Editors

Jürgen Renn studied physics at the Freie Universität in Berlin and at the Sapienza University in Rome. In 1987 he received his PhD in mathematical physics from the Technische Universität Berlin. Since its foundation in 1994, Renn has been director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin. His research deals with the long-term developments of knowledge and the dynamics that led to the Anthropocene. Other focal points are the transformation of ancient knowledge, the exchange of knowledge between Europe and China in the early modern period, and the history of modern physics. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the International Academy for the History of Science, and is currently Deputy Chairperson of the Humanities Section of the Max Planck Society. His most recent publication is The Evolution of Knowledge: Rethinking Science for the Anthropocene (Princeton University Press, 2020).

is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Virginia Tech, with current research projects centering on theory testing and on differential equations and their use in physical theories, especially fluid dynamics and gravitational wave astronomy. Patton is a founder of the VT Gravity Lab, the Editor in Chief of the journal HOPOS, and Series Editor of the Palgrave-Springer series New Directions in the Philosophy of Science. Patton’s work has been published in journals including Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Synthese, The Monist, History and Philosophy of Logic, and Historia Mathematica, and in dozens of edited collections.