Nicolaas Adrianus Rupke: Difference between revisions

He studied biology and geology at the [[Groningen University|university of Groningen]] and geology and the history of science at [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Oxford University|Oxford]]. Early in his studies, Rupke was a Christian and proponent of [[Flood geology]],<ref name="Why Not Creation?">''Rupke, N.A. 1970. Prolegomena to a study of cataclysmal sedimentation. In Lammerts, W.E. (editor), ''Why Not Creation?'' pp. 141–179. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI.''</ref> but later came to reject this position. When in 1977 he was elected to a [[Wolfson College, Oxford]] research position in the history of science, Rupke made this subject his full-time occupation. A series of similar international research posts followed, until in 1993 he took up a professorship at [[Göttingen University]] to teach the [[history of science]] and [[History of medicine|medicine]].<ref name="Carreer1">"Die Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften als Lebensgeschichten", ''Jahrbuch der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen'', 2005, pp. 313-322. Autobiographical sketch in the Yearbook of Göttingen Academy on the occasion of Rupke's election as a member of the academy.</ref> In 2009, Rupke was awarded a Lower Saxony research chair.<ref name="Carreer2">http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/108191.html. Press-release of the Lower Saxony Ministry of education about the "Niedersachsenprofessur 65+" (Lower Saxony research chair) 2009; [http://www.zeit.de/2009/31/C-Niedersachsenprofessur Interview] with ''[[Die Zeit]]''</ref> In 2012, he took up an endowed professorship at [[Washington and Lee University]] in Lexington, Virginia, USA.

Rupke is known for his studies of late-modern biology, geology and [[science & religion]]. With an interest in the biographical approach, he restored to their contemporary prominence several nineteenth-century scientists, most important among them [[Richard Owen]] who well before the appearance of ''[[The Origin of Species]]'' developed a naturalistic theory of evolution, albeit a non-Darwinian one.<ref name="Owen biography">''Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin'' (revised ed. of ''Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist'', New Haven and London: Yale, 1994) Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2009.</ref>

Studies of [[Alexander von Humboldt]] came next,<ref name="Humboldt metabiography">''Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography'' (corrected edition). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2008.</ref> in which Rupke developed what he terms the [[metabiography|metabiographical approach]] by exploring how a famous life – in this case Humboldt's – may be multiply retold and reconstructed as part of different belief systems and memory cultures.<ref name="Humboldt review">[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v441/n7091/full/441286a.html "Lives after death"]. [[Steven Shapin]]'s review in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', May 18, 2006, of ''Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography'', discussing Rupke's metabiographical approach.</ref>

*''The Great Chain of History: [[William Buckland]] and the English School of Geology (1814–1849)''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=232820|last1=Taylor |first1=Kenneth L. |author-link=Kenneth L. Taylor|title=Reviewed work: ''The Great Chain of History: William Buckland and the English School of Geology (1814-1849)'' by Nicolas A. Rupke |journal=Isis |year=1985 |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=106–108 |doi=10.1086/353765 }}</ref> {{isbn|0198229070}}

*''Vivisection in Historical Perspective'' (ed.). London, Croom Helm, 1987; Routledge, 1988. {{isbn|0415050219}}

*''Medical Geography in Historical Perspective'' (ed.). London: [[Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine]], 2000. {{isbn|0854840729}}

*''Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin'' (revised ed. of ''Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist'', New Haven and London: Yale, 1994, {{isbn|978-0300058208}}) Chicago and London: [[University of Chicago Press]], 2009.

*''Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography'' (corrected edition). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2008. {{cite book|title=1st edition|year=2005|isbn=3631539320|last1=Rupke |first1=Nicolaas A. |publisher=Peter Lang }}

*''Eminent Lives in Twentieth-Century Science and Religion'' (ed.) (revised and much expanded edition). Frankurt a.M.: Lang, 2009. {{cite book|title=2007 edition|isbn=9783631568033|last1=Rupke |first1=Nicolaas A. |year=2007 |publisher=Peter Lang }}

*''[[Albrecht von Haller]] im Göttingen der Aufklärung'' (ed. with {{ill|Norbert Elsner|de}}). Göttingen: Wallstein, 2009.

[[Category:DutchAcademic academicsstaff of the University of Göttingen]]

[[Category:20th-century Dutch geologists]]

[[Category:Princeton University alumni, 1970–79]]

[[Category:AlexanderWriters vonfrom Humboldt FellowsRotterdam]]

[[Category:People21st-century fromDutch Rotterdamgeologists]]