Michael Bycroft is a historian of science whose research focuses on early modern material culture, natural philosophy, and the development of scientific knowledge in Europe. He is the author of *Gems and the New Science: Matter and Value in the Scientific Revolution*, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2026, which examines how gemstones were studied, categorized, and valued by natural philosophers and collectors during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Bycroft’s work analyzes the intersection of scientific experimentation, commerce, and social perception, showing how physical objects shaped emerging theories of matter and value. His scholarship contributes to the fields of history of science, economic history, and material culture studies.