George Basalla (born 1928 in Altoona, Pennsylvania)^[1] is an American historian of science and professor emeritus at the University of Delaware.^[2]

Basalla completed his Ph.D. in the history of science at Harvard University in 1963. His dissertation, Science and Government in England 1800–1870, was supervised by I. Bernard Cohen.^[3] He became an assistant professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin in 1964,^[4] and was appointed as an associate professor at the University of Delaware in 1971.^[5] He retired to become a professor emeritus in 1999.^[6]

Basalla's books include:

• Civilized Life in the Universe: Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials (Oxford University Press, 2006)^[7]
• The Evolution of Technology (Cambridge University Press, 1989)^[8]
• Victorian Science: a self-portrait from the presidential addresses of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (edited with William Coleman and Robert H. Kargon, Doubleday, 1970)^[9]
• The Rise of Modern Science: Internal or External Factors? (edited, D. C. Heath, 1968)^[10]
• The Annus Mirabilis of Sir Isaac Newton: An Exhibit of Books & Manuscripts from the History of Science Collection (edited, special issue of The Texas Quarterly, 1967)^[11]

• Search for extraterrestrial intelligence § George Basalla