Welcome at the Institute for History and Foundations of Science

The Institute for History and Foundations of Science is one of the 
research institutes at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the 
Faculty of Science of Utrecht University.  The Institute comprises two 
sections.

History

Members of the History of Science Section teach courses on the history 
of the natural sciences in general, as well as courses on specialized 
subjects, such as topics in the history of physics, chemistry or 
biology. Research subjects include: the general study of the 
development of concepts, ideas and theories in the natural sciences 
from about 1500 onwards; the history of the natural sciences in The 
Netherlands in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, 
in their social and cultural contexts; the history of biology, 
especially in the Netherlands, from 1550 to 1750 and from 1840 to 
1940; the history of physics, especially in the Netherlands, from 1700 
to 1940; the history of chemistry in the Netherlands from 1600 to 
1940. This research is part of the research programme of The Huizinga 
Institute, Netherlands Graduate School for Cultural History.

Foundations

The Foundations of Science Section offers courses on the general 
philosophy of science, as well as courses on the foundations of 
quantum mechanics, the foundations of statistical physics, and the 
philosophy of space and time. The main themes of research are the 
foundations and the interpretation of quantum theory (including 
quantum information theory and quantum measurement theory), the 
foundations of statistical mechanics (comprising the analysis of the 
concept of probability, and with special attention to the concept of 
entropy), and the philosophy of space and time.

The institute is a central part of the Descartes Centre.

For more information about our institute as well as our current activities, please see www.phys.uu.nl/igg/