Noel Mark Swerdlow (9 September 1941 – 24 July 2021) was a professor emeritus of history, astronomy and astrophysics at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. He was a visiting professor at the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...
.
Career
Swerdlow specialized in the history of exact sciences, astronomy in particular, from antiquity through the 17th century.
He earned his Ph.D. at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in 1968; his doctoral dissertation, ''Ptolemy's Theory of the Distances and Sizes of the Planets: A Study of The Scientific Foundations of Medieval Cosmology'', was supervised by
Asger Aaboe.
Publications
The Derivation and First Draft of Copernicus's Planetary Theory: A Translation of the Commentariolus with Commentary by Noel M. Swerdlow i
the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 117, No. 6 Symposium on Copernicus (Dec. 31, 1973), pp. 423–512 (90 pages)
In 1984, Swerdlow, with co-author
Otto E. Neugebauer
Otto Eduard Neugebauer (May 26, 1899 – February 19, 1990) was an Austrian-American mathematician and historian of science who became known for his research on the history of astronomy and the other exact sciences as they were practiced in a ...
, published ''Mathematical Astronomy in Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus'', Springer. a two volume investigation of the sources and methods of
that pivotal work in the development of astronomy that first laid out a
heliocentric theory of the Solar System.
The Babylonian Theory of the Planets by N. M. Swerdlow, Princeton University Press , 1998 ,
Otto E. Neugebauer 1899–1990 A Biographical Memoirby N. M. Swerdlow published by the National Academies Press for the National Academy of Sciences , 1998
An essay on Thomas Kuhn's First Scientific Revolution, "The Copernican Revolution" in th
''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' Vol. 148, No. 1, March 2004(pp. 64-120)
In 1988 Swerdlow received the
MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, often referred to as the "genius grant."
In the same year he published the book ''The Babylonian Theory of the Planets'' (Princeton University Press).
In 1988 he was also elected to membership in 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 oldest learned society in the United States, dating to 1743.
"Members Search: Noel Swerdlow." ''American Philosophical Society.''
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See also
* ''On Sizes and Distances'' (Hipparchus)
References
External links
Guide to the Noel M. Swerdlow Collection 1967-1971
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
1941 births
2021 deaths
California Institute of Technology faculty
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
American historians of science
University of Chicago faculty
MacArthur Fellows
20th-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
20th-century American astronomers
21st-century American astronomers
Members of the American Philosophical Society
20th-century American male writers
Yale University alumni
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