Loren R. Graham (June 29, 1933 – December 15, 2024) was an American

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...

, particularly science in Russia.

Early life and career

Graham was born on June 29, 1933. He earned his B.A. in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

and his M.A. and doctorate degree in history at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. Graham taught and published at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

, the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he was a research associate as of 2024. He was a participant in one of the first academic exchange programs between the United States and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, studying at

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

in 1960 and 1961. He wrote a popular book on Native American history (''A Face in the Rock'') and a memoir (''Moscow Stories'') which describes his youth in the United States and his adventures in Russia. He was also a strong supporter of human rights and scholarship. He was a member of the board of trustees of the

Soros Foundation Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the st ...

. For many years he was a member of the Governing Council of the Program on Basic Research and Higher Education, which supports the combining of research and teaching in Russian universities and is financially supported by the

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and ...

, the

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

, the Russian Ministry of Science and Education, and local groups in Russia. He was a member of the advisory council of the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation, which supports international scientific collaboration. For many years he was a member of the board of trustees of the European University at St. Petersburg and still served on the board of a body raising money for that university as of 2024. He donated several thousand books from his library to the European University which established a special collection in his name. In much of his work in the history of science, Graham demonstrated the influence of social context on science, even its theoretical structure. For example, in his ''Science and Philosophy in the Soviet Union'' (which was a finalist for a

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

) he delineated the influence of

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

on science in Russia — in some cases, such as the

Lysenko Affair Lysenkoism ( ; ) was a political campaign led by the Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko against genetics and science-based agriculture in the mid-20th century, rejecting natural selection in favour of a form of Lamarckism, as well as expanding upon ...

, deleterious, but, in other cases, particularly in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

, and origin of life studies, positive. In addition to writing on the history of scientific theories, Graham wrote much on the organization of science in Russia and the Soviet Union, including a book on the early history of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

(''The Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Communist Party'') and a more recent one on the situation of science in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union (''Science in the New Russia''; co-written with Irina Dezhina).

Personal life and death

Graham's wife Patricia Graham is a prominent historian of education and a former dean at

. Loren Graham died on December 15, 2024, at the age of 91.

Awards and recognition

In 1996 he received the

George Sarton Medal The George Sarton Medal is the most prestigious award given by the History of Science Society. It has been awarded annually since 1955. It is awarded to a historian of science from the international community who became distinguished for "a lifet ...

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 in 2000 he received the Follo Award of the Michigan Historical Society for his contributions to Michigan history. Graham was a member of a number of honorary societies, both American and foreign, including the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

, the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, and the Russian Academy of Natural Science. His books have been published in English, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish, French, Japanese, Greek,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, Korean and Chinese. In 2012, he was awarded a medal by the Russian Academy of Sciences at a ceremony in Moscow for "contributions to the history of science".

Works

;Major books * ''Moscow in May 1963: Education and Cybernetics'' (with Oliver Caldwell), Washington, 1964 * ''The Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Communist Party, 1927—1932'',

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 1967 * ''Science and Philosophy in the Soviet Union'', Alfred Knopf, 1972 * ''Between Science and Values'', Columbia University Press, 1981 * ''Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Short History'',

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1993;
brief description
* ''Functions and Uses of Disciplinary Histories'' (edited with Wolf Lepenies and Peter Weingart), Reidel, 1983 * '' Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia, by

Alexander Bogdanov Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (; – 7 April 1928), born Alexander Malinovsky, was a Russian and later Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer and Bolshevik revolutionary. He was a polymath who pioneered blood transfusion, a ...

'' (edited with Richard Stites), Indiana University Press, 1984 * ''Science, Philosophy, and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union'', Columbia University Press, 1987 * ''Science and the Soviet Social Order'' (edited),

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

, 1990 * '' The Ghost of the Executed Engineer'', Harvard University Press, 1993 * ''A Face in the Rock: the Tale of a Grand Island Chippewa''], University of California, 1995 ;
''What Have We Learned about Science and Technology from the Russian Experience?''
Stanford University Press, 1998
''Moscow Stories''
Indiana University Press, 2006 * ''Grand Island and its Families'' (with Katherine Geffine Carlson) GIA, 2007 * ''Science in the New Russia: Crisis, Aid, Reform'' (with Irina Dezhina), Indiana University Press, 2008
''Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity''
with Jean-Michel Kantor Harvard University Press, 2009
brief description

''Lonely Ideas: Can Russia Compete?''
MIT Press, 2013 * '' Death at the Lighthouse: A Grand Island Riddle'', Arbutus Press, 2013
''Lysenko's Ghost: Epigenetics and Russia''
Harvard University Press, 2016 ;Articles
"What the Reappraisal of Soviet Russia's Top Agricultural Mastermind Says About Putin's Russia"
''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...

'' (2016)

Sources

Biographical material and professional details for Loren Graham may be found in: * Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor
'A Comparison of Two Cultural Approaches to Mathematics'

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

97 (2006), pp 56–74. Se
'Notes on Contributors'
published in the same issue. * Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor,

Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, New Series 1 (175), no. 4 (2007), pp. 44–52.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology bio (with photo)
* Mark Kramer
'A Tribute to Loren Graham (1933-2024)'
// Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, December 18, 2024.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Loren 1933 births 2024 deaths 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American science writers Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American historians of science Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Writers from Indiana People from Sullivan County, Indiana Historians from Indiana 21st-century American male writers Members of the American Philosophical Society