Klaus Hentschel


Klaus Hentschel is a German physicist, historian of science and Professor and head of the History of Science and Technology section in the History Department of the University of Stuttgart. He is known for his contributions in the field of the history of science.

Life and work

Born in Bad Nauheim, Hentschel from 1979 to 1985 studied physics, philosophy, science, history and musicology at the University of Hamburg. He completed his studies in philosophy in 1985 with the master's examination, and a study in physics in 1987. After some studies in the United States, among others in Boston on a DAAD, he in 1989 received his PhD at the University of Hamburg. His thesis was entitled "Interpretationen und Fehlinterpretationen der speziellen und der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie durch Zeitgenossen Albert Einsteins".
After graduation Hentschel participated in a research project by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft on epistemic modal logic. In 1991 he was appointed assistant professor at the Institute for the History of Science of the University of Göttingen. In 1995 he obtained his habilitation in Hamburg with the thesis, entitled "Zum Zusammenspiel von Instrument, Experiment und Theorie. Rotverschiebung im Sonnenspektrum und verwandte spektrale Verschiebungseffekte von 1880 bis 1960.".
In the year 1995/1996 Klaus Hentschel was Fellow at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology of Bern Dibner, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1996 to 2002 he was successively Assistant Professor at the Institute for the History of Science at the University of Göttingen, visiting scholar at MIT, and Visiting Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hamburg. From 2003 to 2005 he worked with a research grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft at the University of Bern and 2005/2006 at the University of Stuttgart in the Department of History of Science and Technology.
In 2006 Hentschel was appointed Professor at the University of Halle-Wittenberg for a period of five years in the field of comparative history of science. In the same year he was also appointed Professor at the University of Stuttgart, where he chairs the Department of History of Science and Technology in the History department since 2007.

Prizes

1989: Kurt-Hartwig-Siemers Science-Prize of the University of Hamburg
1992: Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Prize of the German Federal Ministry of Science & Education
1998: Marc-Auguste-Pictet-Prize of the Société de physique et d'histoire naturelle de Genève in Geneva
1999: Georg-Uschmann-Prize for History of Science of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
2017: Neu-Whitrow-Prize of the Commission on Bibliography and Documentation, International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science for his international 1450-1950

Memberships in Academies

2004: Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
2005: Corresponding member of the Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences in Paris, Rom und Liège
2013: Full member of the Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences
2015: Chairman of the Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen Stiftung for Visual Arts, Music and Poetry.

Selected publications

Articles :