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Alphabetical

This page presents UT faculty and researchers who work on various topics in History and Philosophy of Science, Medicine, or Technology. This list is organized alphabetically.

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Volker Bromm

Professor, Astronomy

ASTRONOMY and its history and philosophy.  Selected Books: The First Stars and Galaxies: Challenges for the Next Decade, co-ed. (2010), The First Galaxies: Theoretical Predictions and Observational Clues, co-ed. (2012).  Course: AST350L History and Philosophy of Astronomy.

Erika Bsumek

Associate Professor, History

History of the ENVIRONMENT, Native Americans, anthropology, and engineering.  Books: Indian-made: Navajo Culture in the Marketplace (2008), Nation States and the Global Environment: New Approaches to International Environmental History, co-ed. (2013), The Concrete West: Engineering Society and Culture in the Arid West, 1900-1970 (in progress).  Courses: HIS392 Environmental History, HIS350R Environmental History of North America, HIS317L Building America.

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Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra

Professor, History

History of the Spanish empire and early modern science in the ATLANTIC world.  Selected Books: Nature, Empire, And Nation: Explorations of the History of Science in the Iberian World (2006), How to Write the History of the New World: Histories, Epistemologies, and Identities in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World (2001).

J. Brent Crosson

Assistant Professor, Religious Studies 

ANTHROPOLOGY of religion, science, and secularism, especially in the Caribbean. His current research compares the ethics of spiritual healers and petroleum geologists in relation to subterranean energy in Trinidad.  Course: RS373/ANT324L Science, Magic, Religion.

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 Lesley Dean-Jones

Professor, Classics

ANCIENT MEDICINE and philosophy.  BooksWomen's Bodies in Classical Greek Science (1994), A Commentary on the Pseudo-Aristotle Historia Animalium Book X (in progress). Co-editor with Ralph Rosen, Ancient Concepts of the Hippocratic. Proceedings of the XIIIth Colloquium Hippocraticum (Leiden: Brill, 2015).  Course: CC348 Ancient Greek Medicine.

Lina del Castillo

Associate Professor, History 

Science, Technology, and Medicine in Latin America; History of Geography and Cartography.  Book: Crafting Republic for the World: Scientific, Geographic, and Historiographic Inventions of Colombia (2018).

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Richard Fitzpatrick

Professor, Physics 

Physics, ancient Greek GEOMETRY and Ptolemy’s astronomy.  Selected Books: Euclid’s Elements of Geometry, trans. and ed. (2007), A Modern Almagest: An Updated Version of Ptolemy's Almagest (2010).

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Linda Henderson

Professor, Art History

History of ART in relation to geometry, science, and technology.  Books: The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art (1983/2013), From Energy to Information: Representation in Science and Technology, Art, and Literature, co-ed., (2002), Duchamp in Context: Science and Technology in the Large Glass and Related Works (1998).  Course: UGS303 Science and Art: Then and Now.

Bruce J. Hunt 

Associate Professor, History 

History of physics, ELECTRICITY, telegraphy, Maxwell, FitzGerald, Heaviside, Kelvin.  BooksThe Maxwellians (1994), Pursuing Power and Light: Technology and Physics from James Watt to Albert Einstein (2010), and, Imperial Science: Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in the Victorian British Empire (2021).  Courses: HIS322D Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century, HIS322M History of Modern Science, HIS350L The Galileo Affair, HIS329U Perspectives on Science and Math, UGS303 Science and Art: Then and Now, HIS350L Electrification, HIS329P History of the Atomic Bomb.

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Cory F. Juhl

Professor, Philosophy

Associate Chair, Philosophy

Professor PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, mathematics, philosophy of mind and religion.  Book: Analyticity, co-author (2009).  Courses: PHL316K  Science and Philosophy, PHL313 Introductory Symbolic Logic, PHL322 Science and the Modern World, PHL363L Topics in Philosophy of Science, PHL363L Space, Time, and Infinity, PHL375M Philosophy of Math and Physics, PHL363L Outer Limits of Reason, PHL344M Philosophy of Mathematics.

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Jeffrey C. Leon

Lecturer, Philosophy

Philosophy of science, medicine, ETHICS, and society, Descartes, Kant.  Book: Science and Philosophy in the West (1999).  Courses: PHL325M Medicine, Ethics, and Society, PHL322 Science and the Modern World, PHL329U Perspectives on Science and Math. 

Philippa Levine

Professor, History

History of EUGENICS, medicine, and science ethics in society, human experimentation.  Selected Books: Eugenics: a Very Short Introduction (2017), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics, co-ed. (2012).  Courses: HIS365G Science, Ethics, and Society; HIS 322S History of Genetics and Eugenics. 

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Alberto A. Martinez

Professor, History

Director, HPS Certificate

History of physics and math, RELATIVITY, myths, Einstein, Pythagoras, Galileo, Bruno.  Selected Books: Kinematics: The Lost Origins of Einstein’s Relativity (2009), Science Secrets: The Truth About Darwin’s Finches, Einstein’s Wife, and Other Myths (2011), The Cult of Pythagoras: Math and Myths (2012), Negative Math: How Mathematical Rules Can Be Positively Bent (2005), Burned Alive: Bruno, Galileo, and the Inquisition (2018).  Courses: HIS317N Discovery History, HIS322M History of Modern Science, HIS350L Einstein in an Age of Conflicts, HIS366N Biology, Behavior & Injustice, HIS350L Race, Science, and Racism, TC302/UGS303 Scientists and Religion in History, HIS329U Perspectives on Science and Math.

Tracie Matysik

Associate Professor, History

Modern European INTELLECTUAL HISTORY, sexuality, ethics.  Selected Book: Reforming the Moral Subject: Ethics and Sexuality in Central Europe, 1890-1930 (2008).

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 Abena Dove Osseo-Asare

Associate Professor, History

History of African MEDICINE, global health, biotechnology, nuclear energy.  BooksBitter Roots: The Search for Healing Plants in Africa (2014), Atomic Junction: Nuclear Power in an African Suburb (2019).  Courses: HIS350L Medicine In African History, HIS381 Drugs In World History, HIS366N Global History Of Disease.

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David Prindle

Professor, Government

POLITICS of EVOLUTION, Darwin, Stephen J. Gould.  Selected Book: Stephen Jay Gould and the Politics of Evolution (2009).  Course: CTI372 Darwin and the Politics of Evolution.

Lydia Pyne

Writer and Historian 

History of ANTHROPOLOGY, fossils, museums, and material culture.  Selected Books: Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils (2016), The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene (2012). 

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Megan Raby

Associate Professor, History

History of Biology, tropical ECOLOGY, biodiversity, environmental history.  BookAmerican Tropics: The Caribbean Roots of Biodiversity Science (2017).  Courses: HIS322G History of the Modern Life Sciences, HIS350L Global Environmental History, HIS329U Perspectives on Science and Math. 

Mark Raizen

Professor, Physics

Experimental PHYSICS, atom optics, quantum physics, history of physics, Maxwell, statistical mechanics, Brownian motion. 

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Sahotra Sarkar

Professor, Philosophy and Biology

Philosophy of BIOLOGY, environment, genetics, logical empiricism, Darwin.  Selected BooksEnvironmental Philosophy (2012), Doubting Darwin? Creationist Designs on Evolution (2007), Genetics and Reductionism (1998), Molecular Models of Life: Philosophical Papers on Molecular Biology (2005), Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy (2005), A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, co-ed. (2008), Decline and Obsolescence of Logical Empiricism: Carnap vs. Quine and the Critics, ed. (1996), The Legacy of the Vienna Circle, ed. (1996), Logic, Probability, and Epistemology: The Power of Semantics, ed. (1996), Logical Empiricism and the Special Sciences, ed. (1996), The Emergence of Logical Empiricism: From 1900 to the Vienna Circle, ed. (1996), The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia, co-ed. (2006).  Courses: BIO301C History of Biology, PHL363L Philosophy of Biology, PHL363L Darwin, Evolution, and Philosophy, PHL325C Environmental Ethics, PHL363L Darwin and Design, PHL316K Science and Philosophy, PHL363L Philosophy of Science

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RETIRED / PAST FACULTY : 

These are or were members of our community who taught relevant courses at UT Austin.

Robert Abzug

Professor, History 

History of PSYCHOLOGY and psychiatry, religion, William James.  Selected Book: William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, ed. (2012).

Larry Laudan

Lecurer, Law and Philosophy

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE and LAW.  Selected Books: Science and Relativism (1990), Progress and Its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth (1977), Truth, Error, and Criminal Law: An Essay in Legal Epistemology (2006), Science and Values: The Aims of Science and their Role in Scientific Debate (1984), Beyond Positivism and Relativism (1996), Science and Hypothesis: Historical Essays on Scientific Methodology (1981), Scrutinizing Science: Empirical Studies of Scientific Change, co-ed. (1988), Mind and Medicine: Problems of Explanation and Evaluation in Psychiatry and the Biomedical Sciences, ed. (1983), Physics, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, co-ed. (1983).  Past Courses: PHL322 Science and the Modern World, LAW397S Differing Roles of Evidence in Science and in Law.

Rachel Laudan

Researcher, History and Philosophy 

History of FOOD SCIENCE, philosophy of science, scientific progress, history of geology.  Selected Books: Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History (2013), The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii's Culinary Heritage (1996), From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science 1650-1830 (1987), The Nature of Technological Knowledge. Are Models of Scientific Change Relevant? ed. (1984), The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, co-ed. (2003), Scrutinizing Science: Empirical Studies of Scientific Change, co-ed. (2012).

Alexander Mourelatos

Professor Emeritus, Classics

Ancient philosophy and early GREEK SCIENCE, the Pre-Socratics.  Selected Books: The Route of Parmenides (1970), The Pre-Socratics: A Collection of Critical Essays (2014). 

Megan Seaholm

Senior Lecturer, History

History of MEDICINE and especially women’s health care.  Past Courses: HIS350R: Women, Health and Medicine in American History, HIS350R Women In Sickness & Health.

Steven Weinberg

Professor, Physics

PHYSICS, astronomy, modern physics and its history.  Selected Books: To Explain the World: Discovery of Modern Science (2016), The Discovery of Subatomic Particles (2003), Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries (2001).  Past Course: PHY341 History of Physics.