Trevor H. Levere Explained

Trevor Harvey Levere
Birth Date:21 March 1944
Birth Place:London, England
Death Place:Toronto, Ontario
Citizenship:United Kingdom; Canada
Fields:history of science
Workplaces:University of Toronto
Alma Mater:University of Oxford (B.A. 1966, Ph.D. 1969)
Doctoral Advisor:Alistair Cameron Crombie
Thesis Title:Chemical Affinity in the Nineteenth Century

Trevor Harvey Levere (1944–2022) was an English-born, Canadian historian of science, specializing in the history of chemistry. He was the author of six books and the coauthor of three books.[1]

Biography

After graduating from St Paul's School, London, Levere matriculated in 1962 at the University of Oxford. As an undergraduate, he enjoyed reading about the history of science as presented in the work of Herbert Butterfield, Henry Leicester, and Thomas Kuhn.[2] Levere received his B.A. in chemistry in 1966.[1] His Part II B.A. thesis on an historical topic in chemistry eventually appeared as a chapter in the 1969 book Martinus van Marum. Life and Work, edited by R. J. Forbes.[2] [3] At Oxford, Levered graduated in 1969 with a Ph.D. in the history of science. His thesis supervisor was A. C. Crombie. Levere's Ph.D. thesis, published in 1971 with the title Affinity and Matter: Elements of Chemical Philosophy 1800–1865, remains an important reference for historians of chemistry.[2]

At the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST) and the Department of History of the University of Toronto, Levere was employed as Lecturer from 1968 to 1969, Assistant Professor from 1969 to 1974, Associate Professor from 1974 to 1981, Professor from 1981 to 2006, and University Professor from 2006 to 2007, when he retired as University Professor Emeritus.[1] [2] He helped to develop the IHPST (founded in 1967) into an internationally important organization and served as the IHPST's director from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1993 to 1998.[1] [2] In addition to the history of chemistry, Levere did research on the relation between science and Romanticism,[4] the history of science in Canada, and the history of arctic exploration.[5] He published more than 80 refereed articles or book chapters.[1] His book Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball (2001, Johns Hopkins University Press) was written for chemistry students and teachers interested in the history of chemistry, as well as anyone else interested in the history of chemistry. The book was translated into Japanese and published in 2007 with the support of the Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry. Transforming Matter is noteworthy for its "readable style"[2] and, according to David M. Knight, is "amazingly full of information."[6]

Levere was the editor or co-editor of several books. He served in various editorial capacities for several journals — most notably at the editor from 1999 to 2013 of the journal Annals of Science. He held Visiting Fellowships in France (1981, Centre national de recherché scientifique, Paris), in the UK (1983, Clare Hall, Cambridge); in the USA (1995, Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, MIT); and in Spain (2006, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona). He also held short-term fellowships in Japan (2004, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) and in Germany (2006 & 2007, University of Göttingen).[1] [2]

Trevor Levere married Jennifer Tiesing on the 30th of July 1966. Upon his death in 2022, he was survived by his widow Jennifer, their son and daughter, and five grandchildren.[5]

Awards and honours

Levere was a Killam Senior Research Fellow from 1975 to 1977. He was elected in 1976 a Foreign Member of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities), in 1980 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 1997 a membre effectiv of the Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences (International Academy of the History of Science).[1] He was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1983–1984.[7] In 1985 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.[1] In 1999 He was awarded a D.Litt. as an honoris causa by the University of Oxford. He received in 2009 the Sydney M. Edelstein Award (now named the HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry).[8] In 2017 a festschrift was published in Levere's honour.[9]

Selected publications

Articles

Books

References

  1. Web site: Curriculum Vitae. Trevor H. Levere. Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology, University of Toronto.
  2. Web site: Trevor H. Levere. 2013. Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (acshist.scs.illinois.edu).
  3. Book: H. D. Tjeenk Willink (for Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen). Forbes, R. J.. Martinus van Marum. Life and Work. I. Chapter. Martinus van Marum and the Introduction of Lavoisier Chemistry into the Netherlands by T. H. Levere. 1969. https://books.google.com/books?id=upw1AAAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=levere.
  4. Web site: In Memoriam: Trevor H. Levere (1944-2022) . Leviston, Adriana. 15 December 2022 . News, Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology, University of Toronto.
  5. Web site: Obituary. Trevor H. Levere (1944 - 2022) - Toronto, Ontario - The Globe and Mail . November 2022. .
  6. Knight, David. review of Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball by Trevor H. Levere. The British Journal for the History of Science. 35. 125. June 2002. 216–217. 10.1017/S0007087402234706.
  7. Web site: Trevor Levere. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
  8. Levere, Trevor Harvey. The 2009 Edelstein Address. Sons of genius: chemical manipulation and its shifting norms from Joseph Black to Michael Faraday. Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. 35. 1. 1–6. 2010.
  9. Book: The Romance of Science: Essays in Honour of Trevor H. Levere . 978-3-319-58436-2 . Buchwald . Jed . Stewart . Larry . 4 July 2017 . Springer .
  10. review of Martinus van Marum: Life and Work by G. L. Turner and T. H. Levere. Dibner, Bern. Technology and Culture. Johns Hopkins University Press. 16. 2. April 1975. 295–297.
  11. Thackray, Arnold. Arnold Thackray. Book Review: Poetry Realized in Nature. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Early Nineteenth-Century Science by Trevor H. Levere. Canadian Journal of History/Annales Canadiennes d'Histoire. 19. 1. 92–93. 1984. p. 93
  12. Fogg, G. E.. Gordon Elliott Fogg. review of Science and the Canadian Arctic: A Century of Exploration, 1818–1918 by Trevor H. Levere. Polar Record. 29. 171. 1993. 338-339. p. 339

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