John North

Who was John North?

John David North was a British historian of science and author of numerous books.

North was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1934. He first studied mathematics at Merton College, Oxford and later philosophy and politics and economics. He met his wife Marion in Oxford, and married her in 1957. Later he went to London University where he took an external degree in maths, physics and astronomy.

His first book was The Measure of the Universe: a History of Modern Cosmology, which was praised as "a virtually complete history of modern cosmology". Not long after he started studying medieval science as he had been appointed librarian and assistant curator of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. He was appointed Professor of History of Philosophy and the Exact Sciences at the University of Groningen, Netherlands in 1977, where he stayed until his retirement in 1999. He wrote two books on mediaeval scientist and mathematician Richard of Wallingford.

North was diagnosed with cancer in 2005, and died on 31 October 2008.