History of Science

Welcome to the website of the history of science at the Institute for Advanced Study. The IAS has supported research in the history of science for decades. Faculty members who were historians of science here include Otto Neugebauer, Marshall Clagett, and Heinrich von Staden. While open to any historical approach of the natural sciences and mathematics, we are particularly committed to those, which can draw upon the expertise of the various faculty members not only in the School of Historical Studies, but also in the School of Natural Sciences, School of Mathematics, and School of Social Sciences.

The current professor’s interests in the history of science include: the relationship between natural scientists, engineers, instrument makers and musicians; race and genomics; intellectual property and molecular biology; the relationship between skilled artisans and experimental natural philosophers; science and aesthetics; the communication of scientific knowledge and the politics thereof; and the histories of optics, acoustics, molecular biology, and immunology.

The School aspires to both depth and diversity in bringing together every year a group of distinguished scholars in the broad area of the history of science.