Eric Scerri

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Eric Scerri
Eric Scerri.tif
Born (1953-08-30) August 30, 1953 (age 71)
Malta
CitizenshipUnited States
United Kingdom
Alma mater Walpole Grammar School, Westfield College, University of Cambridge, University of Southampton, King's College London
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry, logic, history and philosophy of science, chemical education
Institutions University of California, Los Angeles
Doctoral advisor Heinz Post [1]
Website http://www.ericscerri.com/

Eric R. Scerri (born August 30, 1953) is an American chemist, writer and philosopher of science of Maltese origin. [2] [3] [4] He is a lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles; and the founder and editor-in-chief of Foundations of Chemistry , an international peer reviewed journal covering the history and philosophy of chemistry, and chemical education. [5] [6]

Contents

He has worked on the history and philosophy of the periodic table and is the author and editor of several books in this and related fields. [7] Scerri was a participant in the 2014 PBS documentary film, The Mystery of Matter .

Scerri attended Walpole Grammar School in Ealing. He received his BSc from Westfield College (University of London), his Certificate in Postgraduate Study from the University of Cambridge, his MPhil from the University of Southampton, and his PhD from King's College London. [6]

Research interests

Scerri's research has mainly been in the history and philosophy of chemistry, in particular on the question of the extent to which chemistry reduces to quantum mechanics. He has specialized in the study of the periodic table of the elements, including its historical origins and its philosophical significance. More recent writings have included critiques of claims for the emergence of chemistry and the existence of downward causation.

In addition to historical and philosophical work Scerri has published articles in the chemical education literature, including accounts of the electronic structures of transition metals and the occurrence of anomalous electron configurations.

In A Tale of Seven Elements (2013) Scerri recounts the story of the discovery of the seven elements missing from the periodic table shortly after the turn of the 20th century, including the setbacks, misguided claims, and sometimes acrimonious priority debates and disputes.[ citation needed ]

In December 2015, Scerri was appointed by IUPAC as the chair of a project to make a recommendation on the composition of group 3—whether it should be the elements Scandium, Yttrium, Lanthanum and Actinium; or Scandium, Yttrium, Lutetium and Lawrencium. In January 2021, the project issued a provisional report in IUPAC's news magazine Chemistry International suggesting Scandium, Yttrium, Lutetium and Lawrencium. [8] This accords with a previous IUPAC report from 1988, as well as a suggestion by Lev Landau and Evgeny Lifshitz in their Course of Theoretical Physics.

Most recently (2016) he proposed an evolutionary approach to the philosophy of science based on seven case studies of little known scientists such as John Nicholson, Anton Van den Broek and Edmund Stoner. Scerri has argued that these lesser known figures are just as significant as they constitute the missing gaps in a gradual evolutionary and organic growth in the body of scientific knowledge. Although he rejects the occurrence of scientific revolutions as envisioned by Thomas Kuhn, Scerri supports Kuhn's notion that scientific progress is non-teleological and that there is no approach towards an external truth.

Publications

Books

References

  1. CORRESPONDENCE, INVARIANCE AND HEURISTICS. Essays in Honour of Heinz Post. Edited by STEVEN FRENCH and HARMKE KAMMINGA
  2. Baykoucheva S 2010, "Eric Scerri: A philosopher's view on the periodic table of the elements and its significance", Chemical Information Bulletin, vol. 62, no. 1, Spring, pp. 27–32
  3. "Interview with Eric Scerri – David Bradley". www.sciencebase.com. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  4. "Scerri, Eric R. 1953- | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  5. Rocke A 2012, 'A place at the periodic table', The Times Higher Education Supplement , 15 August
  6. 1 2 UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry 2013, 'Scerri, Eric R.', University of California. For current biographical information see the home page of Eric Scerri
  7. Sella A 2013, 'An elementary history lesson', New Scientist , 13 August
  8. Scerri, Eric (18 January 2021). "Provisional Report on Discussions on Group 3 of the Periodic Table". Chemistry International. 43 (1): 31–34. doi: 10.1515/ci-2021-0115 . S2CID   231694898.
  9. Ball, Philip (2017). "The Philosopher's Quest". Distillations. 3 (3): 42–45. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2018.