Jens Høyrup studied mathematics and physics, with thesis in particle physics (1969). In 1973 he joined the newly founded Roskilde University, first the Faculty of Social Sciences, moving in 1978 to that of Humanities. He has taught broadly on history of ideas and of philosophy and on philosophy of science. His research, though sometimes moving within this wider field, has concentrated on conceptual and social history of premodern and Early Modern mathematics.