Owen Gingerich
Encyclopedia
Dr. Owen Jay Gingerich is a former Research Professor of Astronomy
and of the History of Science
at Harvard University
, and a senior astronomer
emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
. In addition to his research and teaching, he has written many books on the history of astronomy
.
Gingerich is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, the American Philosophical Society
, and the International Academy of the History of Science
. He has been active in the American Scientific Affiliation
, a society of evangelical
scientists, and is on the Templeton Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
family in Washington, Iowa
, but was raised on the prairies of Kansas
where he first became interested in astronomy. His father, Melvin Gingerich, taught at Bethel College
in North Newton, Kansas
, from 1941 to 1947, when he took a job at Goshen College
in Indiana. When his family relocated, Owen Gingerich began attending Goshen College without having graduated from high school, having just completed his junior year. He continued his studies at Harvard University
. In 2004, Newton High School awarded him with an honorary high school diploma
.
Gingerich was eventually led to teach astronomy at Harvard where his lectures became noted for attention-getting devices. Amongst these was propelling himself out of the classroom with a fire extinguisher to demonstrate Newton’s third law of motion
and dressing up like a sixteenth century Latin
scholar. He also is associated with the Smithsonian and served as chairman of the International Astronomical Union
’s Planet Definition Committee, which was charged with updating the astronomical definition of planet
to reflect recent discoveries such as Eris.
The seven-member committee drafted a definition which preserved Pluto
’s status by only requiring a planet to be (1) large enough to assume hydrostatic equilibrium
(a nearly round shape) and (2) orbiting a star
without itself being a star. This proposal was criticized by many for weakening the meaning of the term. The eventual definition adopted by the IAU added an additional requirement, that a body must have cleared its neighborhood
of all other sizable objects, language that Gingerich was “not at all pleased” with.
In addition to astronomical research, he has also studied the history of astronomy
. In the 1950s, he researched Charles Messier
’s life and the Messier Catalog. Gingerich found notes by Messier on two additional Objects, discovered by Pierre Méchain, which he added to the Messier Catalog: M108
(NGC 3556) and M109
(NGC 3992). He investigated the missing Messier Objects, concluding that M91
was probably a comet and that M102
was probably a duplication of M101
. The first conclusion was later dismissed as W.C. Williams brought up evidence that M91 is probably NGC 4548, but the second is still open (M102 may be NGC 5866).
Gingerich is a widely recognized authority on both Johannes Kepler
and Nicolaus Copernicus
, especially in regard to his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
.
In 1959, in chapter II of The Sleepwalkers
, titled "The System of Copernicus", Arthur Koestler
wrote that: "The book that nobody read – the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
– was and is an all-time worst-seller." After reading in the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh a thoroughly annotated copy previously owned by Erasmus Reinhold
, a prominent sixteenth-century German astronomer who worked in Prussia
shortly after Copernicus' death there, Gingerich was inspired to check Koestler's claim and to research who had owned and studied the book's only editions prior to the mid-19th century, the original of 1543 in Nuremberg
, and the second in 1566, Basel
. Gingerich also documented where and how the book was censored. Due largely to Gingerich’s work, De revolutionibus has been researched and catalogued better than any first-edition historical text except for the original Gutenberg Bible
. His three-decade-long personal survey of Copernicus’ great book De revolutionibus was recounted in The Book Nobody Read, published in 2004 by Walker & Co. That book and the research behind it earned him the Polish
government’s Order of Merit
in 1981.
, he calls an issue with “immense incomprehension from both the friends and foes.” On the one hand, he says that it is unfortunate that there seems to be a knee-jerk reaction among its critics that I.D. is simply Young Earth creationism
in disguise. On the other hand, he says that, while I.D. supporters make a good case for a coherent understanding of the nature of the cosmos,
Gingerich believes “there is a God as a designer, who happens to be using the evolutionary process to achieve larger goals – which are, as far as we human beings can see, [the development of] self-consciousness and conscience.” He has written that “I ... believe in intelligent design, lowercase ‘i’ and ‘d’. But I have trouble with Intelligent Design – uppercase ‘I’ and ‘D’ – a movement widely seen as anti-evolutionist.” He indicated that teleological argument
s, such as the apparent fine tuning of the universe
, can count as evidence, but not proof, for the existence of God
. He said that “a common-sense and satisfying interpretation of our world suggests the designing hand of a superintelligence.”
Accepting the common descent
of species, Gingerich is a theistic evolutionist. Therefore, he does not accept metaphysical naturalism
, writing that
Gingerich’s beliefs have sometimes resulted in criticism from young earth creationists, who dissent from the view that the universe is billions of years old
. Gingerich has responded, in part, by saying that “the great tapestry of science is woven together with the question ‘how?’” while the biblical account and faith “addresses entirely different questions: not the how, but the motivations of the ‘Who’.”
In addition to over 20 books, Dr. Gingerich has published nearly 600 technical or educational articles and reviews, and he has written many other articles for a popular audience. Two anthologies of his essays have been released, The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History from Cambridge University Press and The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler in the American Institute of Physics.
He has been a councilor of the American Astronomical Society
, and helped organize its Historical Astronomy Division. In 2000, he won their Doggett Prize for his contributions to the history of astronomy. He was awarded the Prix Jules Janssen
of the French astronomical society in 2006.
Asteroid
2658 Gingerich
, discovered on February 13, 1980, at the Harvard College Observatory
, was named in his honor.
and rare books. Though they do not own a copy of the first edition of De revolutionibus (they own two second editions), his collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ephemerides
(books that give day-by-day positions of the planets) is second only to that of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
Gingerich appears regularly on the Universe
, a History Channel series.
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
and of the History of Science
History of science and technology
The history of science and technology is a field of history which examines how humanity's understanding of the natural world and ability to manipulate it have changed over the centuries...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and a senior astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where it is joined with the Harvard College Observatory to form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics .-History:The SAO was founded in 1890 by...
. In addition to his research and teaching, he has written many books on the history of astronomy
History of astronomy
Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, and astrological practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not...
.
Gingerich is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, 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,...
, and the International Academy of the History of Science
International Academy of the History of Science
The International Academy of the History of Science is a membership organization for historians of science. It was founded on 17 August 1928 at the Congress of Historical Science by Aldo Mieli, Abel Rey, George Sarton, Henry E...
. He has been active in the American Scientific Affiliation
American Scientific Affiliation
The American Scientific Affiliation is a Christian religious organization of scientists and people in science-related disciplines. The stated purpose is "to investigate any area relating Christian faith and science." The organization publishes a journal, Perspectives of Science and Christian Faith...
, a society of evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
scientists, and is on the Templeton Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Early life
He was born to a MennoniteMennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
family in Washington, Iowa
Washington, Iowa
Washington is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Iowa, United States. It is part of the Iowa City, Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,047 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, but was raised on the prairies of Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
where he first became interested in astronomy. His father, Melvin Gingerich, taught at Bethel College
Bethel College (Kansas)
Bethel College is a private college affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is located on the edge of the Flint Hills and the vast wheat fields of south central Kansas in the town of North Newton...
in North Newton, Kansas
North Newton, Kansas
North Newton is a city in Harvey County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,759. The city of Newton is located next to the city, but it not part of North Newton. North Newton is home of Bethel College, which has approximately 500 students.-Geography:North...
, from 1941 to 1947, when he took a job at Goshen College
Goshen College
Goshen College, is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana, USA with an enrollment of around 1,000 students. The college is accredited by North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities...
in Indiana. When his family relocated, Owen Gingerich began attending Goshen College without having graduated from high school, having just completed his junior year. He continued his studies at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. In 2004, Newton High School awarded him with an honorary high school diploma
High school diploma
A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.-Past diploma styles:...
.
Career and contributions
Newton's laws of motion
Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that form the basis for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and its motion due to those forces...
and dressing up like a sixteenth century Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
scholar. He also is associated with the Smithsonian and served as chairman of the International Astronomical Union
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
’s Planet Definition Committee, which was charged with updating the astronomical definition of planet
Definition of planet
The definition of planet, since the word was coined by the ancient Greeks, has included within its scope a wide range of celestial bodies. Greek astronomers employed the term asteres planetai , "wandering stars", for objects which apparently move over the sky...
to reflect recent discoveries such as Eris.
The seven-member committee drafted a definition which preserved Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
’s status by only requiring a planet to be (1) large enough to assume hydrostatic equilibrium
Hydrostatic equilibrium
Hydrostatic equilibrium or hydrostatic balance is the condition in fluid mechanics where a volume of a fluid is at rest or at constant velocity. This occurs when compression due to gravity is balanced by a pressure gradient force...
(a nearly round shape) and (2) orbiting a star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
without itself being a star. This proposal was criticized by many for weakening the meaning of the term. The eventual definition adopted by the IAU added an additional requirement, that a body must have cleared its neighborhood
Clearing the neighbourhood
"Clearing the neighbourhood of its orbit" is a criterion for a celestial body to be considered a planet in the Solar System. This was one of the three criteria adopted by the International Astronomical Union in its 2006 definition of planet....
of all other sizable objects, language that Gingerich was “not at all pleased” with.
In addition to astronomical research, he has also studied the history of astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
. In the 1950s, he researched Charles Messier
Charles Messier
Charles Messier was a French astronomer most notable for publishing an astronomical catalogue consisting of deep sky objects such as nebulae and star clusters that came to be known as the 110 "Messier objects"...
’s life and the Messier Catalog. Gingerich found notes by Messier on two additional Objects, discovered by Pierre Méchain, which he added to the Messier Catalog: M108
Messier 108
Messier 108 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 or 1782. From the perspective of the Earth, this galaxy is seen almost edge-on....
(NGC 3556) and M109
Messier 109
Messier 109 is a barred spiral galaxy approximately away in the constellation Ursa Major. M109 can be seen southeast of the star Phecda .-History:Messier 109 was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781...
(NGC 3992). He investigated the missing Messier Objects, concluding that M91
Messier 91
Messier 91 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the Coma Berenices constellation and is part of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. M91 is about 63 million light-years away from the earth. It was the last of a group of eight nebulae discovered by Charles Messier in 1781...
was probably a comet and that M102
Messier 102
Messier 102 is a galaxy listed in the Messier Catalogue that has not been identified unambiguously. Its original discoverer Pierre Méchain later said that it was a duplicate observation of Messier 101, but there are historical and observational reasons to believe that it could be NGC 5866,...
was probably a duplication of M101
Pinwheel Galaxy
The Pinwheel Galaxy is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 21 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, first discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, and communicated to Charles Messier who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final...
. The first conclusion was later dismissed as W.C. Williams brought up evidence that M91 is probably NGC 4548, but the second is still open (M102 may be NGC 5866).
Gingerich is a widely recognized authority on both Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican...
and Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....
, especially in regard to his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus...
.
In 1959, in chapter II of The Sleepwalkers
The Sleepwalkers
The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe is a 1959 book by Arthur Koestler, and one of the main accounts of the history of cosmology and astronomy in the Western World, beginning in ancient Mesopotamia and ending with Isaac Newton. The book challenges the habitual idea...
, titled "The System of Copernicus", Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...
wrote that: "The book that nobody read – the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus...
– was and is an all-time worst-seller." After reading in the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh a thoroughly annotated copy previously owned by Erasmus Reinhold
Erasmus Reinhold
Erasmus Reinhold was a German astronomer and mathematician, considered to be the most influential astronomical pedagogue of his generation. He was born and died in Saalfeld, Saxony....
, a prominent sixteenth-century German astronomer who worked in Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
shortly after Copernicus' death there, Gingerich was inspired to check Koestler's claim and to research who had owned and studied the book's only editions prior to the mid-19th century, the original of 1543 in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, and the second in 1566, Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
. Gingerich also documented where and how the book was censored. Due largely to Gingerich’s work, De revolutionibus has been researched and catalogued better than any first-edition historical text except for the original Gutenberg Bible
Gutenberg Bible
The Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed with a movable type printing press, and marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of the printed book. Widely praised for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has an iconic status...
. His three-decade-long personal survey of Copernicus’ great book De revolutionibus was recounted in The Book Nobody Read, published in 2004 by Walker & Co. That book and the research behind it earned him the Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
government’s Order of Merit
Order of Merit of Poland
The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland is a Polish order awarded to those who have rendered great service to the Polish nation. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident abroad and as such is a traditional 'diplomatic order'...
in 1981.
Science and religion
Since he is a theist as well as a historian of science and a cosmologist, Gingerich has been asked several times to comment on matters concerning the interplay between science and faith. One of these, Intelligent designIntelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
, he calls an issue with “immense incomprehension from both the friends and foes.” On the one hand, he says that it is unfortunate that there seems to be a knee-jerk reaction among its critics that I.D. is simply Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
in disguise. On the other hand, he says that, while I.D. supporters make a good case for a coherent understanding of the nature of the cosmos,
they fall short in providing any mechanisms for the efficient causes that primarily engage scientists in our age. I.D. does not explain the temporal or geographical distribution of species, or the intricate relationships of the DNA coding. I.D. is interesting as a philosophical idea, but it does not replace the scientific explanations that evolution offers.
Gingerich believes “there is a God as a designer, who happens to be using the evolutionary process to achieve larger goals – which are, as far as we human beings can see, [the development of] self-consciousness and conscience.” He has written that “I ... believe in intelligent design, lowercase ‘i’ and ‘d’. But I have trouble with Intelligent Design – uppercase ‘I’ and ‘D’ – a movement widely seen as anti-evolutionist.” He indicated that teleological argument
Teleological argument
A teleological or design argument is an a posteriori argument for the existence of God based on apparent design and purpose in the universe. The argument is based on an interpretation of teleology wherein purpose and intelligent design appear to exist in nature beyond the scope of any such human...
s, such as the apparent fine tuning of the universe
Fine-tuned universe
The fine-tuned universe is the proposition that the conditions that allow life in the Universe can only occur when certain universal fundamental physical constants lie within a very narrow range, so that if any of several fundamental constants were only slightly different the universe would be...
, can count as evidence, but not proof, for the existence of God
Existence of God
Arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others. In philosophical terms, arguments for and against the existence of God involve primarily the sub-disciplines of epistemology and ontology , but also of the theory of value, since...
. He said that “a common-sense and satisfying interpretation of our world suggests the designing hand of a superintelligence.”
Accepting the common descent
Common descent
In evolutionary biology, a group of organisms share common descent if they have a common ancestor. There is strong quantitative support for the theory that all living organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor....
of species, Gingerich is a theistic evolutionist. Therefore, he does not accept metaphysical naturalism
Metaphysical naturalism
Metaphysical naturalism, also called ontological naturalism and philosophical naturalism, or just naturalism, is a philosophical worldview and belief system that holds that there is nothing but natural elements, principles, and relations of the kind studied by the natural sciences, i.e., those...
, writing that
Most mutations are disasters, but perhaps some inspired few are not. Can mutations be inspired? Here is the ideological watershed, the division between atheistic evolution and theistic evolution, and frankly it lies beyond science to prove the matter one way or the other. Science will not collapse if some practitioners are convinced that occasionally there has been creative input in the long chain of being.
Gingerich’s beliefs have sometimes resulted in criticism from young earth creationists, who dissent from the view that the universe is billions of years old
Age of the universe
The age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang posited by the most widely accepted scientific model of cosmology. The best current estimate of the age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model...
. Gingerich has responded, in part, by saying that “the great tapestry of science is woven together with the question ‘how?’” while the biblical account and faith “addresses entirely different questions: not the how, but the motivations of the ‘Who’.”
Accomplishments and awards
At Harvard, Gingerich taught “The Astronomical Perspective”, a core science course for non-scientists, which at the time of his retirement in 2000 was the longest-running course under the same management at the University. One semester, when the number of students signing up for the course lagged, Gingerich hired a plane to fly over Harvard Yard with a banner: "Sci A-17. M, W, F. Try it!" The class was filled by the end of that week. In 1984, he won the Harvard-Radcliffe Phi Beta Kappa prize for excellence in teaching, due in part to his creative use of medieval costumes, fire extinguishers, and at least one aircraft.In addition to over 20 books, Dr. Gingerich has published nearly 600 technical or educational articles and reviews, and he has written many other articles for a popular audience. Two anthologies of his essays have been released, The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History from Cambridge University Press and The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler in the American Institute of Physics.
He has been a councilor of the American Astronomical Society
American Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC...
, and helped organize its Historical Astronomy Division. In 2000, he won their Doggett Prize for his contributions to the history of astronomy. He was awarded the Prix Jules Janssen
Prix Jules Janssen
The Prix Jules Janssen is the highest award of the French Astronomical Society. Created in 1897 and awarded annually, it is usually given in alternate years to a French astronomer, and to an astronomer of another nationality. It is distinct from the Janssen Medal , which is awarded by the French...
of the French astronomical society in 2006.
Asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
2658 Gingerich
2658 Gingerich
2658 Gingerich is a main-belt asteroid discovered on February 13, 1980 by Harvard College at Agassiz Station. It rotates quickly, with a spin period of 2.9415 hours. Gingerich is also suspected to be a binary asteroid, due to a decrease in the magnitude of its lightcurve observed on Nov. 20,...
, discovered on February 13, 1980, at the Harvard College Observatory
Harvard College Observatory
The Harvard College Observatory is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and was founded in 1839...
, was named in his honor.
Personal life
Gingerich and his wife, Miriam, have been married for over 50 years. They have three sons, Mark, Peter, and Jonathan, as well as three grandchildren named Philip, Yasmin, and Dilara. They enjoy traveling, photography, and collecting both sea shellsSea Shells
Sea Shells is a 1957 album by Peggy Lee, recorded in early 1955.The album was possibly thought by her record company to be too esoteric, hence its later release. It was her last recording for Decca Records. The album is considered one of Miss Lee's more personal records, featuring a mix of love...
and rare books. Though they do not own a copy of the first edition of De revolutionibus (they own two second editions), his collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ephemerides
Ephemeris
An ephemeris is a table of values that gives the positions of astronomical objects in the sky at a given time or times. Different kinds of ephemerides are used for astronomy and astrology...
(books that give day-by-day positions of the planets) is second only to that of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
Gingerich appears regularly on the Universe
The Universe (TV series)
The Universe is an American documentary television series that features computer-generated imagery and computer graphics of astronomical objects in the universe plus interviews with experts who study in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, and astrophysics...
, a History Channel series.
Works
- Owen Gingerich: "Astronomy" in The Encounter between Christianity and Science, Edited by Richard H. BubeRichard H. Bube-Academic career:Bube received his B.S. in physics from Brown University in 1946, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University.He was a researcher at RCA Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey from 1948 to 1962...
, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968, pages 109-133 - Owen Gingerich: The Role of Erasmus ReinholdErasmus ReinholdErasmus Reinhold was a German astronomer and mathematician, considered to be the most influential astronomical pedagogue of his generation. He was born and died in Saalfeld, Saxony....
and the Prutenic TablesPrutenic TablesThe Prutenic Tables , were an ephemeris by the astronomer Erasmus Reinhold published in 1551. They are sometimes called the Prussian Tables after Albert I, Duke of Prussia, who supported Reinhold and financed the printing...
in the Dissemination of the Copernican Theory, 1973 http://books.google.com/books?id=bR8LAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA27&dq=author:%22Owen+Gingerich%22+%2Bhe+Role+of+Erasmus+Reinhold+and+the+Prutenic+Tables+in+the+Dissemination&sig=JlCddebimY-l-bTTuNQ6uU40Dq4 - Owen Gingerich, Robert S. Westman: The WittichPaul WittichPaul Wittich was a German mathematician and astronomer whose Capellan geoheliocentric model, in which the inner planets Mercury and Venus orbit the sun but the outer planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn orbit the Earth, may have directly inspired Tycho Brahe's more radically heliocentric...
Connection: Conflict and Priority in Late Sixteenth-century Cosmology, American Philosophical SocietyAmerican Philosophical SocietyThe 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,...
, 1988, http://books.google.com/books?id=bR8LAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=author:%22Owen+Gingerich%22&sig=bstl9UWBdm8488MLICr2Fa1A0OM#PPP5,M1 - Owen Gingerich: The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus. New York: Walker, 2004 ISBN 0-8027-1415-3
- Owen Gingerich: An annotated census of Copernicus' De revolutionibus (Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566). Leiden: Brill, 2002 ISBN 90-04-11466-1 (Studia copernicana. Brill's series; v. 2)http://books.google.com/books?id=35cNAAAACAAJ&dq=author:%22Owen+Gingerich%22+census
- Owen Gingerich: God's Universe. Belnap Press, 2006 ISBN 0674023706
- General editor of Oxford Portraits in ScienceOxford Portraits in ScienceOxford Portraits in Science is a collection of biographies of famous scientists for young adults edited by the Harvard University astronomer Owen Gingerich....
(1996 - present) - Owen Gingerich: The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler. New York: American Institute of Physics, 1993 ISBN 0-88318-863-5
General
- His Harvard Homepage
- Video interview of Dr. Gingerich by Robert WrightRobert Wright (journalist)Robert Wright is an American journalist, scholar, and prize-winning author of best-selling books about science, evolutionary psychology, history, religion, and game theory, including The Evolution of God, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, The Moral Animal, and Three Scientists and Their Gods:...
for meaningoflife.tv - Video interview of Dr. Gingerich on various "Cosmic questions"
- Owen Gingerich interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 31st August 2008 (film)
Essays
- Is the Cosmos All There Is?
- "Is There a Role for Natural Theology Today?" (Abridged reprint from Science and Theology: Questions at the Interface, edited by Murray Rae, Hilary Regan, and John Stenhouse (T & T Clarke, Edinburgh, 1994), pp. 29-48)
- "Taking the ID debate out of pundits’ playbooks". Science & Theology NewsScience & Theology NewsScience & Theology News was a monthly international newspaper of the Templeton Foundation that focused on science and religion and dialogue between them, specifically the point of view that both are worthwhile and compatible endeavors.Harold G...
. Nov. 8, 2005. - "The best of times, the worst of times" A Millennium Advent Sermon, Dec. 5, 1999
- "Ingredients for life" in God for the 21st Century, Russell StannardRussell StannardRussell Stannard is a retired high-energy particle physicist, who was born in London, England, on December 24, 1931. He currently holds the position of Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Open University...
ed., Templeton Foundation Press, 2000, ISBN 1890151394 - Gingerich's JASA articles