Robert N. Proctor

Professor Robert N. Proctor is a Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University. He received his B.S. in Biology at Indiana University and his M.S. and Ph.D. at Harvard University in the Department of the History of Science. Proctor taught at Pennsylvania State University in the History of Science before joining the staff at Stanford. Known primarily for coining the term "agnotology", study of cultural ignorance, and his research and comments on the tobacco industry.

He specializes in 20th century science, technology, and medicine, especially the history of controversy in those fields and projects on scientific, rhetoric, the cultural production of ignorance (agnotology), and the history of expert witnessing. His next book, "Darwin in the History of Life", will present the concept that 19th century evolution revolution can be seen as a consequence of efforts to historicize life. Also, he has been researching the history of lapidary art and mineralogic politics, exploring racial resonances in gemstone aesthetics, amateur vs. professional taxonomies, figured stones as inadvertent Rorschach tests, the historicity of gemstone hierarchies, and some of the enigmatic questions of agate formation. Other focuses include elements of human origins such as (art, tools, and body imagery), molecular anthropology, phyletic diagrams, archaeological "humaness".