of Geology Award from the Geological Society of America in 1999 . He also received the Australian Centenary Medal.

He is a passionate cello player who also played in the British National Youth Orchestra.

Fonts

  • Thinking about the Earth. A History of Ideas in Geology , Harvard University Press 1996
    • German translation: The biography of the earth , two thousand and one 1998, 2007
  • The Arch of Knowledge: an introductory story to the history of the philosophy and methodology of science , New York: Methuen 1986
  • The Highlands Controversy. Constructing Geological Knowledge through Fieldwork in Nineteenth-Century Britain , University of Chicago Press 1990
  • Darwinian Impacts: an introduction to the Darwinian Revolution , Open University Press 1980
  • Earth Cycles: A Historical Perspective , Greenwood 2006
  • Editor with RH Grapes, A. Grigelis: History of geomorphology and Quaternary geology , London, Geological Society 2008
  • Sciences of the earth: studies in the history of mineralogy and geology , Aldershot 1998
  • Published in: Earth, water, ice and fire: two hundred years of geological research in the English Lake District , Geological Society, London 2002
  • Editor: The earth inside and out: some major contributions to geology in the twentieth century , Geological Society, London 2002
  • Editor with Ian Langham: The Wider domain of evolutionary thought , Dordrecht: Reidel 1983
  • Maps as pictures or diagrams: The early development of geological maps , in VR Baker (Hrsg.), Rethinking the fabric of geology. GSA Special Paper 502, 2013, pp. 41-101

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Oldroyd, David R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oldroyd, David Roger (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian science historian and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Luton
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 2014
Place of death Sydney