Michael Crowe

Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus, Program of Liberal Studies and Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science
Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus

Education

Ph.D. (History of Science with Minors in Physics and Intellectual History), University of Wisconsin

B.A. (Program of Liberal Studies) and B.S. (Science), University of Notre Dame

Research and Teaching Interests

Great Books; History and Philosophy of Astronomy, Physics, and Mathematics

Bio

A specialist in the history of modern physical science, Crowe has authored eight books. These include his History of Vector Analysis (awarded a Jean Scott Prize from La Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris), The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750–1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell (now available in a three-volume Japanese translation), Theories of the World from Antiquity to the Copernican Revolution, Modern Theories of the Universe from Herschel to Hubble, Calendar of the Correspondence of Sir John Herschel, Mechanics from Aristotle to Einstein, and The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, Antiquity to 1915:  A Source Book. 

A graduate of PLS, he also served as its chair and was the founding chair of Notre Dame’s Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science. He has received funding awards from various sources, including the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and the National Science Foundation. In 2003, he served as Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the University of Louisville. In 2010, the American Astronomical Association awarded him its LeRoy E. Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy in honor of his lifelong contributions to the history of astronomy. In conjunction with this prize, he presented a plenary address to the AAS.