Michael J. Crowe (born 1936) is Rev. John J. Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus in the Program of Liberal Studies and Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame.Michael Crowe: Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C. Professor Emeritus in the Humanities Program of Liberal Studies University of Notre Dame: John J. Reilly Center He is best known for writing the influential book A History of Vector Analysis.Michael J. Crowe, A History of Vector Analysis Review by William C. Waterhouse, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 78, no. 3, May 1972 After the Great Vector Debate of the 1890s it was generally assumed that quaternions had been superseded by vector analysis. But in his book, published in 1967, Crowe showed how, contrarily, vector analysis directly stemmed from the quaternions.p. 12 of Michael J. Crowe, 'A History of Vector Analysis' (talk at University of Louisville, 2002) In 1994 a new edition was published.Michael J. Crowe, A History of Vector Analysis, review by P. N. Ruane, MAA Reviews, 14 April 2012
Education and career Crowe earned a BA in the Program of Liberal Studies and a BS in Science from the University of Notre Dame in 1958. He earned a PhD in the History of Science (with minors in Physics and Intellectual History) from the University of Wisconsin in 1965. His doctoral dissertation was The History of the Idea of a Vectorial System to 1910,Dissertation: The history of the idea of a vectorial system to 1910 by Michael J. Crowe, University of Wisconsin, 1965 which was published as the book A History of Vector Analysis two years later.
Thereafter Crowe wrote on various topics, from the history of physics and astronomy,WorldCat, Michael J. Crowe to the Gestalt shifts in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.Michael J. Crowe, Gestalt shift in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, review by Bernard Lightman in Isis, vol. 110, no. 4, pp. 846-847, 2019 Crowe's book about the history of the extraterrestrial life debate was highly praised,Michael J. Crowe, The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750-1900, review by David W. Hughes in New Scientist, 2 October 1986, p. 50Michael J. Crowe, The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750-1900, review by Steven J. Dick in Isis, vol. 78, no. 2, pp. 257-259, 1987 and was followed by a companion source book in 2008.
Honors In 2010 Crowe was awarded the LeRoy E. Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society.Michael J. Crowe Awarded the 2010 LeRoy E. Doggett Prize by Sara J. Schechner, Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society
Bibliography 1994 A History of Vector Analysis : The Evolution of the Idea of a Vectorial System by Michael J. Crowe, Dover Publications, Inc. New York. 1st ed. 1967, Univ. of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame. 1994 Modern theories of the universe: from Herschel to Hubble by Michael J. Crowe, New York: Dover Publications. 1999 The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750-1900 by Michael J. Crowe, Dover Publications, 1st ed. 1986, Cambridge University Press. 2008 The Extraterrestrial Life Debate: Antiquity to 1915 by Michael J. Crowe, University of Notre Dame Press. 2018 The Gestalt Shift in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, by Michael J. Crowe, Cham, Palgrave MacMillan.
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