What's New

Three new faculty join the department||  complete
announcement

recent awards & honors

prof. katherine pandora / Sabbatical Leave at Harvard, 2001-2002> more

prof. Peter Barker/ Sabbatical Leave in Copenhagen, 2002> more

prof. Kenneth Taylor named C.B. Hudson/Torch-mark Presidential Professor > more

prof. katherine pandora named associates presidential professor > more

dr. liba taub: CAS 1999 distinguished alum > more

prof. steven livesey returns from neh-sponsored sabbatical > more

prof. kenneth taylor awarded the friedman medal
> more

prof. jamil ragep receives kuwait prize > more

nsf dissertation fellowship awardees > more

Scientific Exchanges Between
European & Islamic Scholars: The
Making of the Modern World, 1300-1800

Over a three-year period, this Postdoctoral Program has brought six fellows to OU to conduct research on the scientific interrelations between Europe and Islam as well as compare their respective scientific traditions. This area of study is of increasing interest as scholars, government officials and journalists have sought to place the contemporary relationship of Islam and the West into historical perspective. At one time the Islamic world was the world's leader in scientific and technological innovation. The puzzling decline of science in Islam and its rise in the West are major historical developments that provide important clues for understanding the modern world and directions for developing constructive relationships between Islamic and Western nations.

The Program is under the Directorship of F. Jamil Ragep, Professor of the History of Science. Ragep has written and lectured extensively on the history of science in the Islamic world and occupies the only position in a History of Science program in the U.S. devoted to Islamic science. Along with Profs. Peter Barker, Kathleen Crowther_Heyck, Steven Livesey & Kenneth Taylor, the dept.'s faculty offers one of the most extensive programs worldwide for studying early science and its transmission between cultures.

for more information about the program and its culminating conference, April 7-8, 2003, click here

New in 2000 is Prof. Marilyn Ogilvie's milestone Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century (Routledge), co-edited with Dr. Joy Harvey. This impressive reference work contains highly readable accounts and analyses of nearly 3,000 scientists' lives, works and accomplishments. The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science has been selected by Choice magazine for their 2001 Outstanding Academic Title Recognition. Never one to rest on her laurels, Prof. Ogilvie published a full-length biographical study the previous year of scientist Alice Boring: A Dame Full of Vim and Vigor: A Biography of Alice
Middleton Boring, Biologist in China (Harwood Academic Publishers). 
 
 
 

In 1949, Everette L. DeGolyer brought the scientific revolution to Norman, founding OU's History of Science Collections with his first gift of rare books as well as the History of Science department. 90,000 volumes and 50 years later, we celebrated the Program's Golden Jubilee in Spring 2000. 

Want to visit the collections? Then click here

werner donation

Through the generous gift of Dr. Alexander M. Ospovat, the OU History of Science Collections recently expanded its holdings with the dedication of the Abraham Gottlob Werner Research Collection, a gift of research materials relating to Werner (1749-1817) and the development of geology during his times.  By special agreement with the Technische Universitat Bergakademie Freiberg Rektor, Ernst Schlegel, the deposit of these materials gives OU perhaps the greatest concentration of original Werner materials anywhere outside of Freiberg.

In 1960, Dr. Ospovat was the first person to earn the Ph.D. degree in History of Science at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Ospovat, who is Professor Emeritus of History at Oklahoma State University, is internationally recognized as a leading historian of geology.   for further information, click here