Everett Irwin Mendelsohn (October 28, 1931 – June 6, 2023) was an American historian of science. He was Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at Harvard University, where he was a faculty member from 1960 until his retirement in 2007.[1][2]
Everett Mendelsohn | |
|---|---|
 Mendelsohn in 2013 | |
| Born | Everett Irwin Mendelsohn October 28, 1931 Yonkers, New York, U.S. |
| Died | June 6, 2023 (aged 91) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Spouses | Mary Maule Leeds
(m. 1954; div. 1974)Mary Baughman Anderson
(m. 1974) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | History of science |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Thesis | The development of the theory of animal heat (1960) |
| Doctoral students | Garland E. Allen |
Early life and education
editEverett Irwin Mendelsohn was born on October 28, 1931, in New York City.[3]: 2 He grew up in the Bronx. His father worked for a candy importation company. His mother was a school secretary.[4]
In 1949, he graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School. He then studied biology and history at Antioch College, graduating with a BS in 1953. He then went to graduate school in biology at Harvard. In 1960, he received a PhD in the history of science.[4]
Career
editMendelsohn was a co-founder of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Committee on Science, Arms Control, and National Security and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' Committee on International Security Studies. A self-described pacifist, he was active in attempting to negotiate peace in the Middle East both as the chair of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' Committee on Middle East Studies and through his work with the American Friends Service Committee.[2][5]
In 1962 Mendelsohn was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[6] In 1968, he founded the Journal of the History of Biology and served as its editor-in-chief for 31 years thereafter.[7] He was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1970.[8] He received the Gregor Mendel Medal from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1991 and the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize in 1996.[5] In 1998, the Harvard Graduate Council honored Mendelsohn's work mentoring students by establishing the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award, which is given annually to academics who are judged to have gone above and beyond in mentoring graduate students at Harvard.[9] In 2007, when Mendelsohn announced his impending retirement, his Harvard colleague Anne Harrington described him as "one of the founders of the social history of science."[2] In 2017, the Journal of the History of Biology established the Everett Mendelsohn Prize in his honor.[7]
Personal life and death
editIn 1954, Mendelsohn married Mary Maule Leeds. Together they had three children. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1974, he married Mary B. Anderson, an economist and author.[4]
Mendelsohn died after a stroke in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on June 6, 2023, at the age of 91.[4]
References
edit- ^ "Everett Mendelsohn". Department of the History of Science. Harvard University. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
- ^ a b c Kelly, M. Aidan (June 6, 2007). "Hist. of Sci. Prof. To Bid Farewell". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
- ^ Mendelsohn, Everett; Allen, Garland E.; MacLeod, Professor Roy M.; MacLeod, Roy M. (2001). Science, History and Social Activism. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4020-0495-7.
- ^ a b c d Genzlinger, Neil (July 15, 2023). "Everett Mendelsohn, Who Linked Science and Society, Dies at 91". New York Times.
- ^ a b "Everett Mendelsohn". The Herbert Reynolds Lecture Series. Baylor University. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
- ^ "Historic Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Search on last_name = "Mendelsohn".)
- ^ a b "Journal of the History of Biology". Springer. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
- ^ "Everett Irwin Mendelsohn". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
- ^ "David J. Mooney receives Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award". School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Harvard University. Retrieved November 8, 2021.