In 2025, I was awarded a PhD in History at Stanford. I focus on history and philosophy of science, particularly the history of evolutionary biology. I also work on philosophy of history, narrative, and scientific diagramming. My dissertation was entitled Charles Darwin's Science of History and received the History Department's dissertation prize. My most recent publication is a 2018 article on Darwin’s tree diagrams in a special issue of the journal Endeavour devoted to scientific diagramming, a special issue that I conceived and co-edited. My article “Charles Darwin’s Theory of Moral Sentiments: What Darwin’s Ethics Really Owes to Adam Smith” won the 2017 Forkosch Prize for the best article published in the Journal of the History of Ideas.

Academia is my third career.  I began as a lawyer, serving as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and then representing Silicon Valley technology companies.  I left the law for the software business, first as CFO of a publicly-traded software company, next as founding CEO of a software start-up, and finally as Chairman and CEO of a global, publicly-traded internet education company.

I did my undergraduate work at Princeton and got my law degree at Stanford.  I also have a Masters of Liberal Arts from Stanford.  I am married, have two adult children and am an avid skier, hiker and cook.

You can reach me at [email protected].  Or follow me on BlueSky: @gregpriest.bsky.social.