John Heilbron

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

life and work

Heilbron studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley , where he received his bachelor's degree in 1955 , his master's degree in 1958 and his doctorate in the history of physics under Thomas S. Kuhn in 1964 . During this time he was on the Sources for the History of Quantum Physics project. In 1964 he was assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and from 1967 back in Berkeley, where he became professor and in 1973 director of the department for the history of science and technology. 1990 to 1994 he was vice-chancellor of the University of Berkeley, before 1994 retired . He was visiting professor at Cornell University (1985 to 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 dealt with many areas of the history of physics, such as the use of church towers as solar observatories in the early modern period, Max Planck , the history of electricity in the Baroque era, Ernest Lawrence , Henry Moseley , the development of geometry. He also takes into account the social, political and institutional environment of the scientific work.

He has long been the editor of Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, under his leadership from 1986 also including biology.

Heilbron received the George Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society in 1993 , the Koyré Medal in 1999 and the Pictet Prize of the Association for the History of Science and the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle in 2004. In 2006 he received the Abraham Pais Prize for the History of Physics from the American Physical Society . He has multiple honorary doctorates (Universities of Bologna, Pavia, Uppsala). Since 1987 he has been 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, of which he was also President.

Fonts

• 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 from the History of Science Society)
• Editor: 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 , as 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
• Physics at the Royal Society during Newtons presidendy . Los Angeles 1983
• Introductory essay on mathematics and physics by John Dee in 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 20. Century . University of California Press, 1981
• Editor: The Oxford Guide to the History of Physics and Astronomy . Oxford University Press 2005, ISBN 0195171985
• with Paul Forman , Spencer Weart : Physics circa 1900: Personnel, Funding, and Productivity of the Academic Establishments, Historical Studies in the physical sciences, Volume 5, 1975, pp. 1–185

Web links

• Literature by and about John Heilbron in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography on the occasion of the award of the Pais Prize