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Allan Chapman FRAS (born 30 May 1946) is a British historian of science.

Allan Chapman was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England. His first degree was from the University of Lancaster. Subsequently he undertook a history of science DPhil at Wadham College, Oxford. He is a historian by training and his special interests are astronomy and scientific biography.

Chapman has been based at Oxford University for most of his career, as a member of the Faculty of History, based at Wadham College.^[1] He is an accomplished lecturer and public speaker (including as visiting professor at Gresham College in London). In January 1994, he delivered the Royal Society history of science Wilkins Lecture, on the subject of Edmund Halley.

He is also a television presenter, notably Gods in the Sky on Channel 4, covering astronomical religion in early civilisations.^[2] Not averse to other forms of television, he also participated in the TV quiz University Challenge — The Professionals as part of the Royal Astronomical Society team, broadcast in June/July 2006. He is also the host of the History Channel's Great Scientists series.

Chapman teaches for the study abroad programme of Eurospring for Minnesota State University, Moorhead, Minnesota, USA and Bemidji State University, Bemidji, Minnesota, USA.

He has written many books including biographies such as England's Leonardo on Robert Hooke.^[3]

Chapman is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He is a founder member and president of the Society for the History of Astronomy (SHA). He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Central Lancashire in 2004. He is the Honorary President and a member of Salford Astronomical Society, Honorary President of Reading Astronomical Society, Honorary President of the Mexborough & Swinton Astronomical Society^[4] and Vice-President of the Newbury Astronomical Society^[5].

[edit] Selected bibliography

• William Crabtree 1610–1644: Manchester's First Mathematician, Allan Chapman. Manchester Statistical Society, 1996. ISBN 0-85336-132-0.
• The Victorian Amateur Astronomer: Independent Astronomical Research in Britain, 1820–1920, Allan Chapman. Praxis Publishing, Wiley-Praxis Series in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 1996. ISBN 0-471-96257-0.
• Astronomical Instruments and Their Users: Tycho Brahe to William Lassell, Allan Chapman. Ashgate, Variorum Collected Studies, 1996. ISBN 0-86078-584-X.
• Patrick Moore's Millennium Yearbook: The View from AD 1001, Patrick Moore and Allan Chapman. Springer-Verlag, 1999. ISBN 1-85233-619-6.
• Gods in the Sky: Astronomy from the Ancients to the Enlightenment, Allan Chapman. Channel 4 Books, 2002. ISBN 0-7522-6164-9.
• Mary Somerville: And the World of Science, Allan Chapman. Canopus Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0-9537868-4-6.
• England's Leonardo: Robert Hooke and the Seventeenth-century Scientific Revolution, Allan Chapman. Institute of Physics Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0-7503-0987-3.
• Robert Hooke and the English Renaissance, Allan Chapman and Paul Kent (editors). Gracewing, 2005. ISBN 0-85244-587-3.

[edit] See also

• List of visiting Gresham professors

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• University of Oxford History Faculty entry
• Society for the History of Astronomy
• Books from Amazon.co.uk
• England's Leonardo lecture (Robert Hooke)
• England's Leonardo book review in the New Scientist magazine
• Gods in the Sky on Channel 4
• University of Central Lancashire Honorary Doctorate 2004, including a short biography
• 'Scientists and Craftsmen in Sir Christopher Wren's London', lecture given at Gresham College, 23 April 2008 (available in text, audio and video formats).
• Mexborough & Swinton Astronomical Society website
• Newbury Astronomical Society web site.