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Diekwisch Lab

URMC / Labs / Diekwisch Lab / Areas of Research / History of Science

 

History of Science

Tom Diekwisch completed his Ph.D. studies in philosophy with one of Germany’s pre-eminent science philosophers, Professor Peter Janich from the University of Marburg. Janich is one of the fathers of methodical culturalism, a development of the constructivist philosophy of the Erlangen school of philosophy.

As a student of Janich, Diekwisch focused on the impact of science culture in modern molecular biology and how science cultural approaches affect our understanding of the mind-body problem. The approach of methodical culturalism was carried over into two history of science publications related to the model system of the un-opposed molar (Holliday et al. 2005, Luan et al. 2007).

Diekwisch also contributed to a commemorative article in honor of Wolf-Ernst Reif (Smith et al. 2013). His manuscript entitled “Oral Biology and Chicago” is a review about the Chicago Oral Biology Centennial and honors the contributions of the Vienna School of Illinois to the biological orientation of dentistry in America.  Another review article is dedicated to the early years of enamel biochemistry and one of its most distinguished protagonists, Alan G. Fincham (Diekwisch 2022).

Contributions to Journals

  • Diekwisch, T.G.H. (2022). Alan Fincham and the era of enamel protein biochemistry.  Physiol. 13:1071265.  Doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022. 1071265.
  • Diekwisch, T.G.H. (2019). Periodontal Homeostasis: From Vienna to Texas- A Century of Periodontal Research in the Spirit of Bernhard Gottlieb.
  • Diekwisch, T.G.H. (2016). Oral Biology and Chicago.  Evolution and Development 18, 3-6.  Journal Cover.
  • Smith, M.M., Johanson, Z, Underwood, C., and Diekwisch, T.G.H. (2013). Pattern formation in development of chondrichthyan dentitions: a review of an evolutionary model. Historical Biology 25, 127-142.
  • Luan X. and Diekwisch T.G.H. (2007). Vienna-Chicago: the cultural transformation of the model system of the un-opposed molar. Bioessays 29, 819-830.
  • Holliday, S., Schneider, B., Galang, M.T., Fukui, T., Yamane, A., Luan, X., and Diekwisch, T.G.H. (2005). Bones, Teeth, and Genes: A Genomic Homage to Harry Sicher’s “Axial Movement of Teeth“. World J. Orthodontics 6, 61-70.