Russell McCormmach


Russell Keith McCormmach is an American historian of physics.

Early life and education

McCormmach grew up in Walla Walla, Washington and studied physics at Washington State College with bachelor's degree in 1955. As a Rhodes scholar, he studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University with bachelor's degree in 1959. He then worked as an electronics engineer at Bell Laboratories. In 1967 he received a Ph.D. in the history of science from Case Institute of Technology under Martin J. Klein. McCormmach was then a professor of the history of science at the University of Pennsylvania and the Johns Hopkins University, and then at the University of Oregon. There he is a professor emeritus.

Career

McCormmach studied the history of German physics in the 19th and 20th centuries. His novel Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist consists of the fictional reminiscences of an elderly German physics professor named Viktor Jacob who reflects on the revolutionary developments at the beginning of 20th century physics. The fictional character Viktor Jacob is partly based on Paul Drude. In the novel, Viktor Jacob recalls Paul Drude as a friend.
In 1969 he founded the journal Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, for which he was the editor-in-chief for its first ten years.
With his wife, Christa Jungnickel, Russell McCormmach co-authored a biography of Henry Cavendish and a history of German theoretical physics in the 19th and early 20th century. His biography of the 18th century English naturalist John Michell was published in 2012.

Honors and awards

McCormmach received in 1987 the Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society and in 2010 the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics from the American Physical Society.

Selected publications