Jerome (Jerry) Ravetz

Jerry Ravetz is a distinguished scholar of science in society. Jerry pioneered the study of the social dimensions of science. Early in his career he focused on the history of the mathematical sciences, with books on Copernicus and Fourier. In 1971 he published Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems, a foundational text in the social studies of science. The book sought to adapt key concerns of the philosophy of science for an era of industrialized science, and developed an approach to the social responsibility of scientists that has been highly influential ever since. A long-term engagement with the work of Thomas Kuhn and his collaboration with Silvio Funtowicz resulted a programme of research into ‘post-normal science,’ and the birth of an international community of scholars exploring the epistemological and political dimensions of science when facts are uncertain, values in dispute, and decisions urgent. In 2005 he published The No Nonsense Guide to Science. He is a highly prolific author in public debates on the role of science in society: see for example his piece in Nature from November 2019 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03527-y