Stillman Drake was a Canadian historian of science best known for his work on Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...

 (1564–1642). Drake published over 131 books, articles, and book chapters on Galileo. Drake received his first academic appointment in 1967 as full professor at the University of Toronto after a career as a financial consultant. During that time he had begun his studies of the works of Galileo and translated Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1953), parts of four of Galileo's works in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957), and Galileo's The Assayer in The Controversy of Comets (1960), co-authored with C. D. O'Malley.

Possibly his most significant contribution to the history of science

History of science

The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....

 was his defense of Galileo's experiments as documented in his published Two New Sciences

Two New Sciences

The Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences was Galileo's final book and a sort of scientific testament covering much of his work in physics over the preceding thirty years.After his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, the Roman Inquisition had banned...

 and in his manuscript notes. Drake showed how the complex interaction of experimental measurement and mathematical analysis led Galileo to his law of falling bodies. This clearly refuted Alexandre Koyré's

Alexandre Koyré

Alexandre Koyré , sometimes anglicised as Alexander Koiré, was a French philosopher of Russian origin who wrote on the history and philosophy of science.-Life:...

 claim that experiment played no significant part in Galileo's thought.

In 1984 Drake was awarded the Galileo Galilei Prize for the Italian History of Science by the Italian Rotary Clubs. The jury was composed of Italian epistemologists and science historians .

In 1988 Drake was awarded the Sarton Medal

George Sarton Medal

The George Sarton Medal is the most prestigious award given by the History of Science Society. It has been awarded annually since 1955. It is awarded to an historian of science from the international community who became distinguished for "a lifetime of scholarly achievement" in the field...

 by the History of Science Society

History of Science Society

The History of Science Society is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science.It was founded in 1924 by George Sarton and Lawrence Joseph Henderson, primarily to support the publication of Isis, a journal of the history of science Sarton had started in 1912....

. He spent his entire academic career, beginning in 1967 after working as a consultant, at the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.

Earlier in life, several years after receiving his Bachelor's degree at the University of California at Berkeley (1932), Drake joined several college friends in creating the original version of the board game Empire

Empire (strategy game)

Empire is a turn-based strategy game of industrial development and military conquest. Empire is played on large maps with off-set squares that display one or more continents and feature various resource squares. The game has undergone several incarnations and ongoing development...

 in 1938.

Selected works

• (1949) Book of Anglo-Saxon Verse.
• (1953) Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• (1957) Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Doubleday & Company. ISBN 0-385-09239-3
• (1973) "Galileo's Discovery of the Law of Free Fall," Scientific American
  Scientific American
  Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
  
  228(5): 84-92.
• (1974) Two New Sciences, University of Wisconsin Press, 1974. ISBN 0-299-06404-2. A new translation including sections on centers of gravity and the force of percussion.
• (1978) Galileo At Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-16226-5
• (1990) Galileo: Pioneer Scientist. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0802027253. ISBN 978-0802027252.