John Michael Steele

John Steele was awarded his PhD from the University of Durham in 1998. He is currently Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity at Brown University. A historian of astronomy, John’s work focuses on ancient Babylonian astronomy, the circulation of astral knowledge, and early modern perceptions of ancient astronomy. He is currently completing a monograph on the development and practice of the astral sciences in ancient Babylonia, and beginning a new project on the history of the Babylonian zodiac. At the MPIWG he is a member of the working group Visualizations of the Heavens in Department III. John is the author or editor of several books including recently co-author with Hermann Hunger of The Babylonian Astronomical Compendium MUL.APIN (Routledge 2019), author of Rising Time Schemes in Babylonian Astronomy (Springer 2017) and co-editor with Christine Proust of Scholars and Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk (Springer 2019). He is also editor of the series Scientific Writings from the Ancient and Medieval World published by Routledge, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal for the History of Astronomy and SCIAMVS.