William Eamon

William Eamon (born June 5, 1946) is Distinguished Achievement Professor, Regents Professor of History, and Dean of the Honors College at New Mexico State University. He is a specialist in the history of science and has published widely on various aspects of medieval and early modern science, medicine, and technology. His research focuses primarily on the history science and medicine in early modern Italy and Spain. His most influential work is on the history of the "books of secrets" tradition in medieval and early modern culture. His work has also looked at the history of magic and the occult sciences, the history of alchemy, and science and popular culture in early modern Europe.

Biography

Eamon was born in Williston, ND and raised in Medicine Lake, MT, a small farming community in northeastern Montana. He studied history at the University of Montana, where he received his BA (1968) and MA (1970). He completed his PhD in history of science from the University of Kansas (1977), where he studied with the distinguished medievalist and historian of botany Jerry Stannard. After a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Miami, he joined the Department of History at New Mexico State University in 1976, and served as the department chair for three years. He became Director of the University Honors Program in 1995 and led the creation of the Honors College at New Mexico State University, which he currently serves as Dean. He has lived and conducted research for extended periods in Wurzburg, Florence, Venice, and Valencia.

Eamon has received numerous grants and fellowships for his research, including research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the Renaissance Society of America, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He was a Fulbright Fellow in Germany, a Villa I Tatti Fellow at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Florence), and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Wurzburg (Germany) and the University of Valencia.