John L. Heilbron
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John L. Heilbron (J. L. Heilbron) is an American science historian best known for his work in the history of physics and the history of astronomy. He is Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus (Vice-Chancellor 1990-1994) at the University of California, Berkeley, senior research fellow at Worcester College, Oxford, and visiting professor at Yale University. He has edited the academic journal Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences for twenty-five years.
Heilbron attended Lowell High School in San Francisco, California, and was a member of the Lowell Forensic Society. He received his A.B. (1955) and M.A. (1958) degrees in physics and his Ph.D. (1964) in history from the University of California, Berkeley. During the 1960s, Heilbron was Thomas Kuhn's graduate student when Kuhn was writing The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
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[edit] Books
- The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-511229-6.
- The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science, Harvard University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-674-00439-6.
- The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories, Harvard University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-674-85433-0. (Paperback, 2001. ISBN 0-674-00536-8.)
- Electricity in the 17th and 18th Century: Study of Early Modern Physics, Dover Publications, 1999. ISBN 0-486-40688-1.
- Geometry Civilized: History, Culture, Technique, Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-850078-5. (Paperback, 2000. ISBN 0-19-850690-2.)
- Lawrence and His Laboratory: A History of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, with Robert W. Seidel, University of California Press, 1989. ISBN 0-52-006426-7.
- Electricity in the 17th and 18th centuries: a study of early Modern physics, University of California Press, 1979.
- H. G. J. Moseley: The Life and Letters of an English Physicist, 1887-1915, University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 1974. ISBN 0-520-02375-7.
[edit] Awards
- 2006: Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics, a joint award of the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics.
- 1993: awarded the Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society.
[edit] References
- Brief biography in AIP Center for History of Physics Newsletter, Volume XXXVIII, No. 1, Spring 2006.
[edit] External links
- "What Time Is It in the Transept?" D. Graham Burnett book review of The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories, The New York Times, October 24, 1999.
- Quote from Burnett's review: "How ironic…the church's seemingly backward attitude toward heliocentrism actually nurtured a powerful and emergent scientific method."
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Categories: Year of birth missing | Living people | American historians | American science writers | Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford | Historians of science | University of California, Berkeley alumni | University of California, Berkeley faculty | Yale University faculty | United States historian stubs
