Robert J. Richards

Robert J. Richards is the Morris Fishbein Distinguished Service Professor in the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Chicago. He holds academic appointments in the Departments of Philosophy, History, Psychology, and the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science. His research focuses on the history and philosophy of biology, psychology, and German Romanticism, with notable contributions to evolutionary ethics and the history of scientific thought.

• Education: Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1978)
• Affiliations: Director of the Morris Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine

Richards has authored and edited numerous books, including The Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought and The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe. His awards include the George Sarton Medal (2011), Laing Prize (2003, 2011), and Guggenheim Fellowship (2004–2005).

His teaching spans courses on the history of science, philosophy of biology, and German intellectual history. He has also delivered lectures globally, addressing topics like Darwinian ethics, the impact of Romanticism on science, and the history of evolutionary theory.