Born in Far Rockaway, New York, I. Bernard Cohen earned degrees from Harvard University. He holds the distinction of being the first person in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in the history of science. Later, Cohen established the History of Science Department at Harvard. Cohen has received many fellowships and has won the George Sarton Medal, awarded by the History of Science Society. Cohen is an author and editor, known for his books about Sir Isaac Newton and Benjamin Franklin.
Richard S. Westfall was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, where he taught from 1963 to 1989. His books include Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England; The Construction of Modern Science; Force in Newton�s Physics; Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton; Essays on the Trial of Galileo; and The Life of Isaac Newton. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Royal Society of Literature.