David M. Knight

'''David Marcus Knight''' (30 November 1936 – 19 January 2018)<ref>[http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetimes-uk/obituary.aspx?pid=187984579 Professor David Marcus Knight]</ref> was Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at Durham University.

==Life== Knight was born on 30 November 1936 in Exeter, England.<ref name="scs"/> The son of the Reverend Marcus Knight, later Dean of Exeter, he read chemistry at Keble College, Oxford and, after serving in the military, read a DPhil in the history of Victorian chemistry under the supervision of Alistair Cameron Crombie, Oxford University's Professor of the History of Science.<ref name="scs">{{Cite web |url=http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/HIST/awards/Edelstein%20Papers/KnightEdelsteinBioJJB.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=19 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612203421/http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/HIST/awards/Edelstein%20Papers/KnightEdelsteinBioJJB.pdf |archive-date=12 June 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> After Oxford he was appointed as Durham's lecturer in the history of science in the Department of Philosophy and remained there for the duration of his career.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dur.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/?id=515|title=People}}</ref> He served on the editorial boards of Ambix, Archives of Natural, History Annals of Science, and the ''British Journal for the History of Science'' and edited history of science book series for Cambridge University Press, Routledge and Ashgate Publishers.

Although he was trained as a historian of ideas, Knight spent his career developing a unique approach to the history of science that draws from methods used in the history of the book, social history and biographical history. His interest in the cultural history of science led him to write a number of books that focused on a wide range of topics, including the history of chemistry, the history of natural history, science and religion, and the public understanding of science. He was President of the British Society for the History of Science<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knight |first=David |date=1996 |title=Presidential Address: Getting science across |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S000708740003418X/type/journal_article |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |language=en |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=129–138 |doi=10.1017/S000708740003418X |issn=0007-0874|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and received numerous awards during the duration of his career, including the Templeton Award for his work on nineteenth century natural theology and the American Chemical Society's prestigious Edelstein Award for his research in the history of chemistry.<ref name="Edelstein">{{cite web |title=EDELSTEIN AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY |url=http://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/awards/edelstein.php |website=American Chemical Society Division of the History of Chemistry |accessdate=22 July 2019}}</ref>

Knight and his wife, Sarah, had six children.

==Works== ===Single authored books=== {{div col}} * ''Atoms and Elements'' (1967) * ''The Nature of Science ''(1976) * ''Ordering the World'' (1981) * ''The Age of Science'' (1986) * ''Natural Science Books in English, 1600-1900'' (1989) * ''Humphry Davy: Science and Power'' (1992) * ''Ideas in Chemistry'' (1992) * ''Science in the Romantic Era'' (1998) * ''Science and Spirituality'' (2003),<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.routledge.com/Science-and-Spirituality-The-Volatile-Connection/Knight/p/book/9780415257695 | title=Science and Spirituality The Volatile Connection | first=David | last=Knight | year=2003 | publisher=Routledge | isbn=978-0-415-25769-5 | accessdate=2 March 2021 }}</ref> * ''Public Understanding of Science'' (2006) * ''Voyaging in Strange Seas: The Great Revolution in Science'' (2014) {{div col end}}

===Jointly edited books=== * (with M D Eddy) ''Science and Beliefs; from Natural Philosophy to Natural Science'' (2005) * (with M D Eddy) ''William Paley’s Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity'' (2006)

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, David M}} Category:1936 births Category:2018 deaths Category:Academics of Durham University Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford Category:British historians of science Category:People from Exeter