Allan Franklin

Allan David Franklin (born 1 August 1938, Brooklyn)[1] is an American physicist, historian of science, and philosopher of science.

Franklin received in 1959 his bachelor's degree from Columbia University and in 1965 his PhD in physics from Cornell University.[2] He was from 1965 to 1966 a postdoc and from 1966 to 1967 an instructor at Princeton University. At the University of Colorado Boulder he became in 1982 a full professor in physics, after having been there from 1967 to 1973 an assistant professor and from 1973 to 1982 an associate professor.

At the beginning of his career he did research on particle physics. Since the 1970s his research has dealt with the history and philosophy of science, in particular, the role of experiments in physics. He has done research on the history of experiments on parity violation, CP violation, neutrinos, and a possible fifth force, as well as the Millikan oil drop experiment and the relationship between theory and experiment in research on weak interactions.

As a philosopher, he dealt with the Duhem–Quine thesis, the theory of confirmation using Bayesian statistics, the corrigibility and reliability of experimental results, and the resolution of conflicting observations.

In 2016 he received the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics.[3] He was elected in 1988 a Fellow of American Physical Society and was twice the chair of the Society's Forum for the History of Science. in 2000 he was a Miegunyah Distinguished Fellow at the University of Melbourne.