[SIGCIS-Members] Request for biographies

Jeffrey Yost yostx003 at umn.edu
Fri Sep 4 08:32:51 PDT 2020


Richard Westphal's classic on Isaac Newton, *Never at Rest*. (At least
remember it both as technical and contextual from reading it long ago). A
more recent book in the history of physics that is somewhat technical
is Heige Kragh's *Dirac: A Scientific Biography* (Cambridge Univ. P. 2008).
Thanks to Sharon Irish's contribution to the thread.  Evelyn Fox
Keller's biography of Barbara McClintock is absolutely wonderful (one of my
favorites in the history of science), as is her equally insightful *Reflections
on Gender and Science* that draws in part from it.

Best, Jeff

*"Injustice wears the same harsh face wherever it shows itself."*-Ralph
Ellison

Jeffrey R. Yost, Ph.D.
Director, Charles Babbage Institute
Research Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and
Medicine

222  21st Avenue South
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455

612 624 5050 Phone
612 625 8054 Fax


On Fri, Sep 4, 2020 at 8:06 AM Troy Astarte <Troy.Astarte at newcastle.ac.uk>
wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Very many thanks to everyone who has sent suggestions, I’ve got a great
> reading list! I’ve already had a look at a few of them, and there’s some
> high quality work indeed. The only further question I would have is whether
> there are biographies with a higher technical content? Perhaps that just
> isn’t common in biographies?
>
> Best,
>
> Troy Astarte
>
> School of Computing
> Newcastle University
>
> On 3 Sep 2020, at 12:31, Troy Astarte <Troy.Astarte at newcastle.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> Dear SIG-CIS,
>
> What is your favourite biography of a scientist or mathematician? I’m
> particularly interested in modern subjects and those who worked in
> computing/computer science. Ideally the book would cover the subject’s work
> in a reasonable level of technical detail as well as their life and the
> broader context in which they lived and worked.
>
> I ask because I am considering applying for funding for an essentially
> biographical project on a computer scientist and I would like to read some
> (more) biographies first.
>
> Best,
>
> Troy Astarte
>
> School of Computing
> Newcastle University
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion
> list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member
> posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list
> archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and
> you can change your subscription options at
> http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20200904/47636d8f/attachment.htm>


More information about the Members mailing list