Simon Schaffer

Simon J. Schaffer (born 1 January 1955)[1] is a historian of science, previously a professor of the history and philosophy of science at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and was editor of The British Journal for the History of Science from 2004 to 2009.[2]

Simon Schaffer
Schaffer at a pub in Cambridge, UK, 2015
Born (1955-01-01) 1 January 1955
Southampton
EducationVarndean Grammar School for Boys
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
Harvard University
Awards
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
Darwin College, Cambridge
Imperial College London
University of California, Los Angeles
ThesisNewtonian cosmology and the steady state (1980)
Websitewww.people.hps.cam.ac.uk/index/teaching-officers/schaffer

Early life and education

Schaffer was born in Southampton in 1955. His family moved to Brisbane, Australia that same year, returning to the UK in 1965 to live in Brighton.[3] His father, Bernard, was an academic social scientist who was a professorial fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex from 1966 until his death in 1984.[4] Simon's mother, Sheila, who died in 2010, was a university librarian and Labour councillor who was Mayor of Brighton in 1995.[5]

Schaffer attended Varndean Grammar School for Boys in Brighton before studying Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, specialising in the history and philosophy of science in his final year.[3] While at Trinity, he captained the winning college team in the 1974 University Challenge. After completing his undergraduate degree, Schaffer went to Harvard University for a year as a Kennedy Scholar to study the history of science. He returned to Cambridge in 1976, and gained his PhD in 1980 with the thesis Newtonian cosmology and the steady state.[3][6][7]

Career

During the early 1980s, Schaffer taught at Imperial College London.[8] Since 1985, he has been a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge. He has also taught at the University of California, Los Angeles.[9] He has authored or co-authored numerous books, including Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life with Steven Shapin.[10] In addition to his work at Cambridge, he has been a presenter on the BBC,[11] in particular the series Light Fantastic broadcast on BBC Four in 2004.[12][13][14] He has been a regular contributor and reviewer for the London Review of Books.[15] Schaffer has made multiple appearances on the BBC radio discussion series In Our Time.[16][17][18][19][20][21]

Awards and honours

In 2005, Schaffer shared the Erasmus Prize with Steven Shapin for Leviathan and the Air-Pump.[22] In 2013, he received the Sarton Medal, the most prestigious honor awarded by the History of Science Society, in recognition of his contribution to the "history of science, not only as an academic discipline, but also as a source of broader intellectual inspiration and understanding".[23][24] In 2018 he received the Dan David Prize.[25] Schaffer was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2012.[26]

Selected bibliography
  • Shapin, Steven; Schaffer, Simon (1985). Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691178165.[27]
  • Schaffer, Simon; Pinch, Trevor; Gooding, David (1989). The uses of experiment: studies in the natural sciences. Cambridge England New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521337687.
  • Schaffer, Simon (1995). 'Accurate Measurement is an English Science,' The Values of Precision. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03759-0.
  • Schaffer, Simon (2009). The brokered world : go-betweens and global intelligence, 1770-1820. Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications. ISBN 978-0881353747.

References
  1. "Schaffer, Simon, 1955-". Library of Congress Name Authority File. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  2. "Past editors' favourite papers published during their time in office". The British Journal for the History of Science. 50 (2): 173–179. June 2017. doi:10.1017/S0007087417000061. ISSN 0007-0874. PMID 28438228.
  3. Macfarlane, Alan (17 November 2008), Harrison, Sarah (ed.), Interview of Simon Schaffer, University of Cambridge
  4. "Bernard Schaffer Collection". University of Bath. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  5. Avis, Peter (18 March 2010). "Sheila Schaffer obituary". The Guardian.
  6. Schaffer, Simon (1980). Newtonian cosmology and the steady state. cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 216242434. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.281053.
  7. "Simon Schaffer". www.alanmacfarlane.com. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  8. Gay, Hannah (2007). The History of Imperial College London, 1907–2007: Higher Education and Research in Science, Technology and Medicine. London: Imperial College Press. p. 588. ISBN 978-1-86094-708-7.
  9. Béteille, Radha, ed. (2022). Creative Lives and Works: Science and Culture. New York: Routledge. p. 69. ISBN 9781032198545.
  10. Schaffer, Simon; Shapin, Steven (2011). Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life (New in Paper). Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15020-8.
  11. "BBC Four - Mechanical Marvels: Clockwork Dreams".
  12. "BBC - Press Office - Light Fantastic Simon Schaffer interview". Archived from the original on 28 December 2009.
  13. Light Fantastic at IMDb
  14. Simon Schaffer at IMDb
  15. "Simon Schaffer · LRB". www.lrb.co.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  16. "BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Calculus". BBC. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  17. "BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Scientific Method". BBC. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  18. "BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Invention of Radio". BBC. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  19. "BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Automata". BBC. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  20. "BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Absolute Zero". BBC. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  21. "BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Longitude". BBC. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  22. "Erasmusprijswinnaars". Praemium Erasmianum Foundation. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  23. "HSS 2013 Prize Citations". Isis. 105 (2): 394–397. June 2014 – via The University of Chicago Press Journals.
  24. Thompson, David (19 July 2017). "Sarton Medal awarded to Simon Schaffer". www.hps.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  25. Thompson, David (12 February 2018). "Simon Schaffer wins the 2018 Dan David Prize". www.hps.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  26. "Professor Simon Schaffer FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  27. Hankins, Thomas L. (1986). "Review of Leviathan and the Air-Pump". Science. 232 (4753): 1040–1042. doi:10.1126/science.232.4753.1040. PMID 17759318.
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