Program Administrator

I have been with the program since 1997. I enjoy the wide variety of tasks my job entails, especially the chance to work with graduate students and faculty of diverse interests. I received my BA from St. Olaf College in French and Physical Education. Prior to working at the University of Minnesota, I taught sixth through twelfth grade and coached girls athletics, developed and produced printed materials, and was a residential real estate appraiser. When not at work, I enjoy walking, gardening, and reading.

Specialties: Technology, modern Germany, comparative industrial cultures

I am a historian of science and technology in modern Europe, specializing in modern industrial culture. My core interest is how people have used technology to make and remake themselves and their environments, and my current project, "Sport and Work," investigates the biomechanics movement of the twentieth century, especially labor and sport physiology during World War II and the Cold War, and how technologies of human performance were transferred between different nations and cultures. Examples include the development of the K-ration at the University of Minnesota, and studies of diet and labor efficiency in labor camp prisoners in Nazi Germany. This project extends a study I have just completed of the history of the concept of efficiency more generally, from its roots in the studies of machine performance during the industrial revolution through its translation into a social value at the turn of the twentieth century. I did my Ph.D. at the University of Washington, and, before coming to Minnesota, was a research fellow of the Centre de recherche en historie des sciences et des techniques, Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Paris.

Selected publications:
The Mantra of Efficiency: From Waterwheel to Social Control (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).
"Efficiency and Pathology: Mechanical Discipline and Efficient Worker Seating in Germany, 1929-1932," Technology and Culture 47 (2006).
"The Line between Potential and Working machines: César Nicolas Leblanc and Patent Engravings, 1811-1835," History and Technology 15 (1999): 175-212.
"An Efficiency of Scarcity: using food to increase the productivity of Soviet prisoners of war in the coal mines of the Third Reich," History and Technology 22 (2006): 391-406.
"Efficiencies of balance: Technical efficiency, popular efficiency, and arbitrary standards in the early progressive era US," (Social Studies of Science, forthcoming).

Adjunct Faculty

Specialties: 20th-century biology; episodes of disagreement and error; HPS in science education

My interests range widely, from co-editing An Introduction to the History of Science in Non-Western Traditions (History of Science Society, 1999) to researching the unsuccessful half-century search for a flowering hormone in plants (NSF Scholar Award 1996-1999). I am fascinated by how scientists disagree and then resolve their disagreement, how they err and then recover from their error. Through detailed historical case studies sensitive to many contexts, from experimental to cultural, one might approach a deeper understanding of how scientists develop reliable knowledge. These concerns also shape my professional service in fostering responsible HPS in science education. Outside academics I hike, photograph lichens, play Indonesian gamelan and enjoy the tradition of having tea. Recently I was elected member at large for the AAAS section L through 2009.

HST Director of Undergraduate Studies

Specialties: History of Biology, evolutionary theory, genetics and ecology, biology of behavior; biology and society

I am a historian of biology with a particular interest in evolutionary theory, genetics, behavior and the environment. My work explores the varied interpretations and applications of evolutionary theory from the late 19th century to the present. My dissertation, Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards and the History of Group Selection Theory, was completed in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University (2002). During a post-doctoral teaching fellowship at Michigan's Lyman Briggs School of Science, I taught courses in the history of genetics and evolution, and was co-leader of a study abroad course in Panama on Tropical Biodiversity and Conservation. I am currently examining the connections of group selection to ethology and evolutionary psychology. This research aims to clarify the factors that contributed to the development of the field of ethology and will be part of a book on the group selection controversy I'm writing.

Selected publications:
"Synthesis and Selection: Wynne Edwards Challenge to David Lack," Journal of the History of Biology 36 (2003): 531-566.
"Mutual Aid and Animal Dispersion: An Historical Analysis of Alternatives to Darwin," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 47 (2004): 15-31.
"Radicals and Revolution: A Critical Examination of The Structure of Evolutionary Theory," Studies in the History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences 35 (2004): 209-216.
"The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Group Selection," Endeavour 29, no. 1 (2005): 43-47.

Specialties: history of modern physics, relativity and quantum revolutions, Einstein, philosophy of science.

I am a historian of physics studying conceptual developments in the late 19th and early 20th century. I got a Master's in theoretical physics at the University of Amsterdam (1988) and a Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh (1995). I wrote my dissertation on the emergence of special relativity, paying special attention to the role of my countryman, H. A. Lorentz. I then worked for several years for the Einstein Papers Project, annotating various documents (published papers, research manuscripts, and correspondence) related to the genesis of general relativity. I have written extensively on the history of both special and general relativity. In special relativity, my main interest has been the transition from Newtonian particle mechanics to relativistic continuum mechanics. In general relativity, my focus has been on Einstein's struggle to find satisfactory gravitational field equations and on his quest to eliminate absolute motion and bsolute space (-time) from physics. More recently, I have turned to the history of quantum theory, looking specifically at the transition from quantum dispersion theory to matrix mechanics. Guiding my research in general are broader philosophical questions about scientific methodology and scientific explanation. I have long been interested in making the results of my work accessible to larger audiences. I have been offering a Freshman seminar called "Einstein for Everyone" and I am co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Einstein.

Selected publications:
The Genesis of General Relativity. Vols. 1 and 2. Einstein's Zurich Notebook. With John D. Norton, Jürgen Renn, Tilman Sauer, and John Stachel (Berlin: Springer, 2006, forthcoming).
"On the Verge of Umdeutung in Minnesota: John van Vleck and the Correspondence Principle." With Anthony Duncan. Preprint available electronically at <philsci-archive.pitt.edu>.
"From Classical to Relativistic Mechanics: Electromagnetic Models of the Electron." With Matthew Mecklenburg. Pp. 65-134 in Interactions: Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy, 1860-1930, eds. V. F. Hendricks et al. (Berlin: Springer, 2006).
"Of Pots and Holes: Einstein's Bumpy Road to General Relativity." Annalen der Physik 14 (2005) Supplement 58-85.
"COI Stories: Explanation and Evidence in the History of Science." Perspectives on Science 10 (2002): 457-522.

HSTM Director of Graduate Studies

Specialties: history of biomedical sciences, history of life sciences, historical ecology of disease, role of science in mediating human-animal interactions over time.

I am a historian of the modern biomedical and life sciences, with specialization in the historical ecology of disease, comparative and veterinary medicine, and environment and health. I am a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (University of Illinois) and completed my Ph.D. in History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania (1997). Prior to coming to Minnesota, I was a faculty member in the Department of History at the University of Colorado (Boulder); I also spent three terms as a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University (UK). My early articles and first book, Valuing Animals , focused on topics including the cultural history of animal and zoonotic diseases; the development of comparative medicine; animal protection groups and the laboratory sciences; and how science mediated the changing relationships between humans and animals (both wild and domesticated). My current research interests focus on the historical ecology of zoonotic diseases. I am working on book-length projects on the history of anthrax and the history of bovine tuberculosis. Methodologically, I ask how human interpretations of disease have changed over time, how disease-causing agents have changed their ecology over time, and how the two have affected each other. I teach courses in the history of gender and science; the history of ecology and environmental history; history of biology and the life sciences; and the historical ecology of disease.

Selected Publications:
Valuing Animals: Veterinarians and Their Patients in Modern America (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).
"Body and Place," Environmental History 10 (2005): 47-49.
"Mapping a Zoonotic Disease: Anglo-American Efforts to Control Bovine Tuberculosis Before World War I," Osiris 19 (2004): 133-148.
"Scientific Debates and Popular Beliefs: A Historical Study of Bovine Tuberculosis," Argos: Bulletin van het Veterinair Historisch Genootschap 27 (2002): 313-318.
"Becoming a Pest: Prairie Dog Ecology and the Human Economy in the Euroamerican West," Environmental History 4 (1999): 531-552.
"Framing Animal Disease: Housecats with Feline Urological Syndrome, Their Owners, and Their Doctors," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 52 (1997): 202-235.

HST Director

Specialties: natural sciences in the United States; institutional and cultural contexts for science practice; women and gender in science

My recent research investigates the introduction of the natural sciences into public schools, under the rubric of Nature-Study. Such education was a critical factor in embedding such knowledge deeply in American social and intellectual life. Much of my research has focused on institutional history at the intersection of scientific practice and public involvement as sponsors, consumers, participants, or students. I have also been interested in the ways in which gender and other diversities have played out in the history of modern science, primarily in North America. I enjoy teaching, often offering seminars on new topics that are of contemporary interest, and have been able to teach at a number of other institutions along the way, including Cornell, the University of Melbourne, the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and the University of Auckland. My work has been facilitated by fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, the Fulbright Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Center as well as NSF and other research grants. I have also spent a semester or more teaching at Cornell University, the University of Melbourne, the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, and most recently at the University of Auckland. I am a past president of the History of Science Society and served on the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Selected Publications:
Co-editor with Maria Rentetzi, special issue on "Gender and Networking in Twentieth-Century Physical Sciences," Centaurus 50 (2009).
"Otis T. Mason's Tour of Europe: Observation, Exchange, and Standardization in Public Museums, 1889," Museum History Journal 2 (2008): 181-208.
"A Better Crop of Boys and Girls: The School Gardening Movement, 1890s to the 1920s," History of Education Quarterly 48 (February 2008): 58-93.
"Nature by Design: Masculinity and Animal Display in Nineteenth-Century America," in Figuring It Out: Vocabularies of Gender in Science, Technology, and Medicine, eds. Bernard Lightman and Ann Shteir (Hanover: New England Press, 2007).
Nature Study: Teaching Hands-On Science in North America, 1890-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010) (forthcoming).

Specialties: Technology and modern culture, history of electronics and computing, historical methodologies

I am a historian specializing in the interactions of technology and modern culture. My undergraduate degree is from M.I.T. (1981) and my Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania (1987). At Illinois Institute of Technology (1987-2005) I taught courses on computer history, the global economy, technology and culture, business history, industrial culture, technological risk, and history of engineering. I have been active in the Society for the History of Technology, the international Tensions of Europe network, and several collaborative research and book projects. Presently I am director of the Charles Babbage Institute, holding the ERA Land-Grant Chair in History of Technology with an appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Selected Publications:
Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).
Modernity and Technology. Co-edited with Andrew Feenberg and Philip Brey (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003).
A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).
"Tensions of Europe: Technology and the Making of Europe" (special issue of History and Technology 21 (2005): 1-139. Co-edited with Johan Schot and Ruth Oldenziel.
Urban Machinery: Inside Modern European Cities Co-edited with Mikael Hard (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008).

Professor Emeritus

Specialties: Relations among science, technology, and industry; the federal government's role in stimulating scientific and technological development; history of information processing; and the contexts for American technological development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

In 2005 I became Professor Emeritus. Previously, I held the ERA Land-Grant Chair in History of Technology and was Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Charles Babbage Institute. An historian of science and technology, my research interests include the relations among science, technology, and industry; the federal government's role in stimulating scientific and technological development; history of information processing; and the contexts for American technological development in the 19th and 20th centuries. In several projects directed toward the enhancement of documentary materials for research in history of science and technology, I addressed a number of issues related to sources for historical study: theme-related archival development (history of electronics, history of computing); the nature of resources for historical studies (archives and manuscripts, business records, oral history); and historical research on topics in science and technology and on the way their results are used in society. Currently, I am preparing a study of computation in lunar prediction theory from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Selected Publications:
Computers and Commerce (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2005).
Transforming Computer Technology: Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962-1986. With Judy E. O'Neill (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press).
"Table making in Astronomy," pp. 176-207 in The History of Mathematical Tables, ed. Martin Campbell-Kelly et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
"Punched-Card Machinery and the Spread of Mechanical Computation," Technology and Culture 31 (1990): 753-779.
"The Shifting Interests of the United States Government in the Development and Diffusion of Information Technology since 1943," in Information Technology Policy: Global Perspectives, ed. Richard Coopey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Specialties: History of physical sciences and related technologies - 19th and 20th centuries.

I received my M.A. and Ph.D. in the History of Science from the University of California Berkeley. I am presently in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Previously, I held the ERA Land-Grant Chair in History of Technology and was Director of the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota. I have also directed the Bradbury Science Museum of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and conducted research in the History of Engineering Program at Texas Tech University. I teach and investigate the history of science and technology in the 19th and 20th centuries, ranging from industrial chemistry to modern particle accelerators, computers, and high-energy lasers. I am currently working on a study of the application of computing to science in federal laboratories, a history of technology transfer, and the history of chemical engineering. My other interests include history of science in museums, and the history of military technology.

Selected Publications:
A History of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Vol. 1. Lawrence and His Laboratory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
Los Alamos and the Making of the Atomic Bomb (Los Alamos: Otowi Press, 1995).
"Golden Anniversaries: The 50th Anniversaries of National Labs," Osiris 14 (2000): 187-202.
"The National Laboratories of the Atomic Energy Commission in the early Cold War," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 32 (2001): 145-162.
"Government and the Emerging Computer Industry," pp. 189-202 in From 0 to 1: An Authoritative History of Modern Computing, eds. Atsushi Akera and Frederik Nebeker (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Professor Emeritus

Specialties: history of physicalscience, Isaac Newton, history of optics, Scientific Revolution.

I am a historian of the physical sciences who works in the period from the Scientific Revolution through the early 19th century, and I am particularly interested in the history of optics and in the historical development of scientific methodology and experimental practice. I received my Ph.D. in the history of science and medicine from Yale University and wrote my dissertation on the development of the wave theory of light in the 17th century. My work has focused on Newton and his optical research, and I am the editor of The Optical Papers of Isaac Newton. The history of color theory and the historical interaction of art, science, and technology also interest me, and I teach a course on that. I have been a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a Guggenheim Fellow, and I am also Vice President of the International Academy of the History of Science. Currently I serve on the editorial boards of many of the leading journals in my research area, such as Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Centaurus, Early Science and Medicine, and Nuncius.

Selected Publications:
The Optical Papers of Isaac Newton, Volume 1: The Optical Lectures, 1670-1672 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984).
Fits, Passions, and Paroxysms: Physics, Method, and Chemistry and Newton's Theories of Fits of Easy Reflection and Colored Bodies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984).
"Artists' Colors and Newton's Colors," Isis 85 (1994): 600-630.
"The Gradual Acceptance of Newton's Theory of Light and Color, 1672-1727," Perspectives on Science 4 (1996): 59-140.
"Newton's Optics and Atomism," pp. 227-255 in The Cambridge Companion to Newton, eds. I. Bernard Cohen and George Smith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
"Newton's 'experimental philosophy'," Early Science and Medicine 9 (2004): 185-217.

Professor Emeritus

Specialties: history of quantum mechanics, history of nuclear physics.

I am a historian of modern physics whose interests include the history of quantum mechanics and nuclear physics and the role of the history of physics in physics teaching. I received my Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1968 and became Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota in 2000. I also taught at Boston University, had a research appointment at Harvard University, and was a visiting professor at the Universities of Munich, Vienna, Graz, and Amsterdam. I am coeditor of the journal Physics in Perspective, editor of the Resource Letters of the American Journal of Physics, and also serve on the editorial boards of other leading journals. I have served as secretary of the History of Science Society, chair of the Forum on the History of Physics of the American Physical Society (APS), and chair of the Section on History and Philosophy of Science of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). I have been a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer and an APS Centennial Speaker, and I received a Distinguished Service Citation from the American Association of Physics Teachers. I have been elected as a Fellow of the AAAS and of the APS, and I currently serve on the Council of the APS.

Selected Publications:
The Compton Effect: Turning Point in Physics (New York: Science History Publications, 1975).
Nuclear Physics in Retrospect (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1979).
"Artificial Disintegration and the Cambridge-Vienna Controversy," pp. 239-307 in Observation, Experiment, and Hypothesis in Modern Physical Science, eds. Peter Achinstein and Owen Hannaway (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985).
"The Origin of the Liquid-Drop Model and the Interpretation of Nuclear Fission," Perspectives on Science 2 (1994): 39-92.
"Historical Surprises," Science and Education 15 (2006): 521-530.

Adjunct Faculty