Peter Michael Harman

Peter Michael Harman (11 December 1943 – 14 August 2014) was a British historian who was Professor of the History of Science at the University of Lancaster.

Career Harman was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, the son of Herbert and Gertrude (nee Harris) Heimann. He studied at Oriel College, Oxford and later at the University of Leeds. He was Assistant Lecturer at the University of Glasgow (1969–70) and at the University of Cambridge (1970–74) where he was a Fellow of Clare Hall (1971–74), before being appointed Lecturer at the University of Lancaster in 1974. He was appointed Reader in 1993 and professor in 1999 until his retirement in 2007.

Harman was a Visiting scholar at Harvard University (1988–89 and 1990–91). As Zeeman Professor of the History of Physics at the University of Amsterdam in 1995, his lectures were on the topic of The Natural Philosophy of James Clerk Maxwell and were later published.