The late Dr. Simon P. Silverman endowed a special Chair in order to enable the Institute to invite a well-known guest scholar every year. The Silverman Professor usually comes for one semester to teach and oversee research in areas not normally covered by our staff.

The late Professor I.Bernard Cohen was the first Silverman Professor in 1984. Since then the Institute has enjoyed the visits of many distinguished guests, as indicated in the table below.

List of  invited professors in the past for the Silverman Chair (in alphabetical order):

Professor Salvatore Camporeale (2002) Harvard Renaissance Center, I Tatti		Renaissance Studies
Dr. Francois Charette (2006) Ludwig-Maximilian Universität, Munich,		Islamic Science
Professor I. Bernard Cohen (1984) Harvard University		Newton Studies
Professor Michael Hagner (2001) Max Planck Institute, Berlin		Cultural History of Medicine
Professor Thomas P. Hughes University of Pennsylvania		History of Technology
Professor Sally Humphreys University of Michigan		Historical Anthropology of Knowledge
Prof. Henry Krips University of Pittsburgh		Science and Rhetorics
Professor Lorenz Kruger Free University of Berlin		Philosophy of Science
Professor David C. Lindberg University of Wisconsin		Medieval Science
Professor J.E. McGuire University of Pennsylvania		Rhetorics and Science
Dr. Andrew Mendelsohn (2000) Max Planck Institute, Berlin		History of 19th and 20th Century Medicine
Dr. Alexandre Metraux Max Planck Institute, Berlin		History of Psychology
Professor Staffan Müller-Wille (2004) Max Planck Institute, Berlin		Classification in the Biological Sciences - 18th and 19th Century
Dr. Enzo Neppi Yale University		Philosophy of Literature and Language
Professor Jürgen Renn Max Planck Institute, Berlin		Historical Epistemology
Professor Steven Shapin University of Edinburgh/ University of California, San Diego		Sociology of Science
Dr. Simon Schaffer Cambridge University		Sociology of Science
Professor Silvan Schweber (2003) Brandeis University		History of 20th Century Physics
Prof. Edith Sylla University of North Carolina		Medieval Science and Theology
Prof. Barbara Tuchanska (1996) University of Lodz		Hermeneutical Ontology of Science