Gerald Holton (* 1922 in Berlin) is Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics and Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University.

Born 1922 in Berlin, he grew up in Vienna. 1938 he emigrated.

As a student of Percy Williams Bridgman, he obtained his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1948 and his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in 1941. His chief interests are in the history and philosophy of science, in the physics of matter at high pressure, and in the study of career paths of young scientists. Along with co-author Gerhard Sonnert he has studied and published works on the gender gap in science studies and careers. In 1956, he wrote “Experimental Physics: A Laboratory Manual for the Introductory Physics Course”, a seminal work in the development of physics education, which led to Harvard Project Physics, the NSF sponsored national curriculum-development project that he co-directed. ^[1]

Gerald Holton is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as Life Honorary Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. He is founding editor of the quarterly journal Daedalus, and founder of Science, Society, & Human Values. He was also on the editorial committee of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Professor Holton has received the Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society, the Gemant Award of the American Institute of Physics, and the Abraham Pais Prize of the American Physical Society.

In 1981 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Holton for the tenth Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Holton was the first scientist selected for this honor, and his lecture was entitled "Where is Science Taking Us?"^[2] The first Jefferson Lecturer, in 1972, had been Lionel Trilling, who spoke on "Mind in the Modern World," and who suggested that humanism had become the basis for social improvement, rather than science and the scientific method as had been predicted by Thomas Jefferson, the Lectures' namesake.^[3] Ten years later, Holton drew attention for his response to Trilling's position: Holton argued that Jefferson's vision of science as a force for social improvement was still viable, opined that there had been a "relocation of the center of gravity" of scientific inquiry toward solving society's important problems,^[3] and cautioned that science education had to be improved dramatically or only a small "technological elite" would be equipped to take part in self-government.^[4]

[edit] See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Prof. Holton's Harvard page (Harvard University)