Uta Lindgren (1941–2017) was a German historian of science and historian of technology, an expert on the medieval quadrivium and geodesy, and a pioneer of the history of cartography.[1]
Lindgren is originally from Chemnitz, where she was born on 2 March 1941. Chemnitz is in East Germany, and Lindgren became a student at the University of Freiburg, also in East Germany. She completed a doctorate there in 1969, on topics including the quadrivium and the early life of Pope Sylvester II. At some point after this, she emigrated to West Germany, and completed a habilitation in 1978 at the University of Cologne, on the medieval history of Barcelona. She then became a researcher at the University of Munich.[1][2]
Her work on the history of cartography began in the early 1980s. She had her first publication on this topic in 1985, on the geography of Ptolemy, and a year later organized a conference on historic maps of the Alps.[1] She took up a professorial chair at the University of Bayreuth in 1987, and returned in 2006.[1][2] Her publications from this period include works on medieval knowledge of the figure of the Earth, on the biographies and discoveries of medieval and Renaissance cartographers, and a translation of a Spanish-language travelogue of central Asia.[1]
Lindgren was elected to the International Academy of the History of Science, first as a corresponding member in 1993, and as a full member in 2005.[3]
Lindgren's books included: