Simon Schaffer
Simon Schaffer is a historian of science in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. His research addresses the practices, materials, and organization of scientific inquiry between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, including studies of astronomy, natural philosophy, technology and the physical sciences.
Schaffer has taught history of the sciences at Imperial College London, at UCLA and at the 脡cole des Hautes 脡tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
In 2005, he was co-winner of the Erasmus prize. In 2013, he was awarded the Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society and in 2015, the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum. He was awarded the Dan David Prize in 2018 and the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar medal of the Royal Society in 2019. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and Sarton Medalist of the History of Science Society. . He is currently a co-investigator on the Leverhulme Project 'Making Climate History'.
His books include Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life with Steven Shapin and co-editing, with Bruno Latour and Pasquale Gagliardi, A book of the body politic: connecting biology, politics and social theory. He was editor of The British Journal for the History of Science. In addition to his work at Cambridge, he has been a presenter on the BBC and worked on several museum and gallery projects.