Nakayama, Shigeru | Japan

Shigeru NAKAYAMA is born in Japan in 1928. Graduated from Hiroshima Higher School in 1948 (physical science major) and from the University of Tokyo in 1951 with astrophysics major. Since then, his interest shifted to the history of science, a more humanistic aspect of science, visited USA as a Fulbrighter and coffered Ph.D. in the history of science and learning (history of universities) at Harvard in 1959. During his graduate study, he worked with Thomas Kuhn at Harvard in 1955-56, sent to Cambridge, England to work with Joseph Needham in 1957 and also the Institute of Humanistic Science, Kyoto University in 1958.

In 1960, he joined the Faculty of Arts and Sciences , University of Tokyo until his retirement in 1989. Then, his post moved from the University of Tokyo to School of International Business Administration, Kanagawa University, where he had been Professor of STS Center until 2000. He has retired to be Professor Emeritus, though is still teaching graduate students.

During his research career, his interest shifted gradually from the history of traditional East Asian sciences to more contemporaneous science policy studies.

Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society in July 2002.

Selected Publications

A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan, Volume 1 (Trans Pacific Press, 2001) x 632p.

Science, Technology and Society in Contemporary Japan, with M. Low and H. Yoshioka, (Cambridge University Press, 1999) xiii 226p.

Science, Technology and Society in Postwar Japan, (Kegan Paul International, 1991)

Academic and scientific traditions in China, Japan and the West (University of Tokyo Press, 1984) xix 251p

"Japanese scientific thought" Dictionary of scientific biography XV pp.728-758 (Charles Scribner's, 1978)