James Arthur Bennett (born 1947) is a retired museum curator and historian of science.

Career

Jim Bennett was educated at

Grosvenor High School Grosvenor Grammar School (formerly Grosvenor High School) is an 11–18 co-educational controlled grammar school and sixth form in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. History Grosvenor Grammar School was founded in 1945 as Grosvenor ...

, Belfast, and Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated with BA and PhD degrees in 1969 and 1974 respectively. He was Director of the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford University (since renamed the History of Science Museum). He was appointed on 1 October 1994, on the retirement of the previous director,

Francis Maddison Francis Romeril Maddison (27 July 1927 – 12 July 2006) was an English historian and Arabist. He was Curator of the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, England. Francis Maddison was born in Hounslow, London, England. He was educated at ...

, and retired on 30 September 2012. He is also a fellow of the Faculty of History and Linacre College. In 2010, the University of Oxford gave him the title Professor of the History of Science. Previously he was a fellow and senior tutor of

Churchill College Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establish ...

and curator of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, both part of Cambridge University. Since 2016, he's been the president of the Hakluyt Society. He also holds the position of Keeper Emeritus at the

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

Bennett's interests lie in the history of practical

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

from the 16th century to the 18th century, scientific instruments and astronomy. His work in Cambridge included hands-on use of scientific and navigational instruments, using the Whipple collection to teach undergraduates how instruments worked, and gaining insight into the difficulties faced by the historical teachers of those instruments. Jim Bennett has been President of the British Society for the History of Science and President of the Scientific Instrument Commission of the

International Union of History and Philosophy of Science The International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology is one of the members of the International Science Council (ISC). It was founded in 1955 by merging the ''International Union of History of Science'' (IUHS) and the ''Inter ...

. He has also appeared in television documentaries.

Selected publications

* ''The Divided Circle: A History of Instruments for Astronomy, Navigation and Surveying'', Jim Bennett. Oxford, 1987. * ''Church, State and Astronomy in Ireland, 200 Years of Armagh Observatory'', Jim Bennett. Belfast, 1990. * ''The Garden, the Ark, the Tower, the Temple. Biblical Metaphors of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe'', Jim Bennett and S. Mandelbrote. Oxford, 1998. * ''Practical Geometry and Operative Knowledge'', Jim Bennett. ''Configurations'', 6, 1998. * ''London's

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...

: The Life and Work of

Robert Hooke Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that ...

'', Jim Bennett, Michael Cooper, Michael Hunter and

Lisa Jardine Lisa Anne Jardine (née Bronowski; 12 April 1944 – 25 October 2015) was a British historian of the early modern period. From 1990 to 2011, she was Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies and Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and ...

. Oxford University Press, 2003. . ;As editor * ''

The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science ''The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science'' is an encyclopedia on the history of science from around the middle of the 16th century (the early modern period) to the beginning of the 21st century. The book includes 609 articles ...

'',

John L. Heilbron John Lewis Heilbron (born 17 March 1934, San Francisco) is an American historian of science best known for his work in the history of physics and the history of astronomy. He is Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus (Vice-Chancellor 19 ...

(editor-in-chief), Jim Bennett, Frederic L. Holmes,

Rachel Laudan Rachel Laudan (born 1944) is a food historian, an author of the prizewinning ''Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History''.Oxford University Press, 2003. .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Jim 1947 births Living people Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge British curators British historians Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge Place of birth missing (living people) Fellows of Linacre College, Oxford Historians of science