Peter Dear este profesor de Istoria stiintei la Cornell University, avand o preocupare deosebita pentru istoria stiintei europene. Considerat unul dintre marii specialisti in acest domeniu ai ultimelor decenii, este autorul unor lucrari foarte apreciate, ca si al unor materiale publicate in diverse reviste de specialitate si lucrari colective.

Carti publicate:

Mersenne and the Learning of the Schools (Cornell University Press, 1988)

Discipline and Experience:  The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 1995).

Revolutionizing the Sciences:  European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700 (2001, retiparita 2009).

The Intelligibility of Nature:  How Science Makes Sense of the World (University of Chicago Press, 2006; retiparita 2008).