Nathaniel Charles Comfort (born 1962) is an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

specializing in the

history of biology The history of biology traces the study of the life, living world from ancient to Modernity, modern times. Although the concept of ''biology'' as a single coherent field arose in the 19th century, the biological sciences emerged from history o ...

. He is an associate professor in the Institute of the History of Medicine at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. In 2015, he was appointed the third Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

John W. Kluge Center The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress invites and welcomes scholars to the Library of Congress to conduct research and interact with policymakers and the public. It also manages the Kluge Scholars' Council and administers the Kluge ...

. He also serves on the advisory council of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Comfort is best known for his 2001 biography of

Barbara McClintock Barbara McClintock (June 16, 1902 – September 2, 1992) was an American scientist and cytogenetics, cytogeneticist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University ...

, ''The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock's Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control''. He has been praised for his reinterpretation of the response to McClintock's work on controlling elements. His 2012 book ''The Science of Human Perfection'' examines the history of human and

medical genetics Medical genetics is the branch of medicine that involves the diagnosis and management of hereditary disorders. Medical genetics differs from human genetics in that human genetics is a field of scientific research that may or may not apply to me ...

in America. He has written about the development of gene editing and its relationship to the United States' eugenics movement. He is working on a history of the genomic revolution in origin-of-life research.

Education

Comfort received a B.A. in marine biology from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1985. He received an M.S. in neurobiology and behavior from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1990. After working as a science writer at

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, botany, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is located in Laurel Hollow, New York, in Nassau County, on ...

, he completed his Ph.D. in history at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

in 1997.

Career

Comfort was an associate professor of history and the deputy director at the Center for History of Recent Science at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

from 1997 to 2003. He joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins faculty in 2003. He is a member of the

History of Science Society The History of Science Society (HSS), founded in 1924, is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science. The society has over 3,000 members worldwide. It publishes the quarterly journal ''Isis'' and the yearly ...

and the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology. He is on the editorial board of ''History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences''. Comfort published 30 essays and reviews in ''Nature'' 2001–2019, and was one of the few authors selected to celebrate the magazine's 150th anniversary.

Personal Life

Comfort married molecular biologist Carol W. Greider in 1993. They have two children. They divorced in 2011.

Publications

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References

External links

Comfort's faculty profile
1962 births Living people 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Johns Hopkins University faculty George Washington University faculty 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers {{US-biologist-stub