Nicolaas Adrianus Rupke (born 22 January 1944 in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

) is a Dutch historian of science, who began his academic career as a marine geologist.''Who is Who in the World 2011'' - 28th edition. He studied biology and geology at the

university of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

and geology and the history of science at

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Early in his studies, Rupke was a Christian and proponent of

Flood geology Flood geology (also creation geology or diluvial geology) is a pseudoscientific attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features of the Earth in accordance with a literal belief in the global flood described in Genesis 6–8. In the ea ...

,Rupke, N.A. 1970. Prolegomena to a study of cataclysmal sedimentation. In Lammerts, W.E. (editor), ''Why Not Creation?'' pp. 141–179. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI. but later came to reject this position. When in 1977 he was elected to a

Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research a ...

research position in the history of science, Rupke made this subject his full-time occupation. A series of similar international research posts followed, until in 1993 he took up a professorship at

Göttingen University Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The o ...

to teach the history of science and

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

."Die Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften als Lebensgeschichten", ''Jahrbuch der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen'', 2005, pp. 313-322. Autobiographical sketch in the Yearbook of Göttingen Academy on the occasion of Rupke's election as a member of the academy. In 2009, Rupke was awarded a Lower Saxony research chair.http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/108191.html. Press-release of the Lower Saxony Ministry of education about the "Niedersachsenprofessur 65+" (Lower Saxony research chair) 2009
Interview
with '' Die Zeit'' In 2012, he took up an endowed professorship at

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexington ...

in Lexington, Virginia, USA. Rupke is known for his studies of late-modern biology, geology and science & religion. With an interest in the biographical approach, he restored to their contemporary prominence several nineteenth-century scientists, most important among them Richard Owen who well before the appearance of ''

The Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

'' developed a naturalistic theory of evolution, albeit a non-Darwinian one.''Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin'' (revised ed. of ''Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist'', New Haven and London: Yale, 1994) Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Studies of

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...

came next,''Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography'' (corrected edition). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2008. in which Rupke developed what he terms the metabiographical approach by exploring how a famous life – in this case Humboldt's – may be multiply retold and reconstructed as part of different belief systems and memory cultures."Lives after death"

Steven Shapin Steven Shapin (born 1943) is an American historian and sociologist of science. He is the Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. He is considered one of the earliest scholars on the sociology of scienti ...

's review in ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'', May 18, 2006, of ''Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography'', discussing Rupke's metabiographical approach. Rupke is a fellow of Germany's

National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

Membership listing of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina - Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften
and of the

Göttingen Academy of Sciences Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The or ...

Selected books

* ''Distinctive Properties of Turbiditic and Hemipelagic Mud Layers'' (with Daniel J. Stanley). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1974. *''The Great Chain of History:

William Buckland William Buckland DD, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and palaeontologist. Buckland wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named ' ...

and the English School of Geology (1814–1849)''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983. *''Vivisection in Historical Perspective'' (ed.). London, Croom Helm, 1987; Routledge, 1988. *''Science, Politics and the Public Good'' (ed.). London: Macmillan, 1988. *''Medical Geography in Historical Perspective'' (ed.). London:

Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL (2000-2012) was a research and teaching centre within University College London dedicated to the history of medicine. It was created through a grant from the Wellcome Trust, on the mode ...

, 2000. *''Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin'' (revised ed. of ''Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist'', New Haven and London: Yale, 1994, ) Chicago and London:

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

, 2009. *''Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography'' (corrected edition). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2008. *''Eminent Lives in Twentieth-Century Science and Religion'' (ed.) (revised and much expanded edition). Frankurt a.M.: Lang, 2009. *'' Albrecht von Haller im Göttingen der Aufklärung'' (ed. with ). Göttingen: Wallstein, 2009.

References

External links

Academic homepage

Faculty listing, Göttingen University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rupke, Nicolaas Adrianus 1944 births Living people Academic staff of the University of Göttingen 20th-century Dutch geologists Historians of science Princeton University alumni Alumni of Wolfson College, Oxford Writers from Rotterdam 21st-century Dutch geologists