History of Science: Antiquity to 1700

Brad S. Gregory
University of Notre Dame
Ph.D., Princeton University

Brad S. Gregory is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He holds five university degrees, including undergraduate and advanced degrees in both history and philosophy. He received a B.S. in history from Utah State University; B.A. and Licentiate degrees in philosophy from the Institute of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; an M.A. in history from the University of Arizona; and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University…

As the 19th century drew to a close, the age-old quest to understand the physical world appeared to be complete except for a few minor details. "It seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established," said Albert Michelson, the first American scientist to win a Nobel Prize. But when Michelson made that prediction, he never dreamed that one of the "details"—his own curious discovery that the speed of light is constant no matter how fast an observer is moving—would soon be explained by a revolutionary theory that redefined the very concepts of space, time, matter, and energy.

As the 19th century drew to a close, the age-old quest to understand the physical world appeared to be complete except for a few minor details. "It seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established," said Albert Michelson, the first American scientist to win a Nobel Prize…

Brian M. Fagan is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he has taught since 1967. Born in England, Dr. Fagan earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in archaeology and anthropology from Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Professor Fagan’s excavations in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) from 1959-1965 earned him recognition as a pioneer of multidisciplinary African history. He has served as Director of the Bantu Studies Project of the British Institute for Eastern Africa, Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana, and Visiting Professor at Whittier College and the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Professor Fagan is the recipient of a Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California at Santa Barbara. His other awards include the Public Service Award of the Society of Professional Archaeologists and the Public Education Award of the Society for American Archaeology. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1973.

Dr. Fagan’s many books include People of the Earth and In the Beginning, two widely used university and college textbooks in archaeology and prehistory. His other works include The Rape of the Nile, The Adventure of Archaeology, and The Little Ice Age. He also edited The Oxford Companion to Archaeology…

Louis Markos
Houston Baptist University
Ph.D., University of Michigan


Louis Markos is Professor of English at Houston Baptist University where he has been teaching since 1991. He received his B.A. in English and history from Colgate University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan.

Professor Markos specializes in British romantic poetry, literary theory, and the classics and teaches courses in all three of these areas, as well as in Victorian poetry and prose, 17th-century poetry and prose, mythology, epic, and film.

Professor Markos has received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the University of Michigan and was named the Opal Goolsby Teacher of the Year at Houston Baptist…

William R. Cook is Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at the State University of New York at Geneseo, where he has taught since 1970. He received his Bachelor’s degree cum laude at Wabash College and his Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Professor Cook teaches courses in medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation history as well as the history of the Bible and of Christianity. His books include Images of St. Francis of Assisi and Francis of Assisi: The Way of Poverty and Humility.

Professor Cook received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1974. In 1992, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education named him New York State’s Professor of the Year.

Professor Cook and Professor Ronald B. Herzman have been collaborating intensively since 1973 when they team-taught a course at SUNY-Geneseo called "The Age of Chaucer." Subsequent courses included "The Age of Dante" and "The Age of Francis of Assisi." Both prolific writers in their own right, together they have published The Medieval World View with the Oxford University Press, currently in its second edition. In 2003, Professors Cook and Herzman were presented with the Medieval Academy of America’s first-ever CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching Medieval Studies.

David Roochnik is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston University, where he teaches in both the Department of Philosophy and the “Core Curriculum”, an undergraduate program in the humanities. He completed his undergraduate work at Trinity College, where he majored in philosophy and earned his Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University.
Prior to taking his post in Boston, Professor Roochnik taught at Iowa State University.
Dr. Roochnik was awarded Boston University’s Gitner Award in 1997 for excellence in teaching in the College of Arts and Sciences and the 1999 Metcalf Prize for campus-wide teaching excellence…