Olaf Pedersen (1920 to 1997) was a "leading authority on astronomy in classical antiquity and the Latin middle ages"
Olaf Pedersen was born April 8, 1920 in Egtved, Jutland, Denmark. At the University of Copenhagen he studied in Niels Bohr’s institute, graduating in 1943 when the country was occupied by German forces. He began his teaching career in Randers, Jutland, teaching physics. He entered scholarship studying the philosophy and history of ideas. After the war he studied with Etienne Gilson in Paris. Returning to Denmark, he obtained a doctorate for work on Nicole Oresme in 1956, when he became a lecturer at Aarhus University.
In 1965 a department for history of science was formed at Aarhus. "The staff of the department, including Pedersen, taught science as well as history of science, and though this diluted their research it kept them in contact with science and maintained their bona fides among science colleagues." In 1967 Pedersen became a professor in this department. He published two books in 1974: A Survey of the Almagest and Early Physics and Astronomy. The latter publication "supplied the needs of a generation of students in the infant discipline of the history of science."
Pedersen was active in other organizations: the journal Centaurus, Steno Museum (a museum of science), the International Union for History and Philosophy of Science, and the International Academy of the History of Science. He was also the author of The First Universities.
After an operation on his heart, Olaf Pedersen died December 3, 1997.