PETER J. LIPTON ’73

PETER J. LIPTON, 53, the Hans Rausing Professor and Head of the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of King’s College, died Nov. 25, 2007. After receiving his degree cum laude, he received his PhD from the University of Oxford. He taught at Williams College and then returned to England, where he joined the University of Cambridge. He lectured and published widely, and he was an extraordinarily popular teacher, supervising students at all levels. He was recognized as one of the leading epistemologists and philosophers of science in the world. His philosophical interests included the structures of explanation and inference in science, the nature of scientific progress, social epistemology, science and religion, and various topics in biomedical ethics. He was also a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and chaired its working party on pharmacogenetics. He was the author ofInference to the Best Explanation and was the 2004 Medawar Prize Lecturer of the Royal Society. He is survived by his wife, Diana Lipton, two sons, and his mother.