After receiving his Ph.D. in Hamburg (1986) and serving on the faculty of the Philosophy Department at the University of South Carolina (1988-2002), Alfred Nordmann became Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at Darmstadt Technical University. His historical interests concern the negotiation of contested fields of scientific knowledge such as theories of electricity and chemistry in the 18th century, mechanics, evolutionary biology, and sociology in the 19th century, nursing science and nanoscale research in the 20th century.

In particular, he studied the scientific contributions of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Antoine Lavoisier, Joseph Priestley, Charles Darwin, William Bateson, and Heinrich Hertz. His epistemological interests concern the trajectory that leads from Immanuel Kant via Heinrich Hertz and Ludwig Wittgenstein to contemporary analyses of models, simulations, and visualizations.

Since 2000 Nordmann has been studying philosophical and societal dimensions of nanoscience and converging technologies. With Davis Baird he initiated the first NSF-sponsored research team on this subject. Nordmann's focus, in particular, is on the development of a comprehensive philosophy of technosciences that reflects recent changes in the culture of science and the changing relationship of science, technology, nature and society. He served as rapporteur for the EU expert group Converging Technologies – Shaping the Future of European Societies (2004). Recent publications include Wittgenstein's Tractatus: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2005), „Noumenal Technology: Reflections on the Incredible Tininess of Nano“ (Techné 8:3, 2005) and „Philosophy of Nanotechnoscience“ (in G. Schmid, ed., Nanotechnology: Principles and Fundamentals, Weinheim: Wiley, 2008, pp. 217-244). Forthcoming in October 2008 is an introduction to the philosophy of technology. With Davis Baird and Joachim Schummer he edited Discovering the Nanoscale (Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004), with Joachim Schummer and Astrid Schwarz Nanotechnologien im Kontext (Berlin: Akademische Verlagsanstalt, 2006) and with Michael Friedman The Kantian Legacy in Nineteenth-Century Science (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006). From October 2006 to September 2007 he was one of the coordinators of the research group Science in the Context of Application at the ZiF of Bielefeld University. Since August 2008 he is Visiting Centenary Professor at the University of South Carolina. From 2003 until 2009 he was President of the Georg Christoph Lichtenberg-Society.

See also the detailed Curriculum Vitae with list of publications.

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