American political scientist (1933–2023)
Roger Davis Masters (June 8, 1933 – June 22, 2023) studied at Harvard (A.B. 1955, Summa cum Laude), served in the U.S. Army (1955–57), completed his M.A. (1958) and Ph.D. (1961) at the University of Chicago, and served on the faculty at Yale (1961-67) and then Dartmouth College, with a two-year leave to serve as Cultural Attaché at the American Embassy in Paris (1969–1971). From his retirement in 1998 he was the Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government Emeritus in the Department of Government at Dartmouth.
Academic career.
Roger Masters made deep and wide-ranging contributions in social science. The central concern of his career was how the natural world influences human behavior, and creates opportunities for political action to improve societal 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 shape understanding of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's role in modern political 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 served on the Executive Council of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences, and led a multiyear consultancy on biology and politics for the U.S. Department of Defense in collaboration with anthropologist Lionel Tiger and neuroscientist Michael T. McGuire. 
Published work.
Principal articles and book chapters, by theme.
International Relations
Political Theory
Human Ethology and Sociobiology
Political Communication
Neurotoxins and Behavior
Other.
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