John D. Norton

John Daniel Norton (born 1953) is an Australian philosopher of physics and distinguished professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Pittsburgh.

After working at the Shell Oil Refinery at Clyde, Sydney for two years, he decided to switch fields, beginning doctoral studies in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of New South Wales (1978–1981).

His dissertation was titled "The Historical Foundation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity."

After finishing his dissertation, he worked at the Princeton University Press on the Einstein Papers Project (1982–1983) under the direction of John Stachel.

In the field of information science, Norton has criticized the claim by Rolf Landauer and others that schemes exist whereby digital computers can store data in a logically and physically reversible manner that, until the data are erased, represent an apparent violation of the second law of thermodynamics.