Leonard Gilchrist Wilson

Leonard Gilchrist Wilson (June 11, 1928, in Orillia, Ontario, Canada – April 3, 2018, in Oakdale, Minnesota) was a Canadian-American historian of science, specializing in the history of medicine and biology and the history of nineteenth century geology. He is best known for his 1972 biography of Charles Lyell.

Biography Leonard G. Wilson grew up in Orillia, Ontario. He graduated in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Toronto. In 1955 he graduated with an M.Sc. from the University of London. He received his Ph.D. in 1958 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His Ph.D. thesis is entitled Theories of respiration in the seventeenth century. As a postdoc he was from 1958 to 1959 a visiting instructor in the history department of the University of California, Berkeley. From 1959 to 1960 he was an assistant professor in the history department of Cornell University. In the department of history of science and medicine of the Yale University School of Medicine, he was from 1960 to 1965 an assistant professor and 1965 to 1967 an associate professor. In the history of medicine department of the University of Minnesota, Wilson was a full professor and head of the department from 1967 until his retirement in 2001 as professor emeritus.

Wilson wrote many articles and book reviews about topics in the history of medicine and biology.

Wilson was for the academic year 1984–1985 the president of the Minnesota Academy of Medicine. He was elected in 1987 a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the 2013 Mary C. Rabbitt History And Philosophy of Geology Award from the Geological Society of America.

Selected publications Articles

Books