Alan Francis Chalmers has been a visiting scholar at the Flinders University

Flinders University

Flinders University, , is a public university in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in the early 19th century.The university has established a reputation as a leading research...

 Philosophy Department since 1999. For the 2007 fall semester he will be a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

. He was born in Bristol, England in 1939, and attained a BSc in physics at the University of Bristol

University of Bristol

The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

, and his MSc in physics from the University of Manchester

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

. His PhD on the electromagnetic theory of J.C. Maxwell was granted by the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

. Chalmers came to Australia in 1971 and worked for some years at the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

.

Chalmers was elected a fellow of the Academy of Humanities in 1997. His primary research interest is the philosophy of science

Philosophy of science

The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...

 and he is author of the best-selling textbook What Is This Thing Called Science?

What Is This Thing Called Science?

What Is This Thing Called Science? is a best-selling textbook by Dr. Alan Chalmers. It is a guide to the philosophy of science which outlines the shortcomings of a naive empiricist accounts of science, and describes and assesses modern attempts to replace them...

which has been translated into many languages.

Books

• The Scientist's Atom and the Philosopher's Stone - How Science Succeeded and Philosophy Failed to Gain Knowledge of Atoms, Springer, 2009, pp. 288+xii.
• What Is This Thing Called Science?, University of Queensland Press, Open University press, 3rd revised edition, Hackett,1999.
• Science and Its Fabrication, Open University Press and University of Minnesota Press, 1990, pp. 142+xii. (Translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese and Chinese )

External links

• Review of What is this Thing Called Science?