Roger Masters
Roger Davis Masters (born June 8, 1933) studied at Harvard (A.B. 1955, Summa cum Laude), served in the U.S. Army (1955–57) and completed his M.A. (1958) and Ph.D. (1961) at the University of Chicago. After teaching at Yale (1961–1967), he has been on the faculty at Dartmouth College (1967 to present) as well as Cultural Attaché at the American Embassy in Paris (1969–1971). He is currently the Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government Emeritus and Research Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth. Academic career. Roger Masters has made deep and wide-ranging contributions in social science . The central concern of his career has been how biological circumstances influence individual behavior and social outcomes. Masters began his career in political philosophy as a student of Leo Strauss at the University of Chicago. His dissertation and subsequent book "The Political Philosophy of Rousseau" helped demonstrate the importance of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in modern thought. He translated and edited influential new editions of Rousseau's works ("The First and Second Discourses" and "On the Social Contract, with the Geneva Manuscript and Political Economy"), and later co-edited the only complete English edition of "The Collected Writings of Rousseau". The  role of natural science in early political thought is also addressed in his 1996 book, "Machiavelli, Leonardo and the Science of Power", and his 1998 book, "Fortune is a River: Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli's Magnificent Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History". Masters' investigation of how nature influences human societies led to significant contributions in the field of international relations, as well as human ethology and sociobiology. This work included pioneering laboratory experiments in political communication. Later, Masters' research on biology and human behavior led to new epidemiological evidence regarding the behavioral impacts of neurotoxins, first  on the consequences of lead poisoning, and then on the links between a common method of water fluoridation to elevated blood lead and a higher prevalence of violent crime, substance abuse and learning disabilities. Masters' work has pioneered the application of natural science discoveries to the social sciences and government policy. He was a founding member and serves on the Executive Council of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences, and leads an ongoing consultancy on biology and politics for the U.S. Department of Defense in collaboration with anthropologist Lionel Tiger and neuroscientist Michael T. McGuire. He served on  the 2006-07 "Get the Lead out of Vermont" task force, and is frequently consulted by other government agencies or activists concerned with the behavioral consequences of environmental toxins. Published work. Principal articles and book chapters, by theme. International Relations Political Theory Human Ethology and Sociobiology Political Communication Neurotoxins and Behavior Other