Noel M. Swerdlow is a professor emeritus of history, astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

. He is currently a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

.

Career

Swerdlow specializes in the history of exact sciences, astronomy in particular, from antiquity through the 17th century.

In 1988 Swerdlow received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship

MacArthur Fellows Program

The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...

, often referred to as the "genius grant." In the same year he published the book "The Babylonian Theory of the Planets" (Princeton University Press).

In 1988, he was also elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society

American Philosophical Society

The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...

, the oldest learned society in the United States, dating to 1743.

See also

• Hipparchus On Sizes and Distances
  Hipparchus On Sizes and Distances
  On Sizes and Distances [of the Sun and Moon] is a text by the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus. It is not extant, but some of its contents have been preserved in the works of Ptolemy and his commentator Pappus of Alexandria...