Pablo Ruiz de Olano

Pablo Ruiz de Olano is a historian and philosopher of modern physics with broader interests in the circumstances that promote, or fail to promote, the production of scientific knowledge. He holds a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Notre Dame, and he has held postdoctoral appointments at Notre Dame and at the University of Salzburg.

His research explores the historical trajectory followed by the discipline of high-energy physics: from its inception during the 1950s and 1960s to its present, sometimes controversial state. Pablo’s analysis of this period revolves around two related themes. The first one concerns the crucial role that approximation methods played during the foundation of the discipline, while the second one relates to the progressive detachment of theory from experiment that came to dominate the field after the mid-1970s. By combining insights from these two lines of research, Pablo sheds new light on the status of theories such as String Theory, and on the current state of high-energy physics as a whole. This, in turn, allows Pablo to engage with the broader questions of crisis and decline in science.

While at the Institute, Pablo has taken an active role in the organization and coordination of various cross-departmental activities. These include the organization of the Institute’s Colloquium in the academic years 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2023-2024, and of the Tacit Knowledge Seminar from 2018 to 2020. Pablo has also taught courses at the University of Notre Dame, at TU Berlin, and at the University of the Basque Country where he has taken up PhD student supervision.

Edited Volumes and Special Issues

• “Approximation Methods in the Sciences.” Topical Collection of Synthese. Edited by Alexander Blum, James Fraser, and Pablo Ruiz de Olano. 

• “Non-Empirical Physics from an Historical Perspective.” Special Issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Edited by Pablo Ruiz de Olano, Richard Dawid, and Casey McCoy.