Seibt, Johanna. "Nicholas Rescher (1928-)." Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Studies Vol. II. Edited by Michel Weber and Will Desmond. Heusenstamm, Germany: Ontos Verlag. 613-618.

Abstract

Nicholas Rescher was born in 1928 in Hagen, Germany. In 1938 the family emigrated to the USA. In 1946 Rescher began his undergraduate studies at Queens College (Flushing, New York), and graduated in 1949 with a B.S. in mathematics. Only two years later, setting a departmental record, he completed his Ph.D. degree in philosophy at Princeton University. Between 1954-1957 he worked as a research mathematician at the RAND corporation, before he accepted a professorship in philosophy at Lehigh University (1957-1961). In 1961 he joined the philosophy department at the University of Pittsburgh. He founded the Pittsburgh Center for Philosophy of Science, a well-known international research institution, which he also directed for many years, and founded and edited two academic journals. Rescher's extraordinary achievements as researcher and academic author is reflected in a long list of honors, awards, elected memberships, and prestigious presidencies. To name just a few items on this list, Rescher holds six honorary doctorates from international universities; in 1983 he received the Alexander v. Humboldt research prize; in 1989 he was elected President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association; he is an honorary member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford as well as member of the European Academy of Science. Currently he teaches at Pittsburgh.