Daniel Lewis is the Dibner Senior Curator of the History of Science & Technology at the Huntington Library as well as a research professor of history at Claremont Graduate University. His research interests include the history of science, American history, Latin American history, and environmental history. At CGU, Lewis’s teaching fields include environmental history, history of science, and archival studies.

Lewis received his MA and PhD from the University of California, Riverside. Since then, Lewis has had a rich career that has included many positions at universities, libraries, and other places. He has taught at USC, UCLA, and CGU, and has a current appointment as a lecturer at CalTech. He has also worked in many libraries, including the Orange Public Library, Francis Bacon Library, and the Huntington Library. In addition to these positions, Lewis has published several poems, many articles, and a number of books and has been on broadcast programs on NPR and PBS. He is a native of Hawaii, born and raised on the Big Island.

His exhibit at the Huntington Library, Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World, is a permanent exhibit in the Huntington’s Dibner Hall. Having won the American Association of Museums’ Grand Prize for Excellence in Exhibitions in 2009, this exhibit illustrates the beauty of science in a historical context. It is arranged around four areas: Astronomy, Natural History, Medicine, and Light.

Lewis has a new book, Belonging on as Island: Birds, Extinction, and Evolution in Hawaii, forthcoming from Yale University Press in Spring 2018.

Courses Taught