Eric Scerri
Eric R. Scerri (* 1953 in Malta ) is a chemist and historian of chemistry and science who also deals with the philosophy of chemistry.
Scerri attended Walpole Grammar School in Ealing and graduated from Westfield College, University of London with a bachelor's degree, studied at Cambridge University (Certificate in Postgraduate Study), received a master's in philosophy from the University of Southampton and a PhD from King's College London on philosophy and history of chemistry. He taught chemistry at private schools in London for around ten years while he was doing his PhD. He was a post-doctoral student at the London School of Economics and at Caltech . He taught chemistry at Bradley University and Purdue University, and from 2000 at the University of California, Los Angeles , where he also teaches history and philosophy of science.
He has appeared on radio and television and has lectured worldwide. He has produced over 100 scientific articles and contributions of a popular scientific nature, including in Scientific American, American Scientist, New Scientist, Chemistry World.
His focus is the periodic table of the elements, its history, roots in quantum mechanics and philosophical aspects. In his book A tale of seven scientists , he describes the largely forgotten contributions of scientists in the history of the periodic table and its interpretation, which are largely forgotten today, that in addition to the well-known "luminaries" who are today ascribed the main development, the Contributions of these "minor characters" are also of great importance. Be it that they brought in ideas that were then taken up by the mainstream and promoted them in essential points. Often they were academic outsiders or amateurs ( Charles Janet , Antonius van den Broek ).
He is the editor of Foundations of Chemistry.
Fonts
- with Davis Baird, Lee McIntyre: Philosophy of chemistry. Synthesis of a new discipline, Springer 2005
- The periodic table. Its story and its significance, Oxford UP 2007, ISBN 9780195305739 (received UCLA's Herbert Newby McCoy Award)
- Collected papers on philosophy of chemistry, Imperial College Press, London, 2008, ISBN 9781848161375
- Selected papers on the periodic table, Imperial College Press, London, 2009, ISBN 9781848164253
- The Periodic Table: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford UP 2011, ISBN 978-0199582495
- as editor: 30-Second Elements: The 50 Most Significant Elements, Each Explained in Half a Minute, Icon Books 2013
- A tale of seven elements, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013, ISBN 9780195391312 (History of the discovery of the last seven non-artificial elements of the periodic table in the 20th century: Protactinium , Hafnium , Rhenium , Technetium , Francium , Astat , Promethium )
- with Lee McIntyre: Philosophy of Chemistry: Growth of a New Discipline, Springer, 2015, ISBN 978-94-017-9364-3
- A Tale of Seven Scientists, and a New Philosophy of Science, Oxford University Press, New York, 2016, ISBN 978-0190232993 (about seven lesser-known scientists in the history of the periodic table: John William Nicholson , Antonius van den Broek , Charles Bury , Richard Abegg , Charles Janet , John David Main Smith and Edmund Stoner )
- with Grant Fisher (Ed.): Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry, Oxford University Press, New York, 2016, ISBN 9780190494599
- with G. Restrepo (Ed.): Mendeleev to Oganesson: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on the Periodic Table, Oxford University Press, New York, 2018, ISBN 978-0190668532
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Scerri, Eric |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Scerri, Eric R. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Maltese chemist and chemical historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Malta |