William Newman is Distinguished Professor and Ruth N. Halls Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University. His main present research interests focus on early modern “chymistry” and late medieval “alchemy,” especially as exemplified by Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Daniel Sennert, and the first famous American scientist, George Starkey. Much of his research has centered on the history of matter-theory, especially corpuscularism and atomism, and on the history of early chemical technology. He has taught courses on these subjects in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, as well as courses on early science and its relationship to natural philosophy more broadly.
Newman is general editor of the digital Chymistry of Isaac Newton Project and was the first director of the Catapult Center for Digital Humanities and Computational Analysis of texts at Indiana University.