Kenneth L. Taylor

Hudson/Torchmark Presidential Professor, Emeritus

A.B. Magna cum laude, History and Science, Harvard University, 1962
Ph.D., History of Science, Harvard University, 1968

A California native, he came to Oklahoma in 1967. While teaching History of Science courses ranging from Antiquity to the twentieth century, he supervised to completion eleven Ph.D. students. In 1969, by vote of the undergraduate honors students he received the Glenn C. Couch Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He served as Department Chair for 14 years. He was president (2012‒2016) of the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO). For his work in the history of geology he has won awards from the national geological societies of the USA, Great Britain, and France. His OU honors include the Regents’ Award for Superior Professional and University Service (1994).

Contact me

Kenneth L. Taylor
Department of the History of Science
The University of Oklahoma
601 Elm, Room 625
Norman, OK 73019
USA

Office Tel: 1-405-325-2213

Email: ktaylor@ou.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Recent Publications

Artistic depiction of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

Before volcanoes became ordinary. By Kenneth L. Taylor.
In History of Geoscience: Celebrating 50 years of INHIGEO, edited by Wolf Mayer, Renee M. Clary, Luz F. Azuela, Teresa S. Mota, and Stanislaw Wołkowicz. Geological Society of London, Special Publication 442. doi 10.1144/SP442.27. Published online 2016; print edition 2017.

Vulcano 1995;Photograph of 3 people standing atop a smoking volcano

Historians of geology in the field: a half-century of INHIGEO excursions. By Mike R. Johnston and Kenneth L. Taylor.
In History of Geoscience: Celebrating 50 years of INHIGEO, edited by Wolf Mayer, Renee M. Clary, Luz F. Azuela, Teresa S. Mota, and Stanislaw Wołkowicz. Geological Society of London, Special Publication 442. doi 10.1144/SP442.17. Published online 2016; print edition 2017.

Book cover for The Earth Sciences in the Enlightenment by Ken Taylor

The Earth Sciences in the Enlightenment: Studies on the Early Development of Geology. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT, USA, 2008.

Book cover for Studies on Eighteenth-Century Geology ed. Rhoda Rappaport

Studies on Eighteenth-Century Geology. By Rhoda Rappaport. Edited with an introduction by Kenneth L. Taylor and Martin J. S. Rudwick. Variorum Collected Studies Series. CS 986, Ashgate Publishing, 2011.

Photograph of Ken Taylor standing on the edge of a rock outcropping

Names on the Range: Scientists and Science in the Naming of Sierra Nevada Features

A poster presented at the 39th symposium of the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO), Asilomar Conference Grounds, California, July 2014.

One of the conference themes was “California’s Place in the History of the Earth Sciences.”

Photograph of 8 volumes of the Encyclopedie Methodique with one volume laying open

"A Peculiarly Personal Encyclopedia: What Desmarest's Géographie-Physique tells us about his life and work," published in Earth Sciences History, 2013, 32(1): 39-54.

Classic paper (translation and historical commentary):
Nicolas Desmarest's essay on determination of epochs of nature through volcanic products, 1775/1779. Published in Episodes: Journal of International Geoscience, 2009, 32: 114-124.

Lithographic portrait of Benoit de Maillet

“Telliamed in its time,” a survey review in Metascience