Sarton, George Alfred

Sarton, George Alfred (Léon) (1884–1956) historian; born in Ghent, Belgium. After founding Isis (1912), principal journal of the history of science, he emigrated to the United States (1915). Supported by the Carnegie Institution after 1918 and based at Harvard University (1920–51), he became the seminal figure in establishing the history of science as a valid discipline in the U.S.A. In 1936 he founded the journal Osiris. His Introduction to the History of Science (3 vols. 1927–48) is a classic in its field.