EDUCATION:
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ph.D. (History of Science) 1967; A.M. (Physics) 1963;
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California: B.S. (Physics) 1962

DISSERTATION:
"Sir John Leslie: 1766-1832, A Study of the Pursuit of the Exact Sciences in the Scottish Enlightenment"

HONORS AND AWARDS:
 John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Faculty Fellowship, 1990-1991
National Endowment For The Humanities Fellowship, 1986-1987
National Science Foundation Summer Research Grant, 1985
Lois and Arnold Graves Fellowship, 1978-1979
NEH Younger Humanist Fellowship, 1974-1975
NSF Graduate Fellowship, 1962-1965
Honorary Woodrow Wilson Fellow, 1962

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
 Professor of History and Willard W. Keith Fellow in Humanities, Harvey Mudd College; and Professor of History, Claremont Graduate School, 1976-
Chairman of the Faculty, Harvey Mudd College, 1998-
 Director, Claremont Colleges Program on Science, Technology, and Society, 1991-1993 &  1994-1995
 Director, Freshman Division, Harvey Mudd College, 1987-1990
 Chairman, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Harvey Mudd College, 1982-1985
 Assistant-Associate Professor of History, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1967-1976
 Chairman, History Board of Studies, Univesity of California at Santa Cruz, 1972-1976
 Instructor in History, Tufts University, 1966-1967

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND ACTIVITIES:
 History of Science Society, Member, 1964-- , Committee on Honors & Prizes, 1990--; Chair, COHP, 1993--, Advisory Editor for Isis, 1996--
 West Coast History of Science Society, Member, 1967-, Secretary Treasurer, 1967-69
American Historical Association
Fulbright Panel for History and Philosophy of Science, 1988-1992
Advisory Editor, Skeptic, 1992--
Consulting Editor, Facts on File, Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Society, 1993--
Referee for: NEH, NSF, Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Isis, MIT Press, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press, University of California Press.

PUBLICATIONS:
BOOKS:
 The Emergence of the Social Sciences, 1642-1792, New York: Twayne Press, 1993.
 Science Deified and Science Defied: The Historical Significance of Science in Western Culture, Vol. 2: 1620-1820, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990.
 Science Deified and Science Defied: The Historical Significance of Science in Western Culture, Vol. 1: From the Bronze Age to 1620, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982.
 Scottish Philosophy and British Physics, 1750-1850: Foundations of the Victorian Scientific Style, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975 (Italian translation, Bologna: Societa Editrice il Mulino, 1982).
Editor, Science as Metaphor, Belmont: Wadsworth, 1971
 Editor, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists (5 vols.), New York, London, & Toronto: Marshall Cavendish,1998 (for secondary school audience)

ARTICLES AND INVITED CHAPTERS IN BOOKS:
 "The ‘Science Wars': In the 1990's and the 1830's" (Forthcoming in Naturvitenskap og filosofi, University of Bergen)
"The Scientific Revolution Reshapes the World," The World & I, 14 #4 (April, 1999):18-39.
.  "Sex and Status in Scottish Enlightenment social science: John Millar and the Sociology of Gender Roles", History of the Human Sciences,11 (1998): 73-100.
 "The Human Sciences", forthcoming in Roy Porter, ed., The Eighteenth Century in The  Cambridge History of Science (6 volumes), general editors, David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers (refereed)
 "Physics" forthcoming in the Garland Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, Gary Ferngren, ed. (refereed)
 "Whose is the Higher Superstition: Reflections on the Contemporary Culture Wars," Skeptic,4 #2 (1996):32-35; and "Where is Knowingness To Be Found: A Reply to Norman Levitt," Skeptic,#4 (1997):83-84.
 "Spirits, Witches and Science: Why the Rise of Science Encouraged Belief in the 'Supernatural' in 17th Century England," Skeptic,1 #4 (1992), 34-44.
 "Historical Reflections on Feminist Critiques of Science: The Scientific Background to Modern Feminism," History Of Science,28 (1990): 125-147.
 Introductory essays to six chapters in John Burke, ed., Science and Culture in the Western Tradition, Scottsdale: Gorsuch Scarisbrick, 1987.
 "On the Nature of God's Existence, Wisdom, and Power: The Interplay of Organic and Mechanistic Imagery in Anglican Natural Theology, 1640-1740," pp. 1-48, in Fred Burwick, ed., Approaches to Organic Form, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1986.
 "Aristophanes and the Anti-Scientific Tradition," pp. 441-454, in Everett Mendelssohn, ed., Tradition and Transformation in the Sciences, Essays in Honor of I. Bernard Cohen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
 "Tory-High Church Opposition to Scientism," pp. 171-204, in John Burke, ed., The Uses of Science in the Age of Newton, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983.
 "Science, Scientism, and Anti Science in Hellenic Athens," History of Science,16 (1978): 179-189.
 "Scientists Are Losing Their Intellectual Arrogance," Psychology Today (January 1976): 70ff (German translation in Psychologie Heute, 1978).
 "Scottish Philosophy and Mathematics," Journal of the History of Ideas,32, (1971): 29-44.
 "The Gould Controversy at Dudley Observatory: Public and Professional Values in Conflict," Annals of Science,27 (1971): 265-270.
 "Count Rumford, Sir John Leslie, and the Study of the Nature and Propagation of Heat in the Early 19th Century," Annals of Science,26 (1970): 274-304.
 "The Reception of Boscovich's Ideas in Scotland," Isis,60 (1969):91-103.
 "Sir John Leslie and the Laws of Electrical Conduction in Solids," American Journal of Physics, 37 (1969): 190-194.

OTHER:
 Fifty-six  book reviews for Albion, American Historical Review, American Scientist, Isis, Journal for the History of the Behavioral Sciences, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and Scripta Mathematica.
 Twenty-three articles for Rudi Volti, ed., Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Society, Facts on File, 1999
 Articles on "Political Theory" and "Science and Government" for Wilbur Applebaum, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution, forthcoming from Garland Press.

WORKS IN PROGRESS:

 Science Deified and Science Defied, Volume 3, [bringing it from 1820 to the early twentieth century]; and
 Anglican Natural Theology and its Enemies, 1592-1802 [ with Peter Hess , manuscript  approximately 50% completed].

RECENT COURSES TAUGHT:

Undergraduate:
Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society
Science and Technology from an "other" perspective
Science and Religion: an introduction to Historical and Sociological Approaches
Science and Technology in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds
Science and Technology in the Early Modern World
Science and Technology in the Modern World
Science and American Cultures
Science and Politics in the United States

Graduate:
Science and European Culture in the Nineteenth Century
The Enlightenment
The Origins of the Social Sciences
Science, Politics, and Religion in Seventeenth Century England

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Updated on April 18, 2000, by Richard Olson (olson@hmc.edu ).