Allen G. Debus
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Allen Debus
)Allen G. Debus | |
|---|---|
Dexter Award (1987) | |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Northwestern University Indiana University Bloomington Harvard University |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Historian of Science, Historian of Chemistry |
Allen George Debus (August 16, 1926 – March 6, 2009) was an American
historian of science, known primarily for his work on the history of chemistry and alchemy. In 1991 he was honored at the University of Chicago with an academic conference held in his name. Paul H. Theerman and Karen Hunger Parshall edited the proceedings, and Debus contributed his autobiography
of which this article is a digest.
Early life
Allen Debus attended the
Alexandre Koyre, I. Bernard Cohen, and Walter Pagel
, the latter two being teachers of Debus.
Higher education
Debus studied
University College of London courses given by Douglas McKie. Returning to Harvard, he completed the requirements for a Harvard Ph.D. in history of science in 1961.[1]
Professor
In 1961, Debus took up a position at the University of Chicago under
William McNeill in the Department of History, with one-third of the time as assistant professor in history of science, and two-thirds in undergraduate physical science coursework. In 1965 he was raised to associate professor on the strength of his book The English Paracelsians. For the school-year 1966/7 he went on an overseas fellowship to Churchill College, Cambridge
. Back at the University of Chicago, Debus described attempts by the philosophy department to intrude on the history of science program in the history department.
Debus was instrumental in the development of the Morris Fishbein Center: he served as its first director for two three-year terms. In 1978 he was elected to the academic chair at University of Chicago established in honor of
Catholic University of Louvain
.
Family
Allen G. Debus noted that his
academic career was an innovation in his familial lineage. His father formed the company Modern Boxes, where Allen served as salesman for a time in 1950. Allen met Brunilda Lopez Rodriguez from Puerto Rico
at Indiana University. They married in 1951, and studied Latin, French, and German together preparing for Debus' push for the Ph.D. They had three children: Allen (1954), Richard (1957–2007), and Karl (1961).
Books
- The English Paracelsians(Oldbourne Press : History of science library, 1965)
- Editor, World Who's Who in Science (A. N. Marquis, 1968)
- The chemical dream of the Renaissance (Heffer, 1968 : reprinted Bobbs-Merrill, 1968)
- Science and education in the seventeenth century: The Webster-Ward debate (Macdonald, History of science library, primary sources, 1970)
- Editor, Medicine in Seventeenth Century England (University of California Press, 1974)
- The chemical philosophy: Paracelsian science and medicine in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (1977, 2nd ed., 2002, Dover reprint, 2013)
- Man and nature in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1978)
- Chemistry, Alchemy and the New Philosophy, 1550-1770: Studies in the History of Science and Medicine (Variorum Reprints, 1987)
- Co-editor with Ingrid Merkel, Hermeticism and the Renaissance: Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Modern Europe (Folger Books, 1988)
- Co-authored with Brian A. L. Rust, The Complete Entertainment Discography: From 1897-1942 (Roots of Jazz) (Arlington House, 1982; 2nd ed., Da Capo, 1989)
- The French Paracelsians, The Chemical Challenge to Medical and Scientific Tradition in Early Modern France (Cambridge, 1991)
- Co-editor with Michael Thomson Walton, Reading the Book of Nature: The Other Side of the Scientific Revolution (Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies) (Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1998)
- Chemistry and Medical Debate: van Helmont to Boerhaave (Science History Publications, 2001)[3]
- Editor, Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry: Papers from Ambix (Jeremy Mills, 2004)
- The Chemical Promise: Experiment And Mysticism in the Chemical Philosophy, 1550-1800 : Selected Essays of Allen G. Debus (2006)
Debus reprinted 16th and 17th century texts by Elias Ashmole, John Dee and Robert Fludd.
He programmed and prepared notes for CDs released by Archeophone Records.
References
- ^ Directory of American Scholars, 6th ed. (Bowker, 1974), Vol. I, p. 149.
- ^ "Dexter Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry". Division of the History of Chemistry. American Chemical Society. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
- ^ Giglioni, Guido (2002). "Review of Chemistry and Medical Debate: van Helmont to Boerhaave by Allen G. Debus". Hyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry. 8 (2): 131–134.
- Allen G. Debus (1997) "From Sciences to History: A Personal Intellectual Journey", in Theerman & Parshall (1997).
- Paul H. Theerman & Karen Hunger Parshall, editors, (1997) Experiencing Nature, Proceedings of a Conference in Honor of Allen G. Debus, ISBN 0-7923-4477-4.
