I am a historian of early science and medicine with a research specialty in ideas about the inner workings of nature that were developed in medieval and early modern Europe. In A Philosophical Path for Paracelsian Medicine and several articles I explore elements of a biological philosophy developed by the followers of the German iconoclastic physician and lay preacher, Theophrastus Paracelsus. I am particularly interested in the manifold connections between medicine, science, pharmacy, and religion in early thought. Recently I have undertaken research in the history of biological rhythms studies (chronobiology) and am promoting this area of research among my colleagues and developing an on-line research database of related materials (if interested, please send e-mail).I received the B.S., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin.
Specialties
Early Modern European Science and Medicine, History of Paracelsianism, History of Biological Rhythm Studies
A Philosophical Path for Paracelsian Medicine: The Ideas, Intellectual Context, and Influence of Petrus Severinus (1540/2-1602) (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004).
"Paracelsianism and the Orthodox Lutheran Rejection of Vital Philosophy in Early Seventeenth-Century Denmark." Early Science and Medicine 8(2003): 210-52.
"Providence, Power, and Cosmic Causality in Early Modern Astronomy: The Case of Tycho Brahe and Petrus Severinus." pp. 46-69 in Tycho Brahe and Prague: Crossroads of European Science, eds. J. R. Christianson et al. (Frankfurt am Main: Harri Deutsch Verlag, 2002).
"Documenting the Factual and the Artifactual: Ole Worm and Public Knowledge." Endeavour 23 (1999): 65-71.
"Tycho Brahe, Laboratory Design, and the Aim of Science: Reading Plans in Context." Isis 84 (1993): 211-230.