Robert P. Crease (/kriːs/; born 22 October 1953 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a philosopher and historian of science best known for his work in performance theory and historical research on Brookhaven National Laboratory.

[citation needed] Crease began to work on the history of Brookhaven National Laboratory shortly after arriving at Stony Brook in 1987.

Due to its scientific ambitions and geographical location (not far from New York City), Brookhaven has experienced the tensions and conflicts affecting U.S. science-society relations in general.

His articles about Brookhaven include:[citation needed] In performance theory Crease treats performance not as merely a praxis – an application of a skill, technique, or practice that simply produces what it does – but a poiesis; a bringing forth of a phenomenon, something with its own identity in the world, able to appear in different ways in different circumstances, but exhibiting some lawlike integrity.

[citation needed] Crease treats performance as not simply a metaphor that is extended merely suggestively from the arts to the sciences, but as something that happens alike in artistic and scientific activity.