Charles Coulston Gillispie
BornAugust 6, 1918
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, US
DiedOctober 6, 2015
TitleDayton-Stockton Professor of History of Science
Awards
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic work
Disciplinehistory of science
InstitutionsPrinceton University
Notable worksDictionary of Scientific Biography

Charles Coulston Gillispie (/ɡɪˈlɪspi/; August 6, 1918 – October 6, 2015) was an American historian of science. He was the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History of Science, Emeritus at Princeton University.[1] He was succeeded by Arno J. Mayer.

Life

The son of Raymond Livingston Gillispie and Virginia Coulston,[2] Gillispie grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.[3] He attended Wesleyan University, graduating in 1940 with a major in Chemistry[4] and gained his PhD from Harvard University in 1949. He also served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Gillispie joined the Department of History at Princeton University, establishing the Princeton Program in History of Science in the 1960s. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963.[5] He was president of the History of Science Society in 1965–66.[6] In 1972, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[7] He headed the editorial board of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, for which he received the Dartmouth Medal in 1981. Gillispie also received the Pfizer Award in 1981. He was awarded the George Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society in 1984 and the Balzan Prize in 1997 for "the extraordinary contribution he has made to the history and philosophy of science by his intellectually vigorous, precise works, as well as his editing of a great reference work".

He died on October 6, 2015, at the age of 97.[8]

Works

  • Genesis and geology: a study in the relations of scientific thought, natural theology, and social opinion in Britain, 1790-1850, 1951 LCCN 59-6649
  • The edge of objectivity: an essay in the history of scientific ideas, 1960 LCCN 60-5748
  • Lazare Carnot, savant, 1971[9] LCCN 78-132238
  • Science and polity in France at the end of the old regime, 1980. LCCN 80-7521 ISBN 0691082332 Winner of the 1981 Pfizer Award.
  • Science and Polity in France: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Years (2004) ISBN 0-691-11541-9
  • The Montgolfier brothers and the invention of aviation, 1783-1784, 1983 LCCN 82-61363 ISBN 0691083215
  • Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749-1827: a life in exact science, 1997 LCCN 97-8331 ISBN 0691011850
  • Essays and reviews in history and history of science, 2006

References

  1. ↑ Clare D. Kinsman; Christine Nasso; Gale Research Company (1975). Contemporary authors: a bio-bibliographical guide to current authors and their works, Volumes 21-24. Gale Research Co. ISBN 0810300273.
  2. ↑ Alumni Record of Wesleyan University, 1921, p. 481
  3. ↑ "Remembering Dan Sachs". Purple Motes. December 9, 2007. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Wesleyan University Alumni Awards: Distinguished Alumni Awards". Wesleyan University. Archived from the original on March 6, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Charles Coulston Gillispie". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-08-18.
  6. ↑ "The Society: Past Presidents of the History of Science Society". The History of Science Society. Archived from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  7. ↑ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-08-18.
  8. ↑ "Charles Coulston Gillispie dies". National Center for Science Education. October 8, 2015. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
  9. ↑ Hankins, Thomas L. (1971). "Review of Lazare Carnot, Savant by Charles Coulson Gillispie". Science. 173 (4002): 1118–1119. doi:10.1126/science.173.4002.1118.

Further reading

  • Jed Z. Buchwald [Editor]: A Master of Science History: Essays in Honor of Charles Coulston Gillispie. Springer, 2012. ISBN 978-94-007-2626-0 (print); ISBN 978-94-007-2627-7 (eBook)
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