Peter Galison: Difference between revisions

{{Multiple issues|{{BLP sources|date=August 2016}}{{original research|date=August 2016}}}}{{Infobox personacademic

| image name = Peter Galison, HSS 2007.jpg

| caption = Historian of science Peter Galison, at the 2007 History of Science Society meeting in Washington, D.C.

| education = [[Harvard University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of =Arts|MA]], [[Harvard CollegePhD]]<br>)

| occupation = [[Historian]], [[philosopher]]

'''Peter Louis Galison''' (born May 17, 1955, [[New York City|New York]]) is an American [[history of science|historian and]] [[philosopher of science]]. He is the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor in [[history of science and technology|history of science]] and [[physics]] at [[Harvard University]].

Galison received his PhB.DA., atM.A., Harvardand UniversityPh.D., in both physics and in the history of science, inat 1983Harvard University.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-24 |title=Peter Louis Galison |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/peter-louis-galison |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref> His publications include ''How Experiments End'' (1987), ''Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics'' (1997), and ''[[Albert Einstein|Einstein's]] Clocks, [[Henri Poincaré|Poincaré's]] Maps: Empires of Time'' (2003). His most recent book (2007), co-authored with [[Lorraine Daston]], is titled ''Objectivity'' (2007).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Book {{!}} Peter Galison - Department of the History of Science, Harvard University |url=https://galison.scholar.harvard.edu/publications/publication-types/book |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=galison.scholar.harvard.edu |language=en}}</ref>

Before moving to Harvard, Galison taught for several years at [[Stanford University]], where he was professor of history, philosophy, and physics. He is considered a member of the [[Stanford School]] of philosophy of science, a group that also includes [[Ian Hacking]], [[John Dupré]], and [[Nancy Cartwright (philosopher)|Nancy Cartwright]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cartwright |first=Nancy |title=The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-521-64336-8 |location=Cambridge |page=ix |language=en}}</ref>

Galison developed a film for the [[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]] on the development of the [[hydrogen bomb]], and has done work on the intersection of science with other disciplines, in particular [[art]] (along with his wife, [[Caroline A. Jones]]) and [[architecture]]. He is on the editorial board of ''[[Critical Inquiry]]'' and was a [[MacArthur Fellow]] in 19961997.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Services |first=University of Chicago IT |title=Critical Inquiry |url=https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/info/editors/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter L. Galison |url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-1997/peter-l-galison |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=www.macfound.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Honan |first=William H. |date=1997-06-17 |title=MacArthur Foundation Chooses Grant Winners |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/17/us/macarthur-foundation-chooses-grant-winners.html |access-date=2023-09-06 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> For his "outstanding contributions to the history of physics", Galison received the American Physical Society's [[Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics|Abraham Pais Prize]] in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Galison named recipient of the American Physical Society's 2018 Abraham Pais Prize |url=https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/news/peter-galison-named-recipient-american-physical-societys-2018-abraham-pais-prize |access-date=2023-09-10 |website=histsci.fas.harvard.edu |language=en}}</ref>

In ''Image and Logic'', Galison explored the fundamental rift rising in the physical sciences: whether singular, visual accounts of scientific phenomena would be accepted as the dominant language of proof, or whether statistically significant, frequently repeated results would dominate the field. This division, Galison claims, can be seen in the conflicts amongst high-energy physicists investigating new particles, some of whom offer up statistically significant and frequently replicated analysis of the new particle passing through electric fields, others of whom offer up a single picture of a particle behaving—in a single instance—in a way that cannot be explained by the characteristics of existing known particles. This image/logic distinction has been applied to explore the development of other disciplines, for example, archaeology.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marwick |first1=Ben |title=Galisonian logic devices and data availability: revitalising Upper Palaeolithic cultural taxonomies |journal=Antiquity |date=15 October 2019 |volume=93 |issue=371 |pages=1365–1367 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2019.131|s2cid=211672039 |url=http://osf.io/v8dej/ }}</ref>.

Galison has been involved in the production of threeseveral documentary films. The first, ''The Ultimate Weapon: The H-Bomb Dilemma'', was about the political and scientific decisions behind the creation of the first [[hydrogen bomb]] in the United States, and premiered on the [[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]] in 2000. The second, ''[[Secrecy (film)|Secrecy]]'', which Galison directed with Harvard filmmaker [[Robb Moss]], is about the costs and benefits of government [[secrecy]], and premiered at the 2008 [[Sundance Film Festival]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sundance.org/festival/press_industry/releases/2008_films_in_competition.asp|title=Press & Industry — Sundance Film Festival|date=2007-12-07|access-date=2019-04-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071207175608/http://www.sundance.org/festival/press_industry/releases/2008_films_in_competition.asp|archive-date=2007-12-07}}</ref> Also from Harvard, [[Ruth Lingford]] worked on the animation for ''Secrecy''. Galison completed his third documentary film ''Containment'', also directed with Robb Moss, in 2015. It premiered at the 2015 [[Full Frame Documentary Film Festival]], and has been shown at film festivals around the world including in Brazil, Switzerland, and Australia. This documentary investigates governments' attempts to contain a hundred million gallons of deadly radioactive sludge for 10,000 years: how can people warn future generations across this immense time span during which languages, cultures and the environment will continually transform?

Galison's fourth documentary, ''Black Holes: The Edge of KnowledgeAll We Know'', about the [[Event Horizon Telescope]], is currentlyappeared in production2021 on [[Netflix]] and [[Apple TV]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=httphttps://www.blackholefilm.com/|title=Black Holes: The Edge of Knowledge|last=|first=|date=All We Know|website=www.blackholefilm.com|archive-url=http://archive.is/aFoWo|archiveaccess-date=MarchMay 1126, 2019|access-date=2019-04-12}}</ref> A segment of the documentary was released as a short film by the Event Horizon Telescope on YouTube.<ref>{{Citation|last=ehtelescope|title=Portrait of a Shadow -- a short film by Peter Galison|date=2019-04-11|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6UJeYUSsDY|access-date=2019-04-122022}}</ref>

* {{cite book | last = Galison | first = Peter | title = How experiments end | publisher = [[University of Chicago Press]] | location = Chicago, Illinois | year = 1987 | isbn = 9780226279152978-0-226-27915-2 }}

* {{cite book | last1 = Galison | first1 = Peter | last2 = Hevly | first2 = Bruce | title = Big science: the growth of large-scale research | publisher = [[Stanford University Press]] | location = Stanford, California | year = 1992 | isbn = 9780804723350978-0-8047-2335-0 }}

* {{cite book | last1 = Galison | first1 = Peter | last2 = Stump | first2 = David J. | title = The disunity of science: boundaries, contexts, and power | publisher = [[Stanford University Press]] | location = Stanford, California | year = 1996 | isbn = 9780804725620978-0-8047-2562-0 }}

* {{cite book | last = Galison | first = Peter | title = Image and logic: a material culture of microphysics | publisher = [[University of Chicago Press]] | location = Chicago, Illinois | year = 1997 | isbn = 9780226279176978-0-226-27917-6 }}

* {{cite book | last1 = Galison | first1 = Peter | last2 = Jones | first2 = Caroline A. | title = Picturing science, producing art | publisher = Routledge | location = New York, New York | year = 1998 | isbn = 9780415919128978-0-415-91912-8 }}

* {{cite book | last = Galison | first = Peter | title = Einstein's clocks and Poincaré's maps: empires of time | publisher = W.W. Norton | location = New York, New York | year = 2003 | isbn = 9780393020014978-0-393-02001-4 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/einsteinsclocksp00gali }}

* {{cite book | last1 = Galison | first1 = Peter | last2 = Daston | first2 = Lorraine | title = Objectivity | publisher = Zone Books Distributed by the [[MIT Press]] | location = New York Cambridge, Massachusetts | year = 2007 | isbn = 9781890951795978-1-890951-79-5 }}

* {{cite book | last1 = Galison | first1 = Peter | last2 = Holton | first2 = Gerald | last3 = Schweber | first3 = Silvan S. | author-link2 = Gerald Holton | title = Einstein for the 21st century: his legacy in science, art, and modern culture | publisher = [[Princeton University Press]] | location = Princeton, New Jersey | year = 2008 | isbn = 9780691135205978-0-691-13520-5 }}

*[http://physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/galison.html Galison's physics homepage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628142055/http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/galison.html |date=2006-06-28 }}

*[http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay-einsteins-time.htm Interview with Galison about his Einstein book] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150312163833/http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay-einsteins-time.htm |date=2015-03-12 }}

[[Category:Harvard UniversityGraduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]

[[Category:Harvard University Department of History faculty]]

[[Category:PhilosophersHistorians of sciencetechnology]]