Prof. Dr. Jürgen Renn

Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte

juergen-renn

Jürgen Renn, since 1994 director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin (Department 1), is one of Topoi’s principal investigators and spokesman of Area E (together with Ernst Osterkamp). His research focuses on: structural changes in systems of knowledge in the natural sciences; comparative studies of the emergence and development of mechanical thinking; epistemic history of architecture; history of early modern science; history of relativity and quantum physics; development of electronic research infrastructures. Prof. Renn is Honorary Professor for History of Science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin. He is also Adjunct Professor for Philosophy and Physics at Boston University and member of various national and international Scientific Advisory and Editorial Boards. Since 2005 he is a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher, Leopoldina.
 

General Information

Area

Groups

 

Research Fields

Research Topics

 

Contact

Organisation / Department

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Address

Boltzmannstraße 22
14195 Berlin
Deutschland

Email

Phone

+49 30 22667-0
 

Activities

conference


 

Career

Awards

Pirelli InterNetional Award (1998)

 

Appointments

Honorary Professor for History of Science, Freie Universität Berlin (since 2006)
Adjunct Professor for Philosophy and Physics at Boston University (since 1998)

Honorary Professor for History of Science, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (since 1995)

Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin (since 1994)

Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the ETH, Zurich (replacement for Paul Feyerabend) and University of Tel Aviv (1993-1994)

Co-director, Arbeitsstelle Albert Einstein at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Educational Research (1991-1996)

Foundation of an international consortium for new technologies in the history of science (DFG and the Italian Ministry for Research) (1991)

Associate of the Department of Physics, Harvard University (1990-1992)

Associate and Adjunct Professor for Philosophy and Physics at Boston University and Cooperation with the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (1989-1992)

 
 

Publications

  (Selection)
2007 The Genesis of General Relativity, (4 volume-set), Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 250 (Dordrecht 2007) (editor).
  Mentale Modelle als kognitive Instrumente der Transformation von technischem Wissen, in: H. Böhme (ed.), Übersetzungen und Transformationen. Transformationen der Antike (Berlin 2007) (co-author with Peter Damerow).
2006 Transformation and Transmission: Chinese Mechanical Knowledge and the Jesuit Intervention, MPIWG (2006) Preprint N°. 313 (co-editor with Zhang Baichun).
2005 Albert Einstein Chief Engineer of the Universe (Berlin 2005) (editor).
  Auf den Schultern von Riesen und Zwergen: Einsteins unvollendete Revolution (Berlin 2005) (English translation due 2007).
2004 Exploring the Limits of Preclassical Mechanics. A Study of Conceptual Development in Early Modern Science: Free Fall and Compounded Motion in the Work of Descartes, Galileo, and Beeckman (New York 1991) (revised and expanded edition, 2004.) (co-author with P. Damerow, G. Freudenthal, P. McLaughlin).
2003 The Power of Images in Early Modern Science (Basel 2003) (co-editor with W. Lefèvre and U. Schoepflin).
2001 Homo Faber: Nature, Technology and Science at the Time of Pompeii (Rome 2001) (co-editor with G. Castagnetti).
  Galileo in Context (Cambridge 2001) (editor). (Book ed. of Science in Context, 13:3/4 [2000]).
1990 Galileo’s Theorem of Equivalence: The Missing Keystone of his Theory of Motion, in: T. H. Levere u. W. R. Shea (eds.), Nature, Experiment, and the Sciences. Essays on Galileo and the History of Science in Honour of Stillman Drake (Dordrecht 1990) p. 77–103.
 
 

Curriculum Vitae

  Education
1987 Ph.D. in mathematical physics, TU Berlin
1983-1986 Study and Research in Rome, Princeton, Paris, Boston
1983 Diploma (M.S.) in Physics (Freie Universität Berlin)
  Fellowships
1992 Visiting scholar at the Forschungsschwerpunkt Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Wissenschaftstheorie der Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Neuvorhaben of the Max Planck Society in Berlin
1988-1989 Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
1988 Fellow, Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Rome
1988 Fellow, Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Berlin
Memberships
various national and international Scientific Advisory Boards and Editorial Boards
  various commissions of the Max Planck Society
  Consortium of the International Laboratory in the History of Science (Athens, Berlin, Boston, Florence, Tel Aviv)
  commission, Centro interuniversitario di ricerca in filosofia e fondamenti della fisica, Bologna and Urbino, Italy.
  Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
  Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
   
  A detailed CV can be found at the website of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.