Frederic Lawrence Holmes (6 February 1932, Cincinnati, Ohio – 27 March 2003, New Haven, Connecticut)[1][2] was an American historian of science, specifically of chemistry, medicine and biology.
His scholarship included notable studies of Claude Bernard, Antoine Lavoisier, Justus Liebig, Hans Adolf Krebs, Matthew Meselson, Franklin Stahl, and Seymour Benzer.
[3] His graduate study was interrupted by two years of service in the United States Air Force ROTC[3] and when he returned to Harvard he transferred to the department of the history of science, graduating with PhD in 1962[3] with thesis Claude Bernard and the concept of internal environment under the direction of Everett Mendelsohn and John Edsall.
[6] Holmes became Avalon Professor of the History of Medicine at Yale in 1985,[2] and from 1982 to 1987 he was Master of Jonathan Edwards College.
[6] During the final months of his life, he was intent on attempting to finish his study of Seymour Benzer and molecular biology, and those who visited him at the Yale Health Service Clinic recall a room filled with books, papers, a laptop, and a scholar eager to talk about ideas.