Eric R. Scerri

I am originally from Malta and was educated in England at the Universities of London, Southampton and Cambridge. I wrote a PhD on the relationship between chemistry and quantum mechanics at King's College, London in 1992 and have continued to carry out research on this topic. I am currently in my seventeenth year in the Chemistry Department at UCLA where I teach large general chemistry classes as well as courses in History and Philosophy of Science. After publishing over 100 research articles I decided to try to reach a wider audience by writing a book on the periodic table of the elements which has been an interest of mine since my days as a chemistry high school student in London. I was recently awarded the Herbert Newby McCoy award by the Chemistry Department at UCLA. This is the major faculty award for the most significant contribution to the science of chemistry. My book is being received exceptionally well and I have had many invitations to speak both in the US and abroad. I wrote the book because there is simply no up-to-date and comprehensive account of the evolution and significasnce of the periodic system in relationship to quantum physics. Oliver Sacks has written "Its a gorgeous book. I keep it by my bedside and stayed up all night reading it". The author of the only previous comprehensive treatment of the periodic table, Jan van Spronsen writes on the back cover that the book represents a worthy successor to his own book. It is written at a general accessible level, while still aiming to appeal to the experts in chemistry, physics, history of science, philosophy of science and science education. I would be delighted to hear from readers who might have comments or questions on the material that I discuss.

Update: Since the above was written I have published a further 4 books with Oxford University Press. They are "A Very Short Introduction to the Periodic Table", 2011, "A Tale of Seven Elements", 2013, "Chapters in the Philosophy of Chemistry", co-edited with Grant Fisher and most recently "A Tale of Seven Scientists" 2016. Altogether I have published 10 books over a 10 year period.

Dr. Eric Scerri

UCLA

Please see my websites at

http://ericscerri.com/

http://ericscerri.com/speaking.html