Dava Sobel (born June 15, 1947) is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. Her books include ''

Longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

'', about English clockmaker

John Harrison John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea. Harrison's solution revol ...

, and '' Galileo's Daughter'', about

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

's daughter

Maria Celeste Sister Maria Celeste (born Virginia Galilei; 16 August 1600 – 2 April 1634) was an Italian nun. She was the daughter of the scientist Galileo Galilei and Marina Gamba. Biography Virginia was the eldest of three siblings, with ...

, and ''The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars''.

Biography

Sobel was born in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York City. She graduated from the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...

and

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...

. She wrote '' Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time'' in 1995. The story was made into a television movie, of the same name by

Charles Sturridge Charles B. G. Sturridge (born 24 June 1951) is an English director and screenwriter. He is the recipient of a BAFTA Children's Award and four BAFTA TV Awards. He has also been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards. Early life and educatio ...

and Granada Film in 1999, and was shown in the United States by A&E. Her book '' Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love'' was a finalist for the 2000

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author o ...

. She holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

and

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

, Vermont, both awarded in 2002. Sobel made her first foray into teaching at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

as the Vare Writer-in-Residence in the winter of 2006. She taught a one-quarter seminar on writing about science. She served as a judge for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2012. Sobel is the niece of journalist

Ruth Gruber Ruth Gruber (September 30, 1911 – November 17, 2016) was an American journalist, photographer, writer, humanitarian, and United States government official. Born in Brooklyn to Russian Jewish immigrants, she was encouraged to pursue her dream ...

and the cousin of epidemiologist

David Michaels David Michaels may refer to: *David Michaels (author), a pseudonym for the authors of novels in the ''Splinter Cell'', ''EndWar'', ''H.A.W.X'', and ''Ghost Recon'' series *David Michaels (epidemiologist) (born 1954), American epidemiologist and OSHA ...

Legacy

The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

30935 Davasobel is named after her. Sobel states she is a chaser of

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six month ...

s and that "it's the closest thing to witnessing a miracle". As of August 2012 she had seen eight, and planned to see the November 2012 total solar eclipse in Australia.

Publications

* * * * '' Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time'' (1995) . – the genius in question was

, who spent decades trying to convince the

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of it ...

of the accuracy of his naval timepieces and their use in determining

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

when at sea in order to win the

longitude prize The longitude rewards were the system of inducement prizes offered by the British government for a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude at sea. The rewards, established through an Act of Parliament (t ...

. The book itself won the 1997

British Book of the Year The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by ''The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the National ...

award. * '' Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love'' (2000) * ''The Best American Science Writing'' 2004 (editor) , * ''The Planets: A discourse on the discovery, science, history and mythology, of the planets in our solar system, with one chapter devoted to each of the celestial spheres.'' (2005) , * * ''The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars'' (2016) ,

Recognition

She was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2022 "for outstanding writings covering many centuries of key developments in physics and astronomy and the people central to those developments".

References

External links

* *
Podcast
of Dava Sobel discussing ''The Origins of Longitude'' at the Shanghai International Literary Festival * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sobel, Dava 1947 births Living people 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American science writers American women non-fiction writers Antioch College alumni Binghamton University alumni The Bronx High School of Science alumni Scientific American people Women science writers Fellows of the American Physical Society