Charles Coulston Gillispie

Charles Coulston Gillispie (; August 6, 1918 – October 6, 2015) was an American historian of science. He was the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History of Science at Princeton University, and was credited with building Princeton's history of science program into a leading center for the field. He was best known for his general introduction to the history of science, The Edge of Objectivity, his deep two-volume study of French scientific history Science and Polity in France, and his chief editor role for the 16-volume, 5,000-entry Dictionary of Scientific Biography.

Early life and education The son of Raymond Livingston Gillispie and Virginia Coulston, Gillispie grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He attended Wesleyan University, graduating in 1940 with a major in chemistry and also a distinguished thesis in history. He then spent one year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying chemical engineering before transferring to Harvard to pursue history in 1941. in the 94th Chemical Mortar Battalion after attending officer training school. His first published article concerned French philosopher and historian of England Élie Halévy, and Halévy was later noted by Gerald Holton as a major intellectual and stylistic influence on Gillispie. after being recommended for an instructorship in British history by his advisor Owen. He taught his first undergraduate class in the history of science from 1956 to 1958, developing a curriculum that formed the basis for his 1960 book The Edge of Objectivity, a seminal general introduction to the history of science that Gillispie dedicated to the students of his classes.

He established the Princeton Program in History of Science in 1960 and strengthened it into a leading program in subsequent years, for instance hiring Thomas Kuhn in 1964. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963 and served as president of the History of Science Society for 1965–66. He was awarded his second Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970

Gillispie headed the editorial board of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography from 1970 to 1980, for which he received the Dartmouth Medal in 1981. This was an effort involving over a thousand contributors from many countries, both historians and scientists, Gillispie undertook the work at the suggestion of Charles Scribner IV and took the lead in arranging an advisory board, arranging support from the American Council of Learned Societies and then the National Science Foundation, and organizing the work. and he completed the second volume, Science and Polity in France: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Years, for publication in 2004; combined, the two volumes came to over 1,400 pages. The first volume emphasized the importance of the Ancien régime state for the rise of the sciences, for instance dating the formation of modern science in France to the creation of the French Academy of Sciences in 1666 and emphasizing French administrator Anne Robert Jacques Turgot's work in the 1770s as an epitome of the successful growth of the sciences in France.

Among his notable students was Spanish historian of mathematics Antoni Malet (grad. 1989). In 2012 he was presented with a festschrift, A Master of Science History: Essays in Honor of Charles Coulston Gillispie, edited by Jed Buchwald.

Family and death Gillispie was married to Emily Clapp Gillispie for sixty-four years. He died on October 6, 2015, in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 97.

Works Genesis and Geology: A Study in the Relations of Scientific Thought, Natural Theology, and Social Opinion in Britain, 1790–1850, 1951 ;

The Edge of Objectivity: An Essay in the History of Scientific Ideas, 1960 Lazare Carnot, Savant, 1971 Science and Polity in France at the End of the Old Regime, 1980 Winner of the 1981 Pfizer Award. pbk reprint with slight change in title. The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783–1784, 1983

Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749–1827: A Life in Exact Science, 1997

Science and Polity in France: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Years (2004) Essays and Reviews in History and History of Science, 2006 With Raffaele Pisano: