Theodore_M._Porter

Theodore Porter

Theodore Porter

American historian

Theodore M. Porter (born 1953) is a professor who specializes in the history of science in the Department of History at UCLA. He has authored several books, including The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900; and Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life, the latter a vast reference for sociology of quantification.[1][2] His most recent book, published by Princeton University Press in 2018, is Genetics in the Madhouse: The Unknown History of Human Heredity. He graduated from Stanford University with an A.B. in history in 1976 and earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1981. In 2008, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[3] In 2023, he received the George Sarton Medal for lifetime achievement from the History of Science Society.[4]

Porter at the 2007 History of Science Society meeting

Works

  • The Rise of Statistical Thinking (1986)[5]
  • Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (1995)[6]
  • The Modern Social Sciences, with Dorothy Ross (2003)
  • Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age (2004)
  • Genetics in the Madhouse: The Unknown History of Human Heredity (2018)[7]

Notes and references

  1. [1]
    E. Popp Berman and D. Hirschman, “The Sociology of Quantification: Where Are We Now?,” Contemp. Sociol., vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 257–266, 2018.
  2. [2]
    Mennicken, A., & Espeland, W. N. (2019). What’s New with Numbers? Sociological Approaches to the Study of Quantification. Annual Review of Sociology, 45(1), 223–245.
  3. [3]
    Faculty Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences — History Archived 2008-07-26 at the Wayback Machine
  4. [4]
    Sepkoski, David (July 20, 2023). "2023 Sarton Medalist: Ted Porter". History of Science Society. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
  5. [5]
    Daston, L. (1987). The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900 by Theodore M. Porter. Isis, 78, 272–274.
  6. [6]
    Ravetz, J. R. (1997). In Numbers We Trust | Issues in Science and Technology. Issues in Science and Technology, 13(2). Retrieved from https://issues.org/ravetz/
  7. [7]
    Carter, N. (2020). Genetics in the madhouse: the unknown history of human heredity. Disability & Society, 35(4), 691–692.


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