María Matilde Portuondo Gamba is an American historian of science, retired as a professor emerita in the Department of History of Science and Technology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research and books have focused on early modern cosmography, natural history, and technology in Spain and Latin America, including the work of 16th-century polymath Benito Arias Montano.
Education and career Portuondo is originally from Puerto Rico. She came to the mainland US for a 1984 bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the University of Miami, and worked as an engineer for 12 years. Returning to doctoral study in the history of science at Johns Hopkins University, she completed her Ph.D. in 2005.
She worked as an assistant professor of history at the University of Florida from 2005 to 2008, before returning to Johns Hopkins in 2008. There, she became a full professor in 2020, and served as department chair. She is retired as a professor emerita.
Books Portuondo is the author of: Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World (University of Chicago Press, 2009); translated into Spanish as Ciencia Secreta, Cosmografía y Nuevo Mundo (Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2013) The Spanish Disquiet: The Biblical Natural Philosophy of Benito Arias Montano (University of Chicago Press, 2019)
Awards and honors She received the 2010 John E. Fagg Prize of the American Historical Association for Secret Science, and the 2021 Pfizer Award of the History of Science Society for The Spanish Disquiet.
References Reviews of The Spanish Disquiet: Elisa Andretta (2021), Dynamis, John A. Jones (2020), Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Hilaire Kallendorf (2020), Renaissance Quarterly, , Noah Moxham (2021), The British Journal for the History of Science, Luis Rodríguez-Rincón (2020), Calíope, John Slater (2019), Annals of Science, Pablo Toribio Pérez (2020), Asclepio, José M. Vaquero Martínez (2020), Cuadernos de Çafra,
Reviews of Secret Science: Federico Andrade Marambio (2013), Bibliographica americana: Revista Interdisciplinaria de Estudios Coloniales, Antonio Barrera-Osorio (2010), Isis, , Ralph Bauer (2010), The Americas, , Dean W. Bond (2013), Canadian Geographies, David Buisseret (2010), Technology and Culture, Surekha Davies (2010), Renaissance Quarterly, Elena Del Río Parra (2012), Journal of World History, Felipe Fernández-Armesto (2010), "Spanish renaissance cosmography: modest or modern?", Metascience, Bernard Lavallé (2011), Iberoamericana, Maria Martin (2014), Cartographic Perspectives, Adam Mosley (2010), "Spanish cosmography", Journal for the History of Astronomy, Ricardo Padrón (2013), Cartographica, Heather R. Peterson (2011), "The shape of the world: the story of Spanish expansion and the secret science of cosmography", Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, , Natalia Priego (2010), The Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Andrés I. Prieto (2011), Hispanic American Historical Review, Antonio Sánchez (2011), Theoria, Alison Sandman (2011), Imago Mundi, , Dario Tessicini (2011), The British Journal for the History of Science, , Nuria Valverde Pérez (2010), Centaurus, El Ciervo (2014),