Michel Janssen

Michel Janssen
Professor, School of Physics and AstronomyContact
John T. Tate Hall Room 130-27 116 Church Street SeMinneapolis, MN 55455
Education
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, 1995
M.S., University of Amsterdam, 1988
B.A./B.S., University of Amsterdam, 1982/1983
Professional Background
Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, December 2019-November 2022
I'm a historian of science with a background in physics and philosophy. My research focuses on the genesis of relativity and quantum theory in the late-19th and early-20th century. I teach a survey of the history of science from the 18th through the 20th century, which meets two liberal education requirements (historical and international perspectives), a writing-intensive class aimed at physics majors on the history of 20th-century physics, honors seminars on various topics (e.g., Einstein, entanglement), and I regularly give guest lectures on historical topics in various physics classes.
Books
- Anthony Duncan and Michel Janssen, Constructing Quantum Mechanics. Vol. 1. The Scaffold, 1900–1923, Oxford University Press, 2019
- Michel Janssen, Arches and Scaffolds: Bridging Continuity and Discontinuity in Theory Change, Pp. 95–199 in: Alan C. Love and William C. Wimsatt (eds.), Beyond the Meme. Development and Structure in Cultural Evolution. University of Minnesota Press, 2019
- Michel Janssen and Christoph Lehner, The Cambridge Companion to Einstein, Cambridge University Press, 2014