Asger Aaboe, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Asger Aaboe

Historian of exact sciences

Date of Birth: 26-Apr-1922

Place of Birth: Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark

Date of Death: 19-Jan-2007

Profession: mathematician, university teacher, historian of science, historian of mathematics

Nationality: Denmark

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Asger Hartvig Aaboe (26 April 1922 – 19 January 2007) was a historian of the exact sciences and mathematician who is known for his contributions to the history of ancient Babylonian astronomy.
He studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Copenhagen, and in 1957 obtained a PhD in the History of Science from Brown University, where he studied under Otto Neugebauer, writing a dissertation "On Babylonian Planetary Theories".
In 1961 he joined the Department of the History of Science and Medicine at Yale University, serving as chair from 1968 to 1971, and continuing an active career there until retiring in 1992.
In his studies of Babylonian astronomy, he went beyond analyses in terms of modern mathematics to seek to understand how the Babylonians conceived their computational schemes.He was elected to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 1975, served as president of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1970 to 1980, and was a member of many other scholarly societies. Aaboe married Joan Armstrong on 14 July 1950.
The marriage produced four children: Kirsten Aaboe, Erik Harris Aaboe, Anne Aaboe, Niels Peter Aaboe.