Dava Sobel

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Dava Sobel (born June 15, 1947) is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. Her books include Longitude, about English clockmaker John Harrison; Galileo's Daughter, about Galileo's daughter Maria Celeste; and The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars about the Harvard Computers.

Biography

Sobel was born in The Bronx, New York City. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and Binghamton University. She wrote Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time in 1995. The story was made into a television movie of the same name by Charles Sturridge and Granada Film in 1999, and was shown in the United States by A&E.

Her book Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2005, Sobel published The Planets, her most ambitious topic to date.  In this New York Times extended best seller, Sobel explores the origins and oddities of the planets through the lenses of both science and popular culture, from astrology, mythology, and science fiction to art, music, poetry, biography, and history.

Dava Sobel in November 2007

She holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from the University of Bath and Middlebury College, Vermont, both awarded in 2002.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sobel made her first foray into teaching at the University of Chicago as the Vare Writer-in-Residence in the winter of 2006. She taught a one-quarter seminar on science writing.

She served as a judge for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sobel is the niece of journalist Ruth Gruber<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the cousin of epidemiologist David Michaels.

Legacy

Asteroid 30935 Davasobel, discovered by Carolyn S. Shoemaker and David H. Levy was named after her for her literary work in physics.<ref name=":0" />

Sobel states she is a chaser of solar eclipses and that "it's the closest thing to witnessing a miracle". As of August 2012 she had seen eight, and planned to see the November 2012 total solar eclipse in Australia.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Publications

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• Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (1995) Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC – the genius in question was John Harrison, who spent decades trying to convince the British Admiralty of the accuracy of his naval timepieces and their use in determining longitude when at sea in order to win the longitude prize. The book itself won the 1997 British Book of the Year award.
• Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (2000) Template:ISBN
• The Best American Science Writing 2004 (editor) Template:ISBN, Template:OCLC
• The Planets: A discourse on the discovery, science, history and mythology, of the planets in our solar system, with one chapter devoted to each of the celestial spheres. (2005) Template:ISBN, Template:OCLC<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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• The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars (2016) Template:ISBN, Template:OCLC<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science (2024) Template:ISBN, Template:OCLC<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="p894">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Recognition

She was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2022 "for outstanding writings covering many centuries of key developments in physics and astronomy and the people central to those developments".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

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• Podcast of Dava Sobel discussing The Origins of Longitude at the Shanghai International Literary Festival
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