Wilbur Richard Knorr (August 29, 1945 – March 18, 1997) was an American historian of mathematics and a professor in the departments of philosophy and classics at Stanford University.

He has been called "one of the most profound and certainly the most provocative historian of Greek mathematics" of the 20th century.

[2] He did his undergraduate studies at Harvard University from 1963 to 1966 and stayed there for his Ph.D., which he received in 1973 under the supervision of John Emery Murdoch and G. E. L.

[1][3] After postdoctoral studies at Cambridge University, he taught at Brooklyn College, but lost his position when the college's Downtown Brooklyn campus was closed as part of New York's mid-1970s fiscal crisis.

[2][4] Knorr was a talented violinist, and played first violin in the Harvard Orchestra, but he gave up his music when he came to Stanford, as the pressures of the tenure process did not allow him adequate practice time.