Click on a name to see a faculty member's
information and projects
Active Faculty
mfischer@mit.edu
Professor of Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies
(Anthropology and STS)
Professor Fischer received his B.A. from the Johns Hopkins
University (Liberal Arts/Geography, 1967) and his Ph.D. from the
University of Chicago (Anthropology, 1973). He taught at the
University of Chicago (1972-73), Harvard University (1973-1981) and
Rice University (1981-1992). At Rice he served as Director of the
Center for Cultural Studies (1986-1992). From 1996 to 2000 he was
the Director of the MIT STS Program. He has been a Fulbright
Lecturer in Brazil (1982), a Council for International Exchange of
Scholars Fellow in India (1985), and a Senior Fellow at the
Smithsonian Institution (1990).
He is the author of Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution;
Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the
Human Sciences (with George Marcus); and Debating Muslims: Cultural
Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition (with Mehdi Abedi). He
teaches courses on social theory, ethnography,
ethnographic/narrative film, social and ethical issues in
bioscience and biotechnology, and law and ethics on the electronic
frontier.
dkfitz@mit.edu
Professor of the History of Technology (STS)
Professor Fitzgerald received her B.A. from Iowa State University
(History and English, 1978) and her Ph.D. from the University of
Pennsylvania (History and Sociology of Science, 1985). Prior to
joining the MIT faculty in 1988, she was an Assistant Professor in
the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. She
received the Provost's Fund Grant from MIT (1989), the Old Dominion
Fellowship (1990-1991), Mellon Foundation grant, and National
Science Foundation Fellowships for 1991 and 1996.
Her research focuses on the industrialization of agriculture,
particularly in 20th century America. She is co-organizer (with
Harriet Ritvo) of the "Modern Times, Rural Places" seminar series.
She is the author of The Business of Breeding: Hybrid Corn in
Illinois, 1890-1920 (Cornell, 1990), and Yeoman No More: The
Industrialization of Agriculture in America (Yale, forthcoming).
She is currently working on the industrial history of food.
dsjones@mit.edu
Assistant Professor, Leo Marx Career Development Professorship in the History and Culture of Science and Technology (STS)
David Jones completed his A.B. at Harvard College in 1993 in History and Science, pursued a Ph.D. in the History of Science at Harvard University and an M.D. at Harvard Medical School, receiving both in 2001. After an internship in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, Boston, he trained as a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital. He joined the MIT faculty in 2005 as assistant professor in the History and Culture of Science and Technology. He also works as a staff psychiatrist in the Psychiatric Emergency Service at Cambridge Hospital.
His initial research focused on epidemics among American Indians, resulting in Rationalizing Epidemics: Meanings and Uses of American Indian Mortality since 1600, published by Harvard University Press in 2004 along with several other articles on his findings. He has also examined human subjects research and the history of cardiac therapeutics. His current research explores a range of topics, including health disparities, uses of race in medicine, and explanations of treatment failure since World War II. He directs the Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and Medicine at MIT.
dikaiser@mit.edu
Leo Marx Career Development Assistant Professor of the History
and Culture of Science (STS), and Lecturer (Department of
Physics)
Professor Kaiser received his A.B. in Physics from Dartmouth
College in 1993, completed a Ph.D. in Physics at Harvard University
in 1997, and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard in
2000. His physics research focuses on early-universe cosmology,
working at the interface of particle physics and gravitation. His
historical research focuses on changes in American physics after
World War II, looking especially at how the postwar generation of
graduate students was trained.
He has recently completed a book entitled, "Drawing Theories Apart:
The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics," as well as
an edited volume entitled, "Pedagogy and the Practice of Science:
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives." Honors include the Leroy
Apker Award from the American Physical Society (1993), the Ivan
Slade Prize (runner-up) from the British Society for the History of
Science (2000), and the Levitan Prize in the Humanities from MIT
(2001).
manning@mit.edu
Thomas Meloy Professor of Rhetoric (Program in Writing and
Humanistic Studies and STS)
Professor Manning received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Harvard
University (History of Science; 1970, 1971, and 1974). He joined
the MIT faculty in 1974. His first major work was a study of
nineteenth-century mathematics. This was followed by Black Apollo
of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just (1983), which won the
Pfizer Award and the Lucy Hampton Bostick Award, and was a finalist
for the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Book Award, and the National
Book Critics Circle Award. He is currently studying the role of
blacks in American medicine, and has authored a number of scholarly
articles on blacks in science and medicine.
mindell@mit.edu
Frances and David Dibner Associate Professor of the History of
Engineering and Manufacturing (STS), MacVicar Fellow
Professor Mindell received his B.S. (Electrical Engineering, 1988)
and his B.A. (Literature, 1988) from Yale University and his Ph.D.
from MIT (History of Technology, 1996). He was a National Science
Foundation Graduate Fellow and a fellow at the Dibner Institute for
the History of Science and Technology. Before coming to MIT he
worked as a staff engineer in the Deep Submergence Laboratory of
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he is currently a
visiting investigator. Professor Mindell is an adjunct researcher
at the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, CT, and a visiting
scientist at the Deep Submergence Laboratory of the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution.
His research interests include technology policy (historical and
current), the history of automation in the military, the history of
electronics and computing, and deep-sea archaeology. Professor
Mindell heads MIT's "DeepArch" research group in Deep Sea
archaeology. He is the author of War, Technology and Experience
Aboard the USS Monitor (2000), and Between Human and Machine:
Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics (2002).
postol@mit.edu
Professor of Science, Technology and International Security
(STS)
Professor Postol was educated at MIT (S.B., Physics, 1967; Ph.D.,
Nuclear Engineering and Physics, 1975) and joined the MIT faculty
in 1989. His work covers a broad range of topics in international
security policy, including studies of missile basing modes, nuclear
attack, missile-bearing submarines, missile defense and early
warning systems and the consequences of secrecy in military
research. His current work focuses on the relationship between
changing military technologies and the altered international
security situation.
Dr. Postol received the American Physical Society's Leo Szilard
Award in 1990 for "incisive technical analysis of national security
issues that [have] been vital for informing the public policy
debate." He is also the recipient of the 1995 Hilliard Roderick
Prize in Science, Arms Control, and International Security from the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for
"outstanding contributions that advance our understanding of issues
related to arms control and international security...that have
important scientific or technical dimensions."
In 2001, he won the Norbert Wiener Prize from Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility for his work exposing false
claims about the performance of the Patriot missile defense in the
Gulf War of 1991 and for later work exposing hidden problems with
the currently under development National Missile Defense
System.
roesmith@mit.edu
Leverett Howell and William King Cutten Professor of the History
of Technology (STS and History)
Professor Smith received his B.A. from Georgetown University
(History, 1963) and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State
University (History, 1971). Before coming to MIT in 1978, he taught
at Ohio State University and the University of Pennsylvania. His
book on the Harpers Ferry Armory received the 1977 Frederick
Jackson Turner Award, the 1978 Pfizer Award, and nomination for the
Pulitzer Prize in History. He has received numerous fellowships and
recognition, including a Regents Fellowship from the Smithsonian
Institution, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Senior Fulbright
Scholarship in Sweden, a Thomas Newcomen Fellowship at the Harvard
Business School, and the Leonardo da Vinci medal from the Society
for the History of Technology. He is a member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science and currently serves on the boards
of the American Museum of Textile History, the Thomas Edison Papers
Project at Rutgers University, and the public television series,
"The American Experience."
His research focuses on the history of American industrialization
and the role of the military in technological innovation. He is the
author of Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology (1977);
editor of Military Enterprise and Technological Change (1985);
co-editor (with Leo Marx) of Does Technology Drive History? (1994);
co-editor (with Greg Clancey) of Major Problems in the History of
American Technology (1998); and, most recently, co-author (with
Pauline Maier, Alex Keyssar, and Daniel Kevles) of Inventing
America: A History of the United States (2002).
sturkle@mit.edu
Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of
Science and Technology (STS) Director, MIT Initiative on Technology
and Self
Professor Turkle received her B.A. from Radcliffe College (Social
Studies, 1970) and her Ph.D. from Harvard University (Sociology and
Personality Psychology, 1976). Professor Turkle's research examines
the sociology of science, especially the sciences of the mind, and
the subjective side of people's relationships with technology as
they impact on questions of identity and definitions of self. Her
current research examines the psychological impact of computational
objects as they become increasingly "relational" artifacts.
In January 2001, Professor Turkle founded the MIT Initiative on
Technology and Self. The Initiative studies the multiple channels
by which contemporary technologies become enmeshed in the formation
of human identity. The Initiative's flagship working groups include
Robots and Human Identity; Adolescence, Technology, and Identity;
Psychopharmacology and Identity ("Rx/ID"); and Design, Space, and
Software ("Architecture"). Groups in formation include: Information
Technology and Identity ("Virtuality and Its Discontents);
Nanotechnology and Identity; The Experience of the Archive:
Physical and Digital; Gender, Technology, and Identity; and
Psychodynamic Perspectives on Technology and Self.
Professor Turkle has received fellowships from the Aspen Institute,
the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation and
grants from the IBM Corporation, National Science Foundation, the
MacArthur Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the Mitchell
Kapor Foundation. She is a graduate and affiliate member of the
Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and a licensed clinical
psychologist. Her writings include Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques
Lacan and Freud's French Revolution (2nd ed. 1992), The Second
Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (2nd ed. forthcoming), and
Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet
(1995).
rhwill@mit.edu
Robert M. Metcalfe Professor of Writing (STS and Program in
Writing and Humanistic Studies) Director of the Program in Science,
Technology, and Society
Rosalind Williams attended Wellesley College and received degrees
from Harvard University (B.A., History and Literature), the
University of California at Berkeley (M.A., Modern European
History) and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Ph.D.,
History). Her first book, Dream Worlds: Mass Consumption in Late
Nineteenth-Century France (University of California, 1982),
explores the complicated relations between technological change,
cultural values, and marketing techniques at a critical moment in
the development of modern consumer society. Her next book, Notes on
the Underground: An Essay on Technology, Society, and the
Imagination (MIT Press, 1990), explores the implications for human
life in the transition from a predominantly natural to a
predominantly built environment. As a cultural historian of
technology, she has also considered the implications of this
transition in studies of Lewis Mumford, Jules Romains,
Enlightenment thinkers, and the issue of technological determinism.
Her latest book, Retooling: A Historian Confronts Technological
Change (MIT Press, 2002) draws upon her experiences as a historian
and MIT dean to comment upon our "technological age." Her next book
will use literary texts to examine experiences of the world in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, when global systems of
transportation and communication began to affect those experiences
in significant and complicated ways.
Professor Williams came to MIT in 1980 as a research fellow in the
Program in Science, Technology, and Society. In 1982 she joined the
Writing Program (now the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies)
as a lecturer. In 1990 she was named Class of 1922 Career
Development Professor, and in 1995 she was named the Robert M.
Metcalfe Professor of Writing. From 1991 to 1993 she served as
Associate Chair of the MIT Faculty, and from 1995 to 2000 as Dean
of Students and Undergraduate Education. In 2001-02 she served as
Director of Graduate Studies in the Program in Science, Technology,
and Society, and in July 2002 she become head of the Program in
Science, Technology, and Society.
Her main professional affiliation outside of MIT is the Society for
the History of Technology (SHOT), where she has served on and
chaired a number of committees. In 2002 she was named as
vice-president and president of SHOT.
Emeritus Faculty
llbjr@mit.edu
Emeritus Professor of Engineering and Technology Studies
(STS)
Professor Bucciarelli received his B.S. from Cornell University
(Mechanical Engineering, 1959) and his Ph.D. from MIT (Aeronautics
and Astronautics, 1966). He was Director of MIT's Technology
Studies Program, and has been a Curator of Science and Technology
at the Smithsonian, Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex,
and Visiting Scientist at the Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation
(Ecole des Mines, Paris). He has received the Baker Award for
Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, has consulted for a wide
range of industries, and has helped lead a coalition of engineering
schools (ECSEL) in the renovation of undergraduate education.
In engineering, he works on the development of alternative energy
and residential energy instrumentation systems. In STS he has moved
from studies of 19th century physical science to ethnographic
studies of the engineering design process. He is the author of
Designing Engineers (1995).
lrg@mit.edu
Professor of the History of Science (STS)
Professor of the History of Science (STS) Professor Graham received
his B.S. from Purdue University (Chemical Engineering, 1955) and
his Ph.D. from Columbia University (History, 1964). He was
Professor of History at Columbia University from 1972 to 1978, when
he became Professor of the History of Science at MIT. He has
received Woodrow Wilson, Danforth, Guggenheim, and Rockefeller
Fellowships.
He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Executive Committee of the
Davis Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies at Harvard
University. He is also a foreign member of the Russian Academy of
Natural Science. His research focuses on the history of science in
Russia and the Soviet Union in the 19th and 20th centuries.
He is the author of numerous books, including Science in Russia and
the Soviet Union (1993), The Ghost of the Executed Engineer:
Technology and the Fall of the Soviet Union (1993), and What We
Have Learned About Science and Technology from the Russian
Experience (1998).
Skinner Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus (STS)
Professor Kaysen received his B.A. from the University of
Pennsylvania (1940) and his Ph.D. from Harvard University
(Economics, 1954). Before joining the MIT faculty in 1976, he was
on the faculty of the Economics Department at Harvard; from 1964 to
1966, he was Deputy Special Assistant for National Security Affairs
to President Kennedy; and he served as Director of the Institute
for Advanced Study from 1966 to 1976. He has been a Junior Fellow
at Harvard University and a Guggenheim Fellow, and is a member of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American
Philosophical Society. He was Vice Chairman and Director of
Research for the Sloan Commission on Higher Education from 1978 to
1980.
His scholarly work has ranged widely in the areas where economics,
sociology, politics and law overlap. His current research centers
on arms control and international politics. He is a co-author (with
George Rathjens) of Peace Operations by the United Nations: The
Case for a Volunteer Military Force (1996) and co-editor (with
Michael Schaif and Sarah Sewall) of The United States and the
Fundamental Criminal Court: National Security and Fundamental Law
(2000). He is also editor of and contributor to a volume of essays,
The American Corporation Today (1996).
efkeller@mit.edu
Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science
Emeritus (STS)
Professor Keller received her B.A. from Brandeis University
(Physics, 1957) and her Ph.D. from Harvard University (Physics,
1963). She came to MIT from the University of California, Berkeley,
where she was Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric, History,
and Women's Studies (1988-1992). Professor Keller has taught at
Northeastern University, S.U.N.Y. at Purchase, and New York
University. She serves on the editorial boards of various journals
including the Journal of the History of Biology and Biology and
Philosophy.
Her research focuses on the history and philosophy of modern
biology and on gender and science. Her book The Century of the Gene
was published in October 2000, and her most recent manuscript,
Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with
Models, Metaphors and Machines, appeared in April, 2002.
kken@mit.edu
Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Human Development Emeritus (STS)
Professor Keniston received his B.A. from Harvard College
(Government, 1951) and a D.Phil. from Oxford University where he
was a Rhodes Scholar (Social Studies, 1956). After being a Junior
Fellow at Harvard University, he taught at Harvard University and
at Yale University, where he was Professor of Psychology in the
Department of Psychiatry. From 1972 to 1977 he was Chairman and
Director of the Carnegie Council on Children.
He moved to MIT in 1977 and was the Director of the Program in
Science, Technology, and Society from 1987-1992. He has been a
visiting scholar at the Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation
(Ecoles des Mines, Paris) and at the University of Paris V
(Sorbonne). His research has been supported by the National
Institute of Mental Health, the Ford Foundation and NEC. He has
been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a member of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the
Director of the MIT India Program.
His research focuses on issues of equity, diversity, and
information technology, especially in India. With Jill Ker Conway
and Leo Marx he published Earth, Air, Fire, Water: Humanistic
Studies of the Environment in 2000. With Deepak Kumar, he is
editing another book, Bridging the Digital Divide: Lessons from
India, to be published by Sage (Delhi) in 2002.
Senior Lecturer, Kenan Professor of American Cultural History,
Emeritus (STS)
Professor Marx received his B.A. (History and Literature, 1941) and
his Ph.D. (History of American Civilization, 1950) from Harvard
University. He taught at the University of Minnesota and Amherst
College before coming to MIT in 1976. He has three times been a
Fulbright Lecturer in Europe, twice a Guggenheim Fellow, and a
Rockefeller Fellow. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, and has been president of the American Studies
Association, and chair of the American Literature Section of the
Modern Language Association.
His work examines the relationship between technology and culture
in 19th and 20th century America. He is the author of The Machine
in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (1964),
The Pilot and the Passenger: Essays on Literature, Technology, and
Culture in America (1988), and editor, with Merritt Roe Smith, of
Does Technology Drive History?: The Dilemma of Technological
Determinism (1994).
Professor of Political Science, Emeritus (Political
Science)
Professor Skolnikoff received his S.B. and S.M. in Electrical
Engineering at MIT (1950); B.A. and M.A. degrees in Politics,
Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University (1952); and his
Ph.D. in Political Science from MIT (1965). His research and
teaching have been focused in the field of science and public
policy, especially the interaction of science and technology with
international affairs. Among his publications is The Elusive
Transformation: Science, Technology and the Evolution of
International Politics (1993). Professor Skolnikoff was Director of
the Center for International Studies at MIT from 1972 to 1987 and
has held posts in the White House Science Office in several
administrations.
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and STS, Emeritus
(Aeronautics and Astronautics and STS)
Professor Trilling received his B.S. and Ph.D. from the California
Institute of Technology (Mechanical Engineering, 1944 and
Aeronautics, 1948). He taught at the California Institute of
Technology and was a Fulbright Scholar in Paris before coming to
MIT in 1951. He joined the STS faculty in 1978. He founded the
Integrated Studies Program at MIT and co-directed the New Liberal
Arts Program. He is a senior staff member of The Institute for
Learning and Teaching (TILT) at MIT. His research centers on the
development of jet propelled airliners and the role of science and
mathematics curriculum in the middle school.
Professor of History of Science and Technology, Emeritus
(STS)
Professor Weiner was educated at Case Institute of Technology
(B.S., Metallurgy, 1960; Ph.D., History of Science and Technology,
1965). He was Director of the Center for History of Physics at the
American Institute of Physics from 1965 to 1974, when he joined the
MIT faculty. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His research and writing focus on the political, social and ethical
dimensions of contemporary science and the responses of scientists
to public controversies arising from their work. His publications
have dealt with the history of controversies over academic
patenting of biomedical research, the environmental, safety and
ethical aspects of genetic engineering and biotechnology, and the
development of nuclear physics. He is the editor of four volumes in
the history of science and a new edition of his book, Robert
Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections (with Alice K. Smith) was
published in 1995.
He is currently completing a book on the history of social
responsibility in science from the atomic bomb to contemporary
genetic engineering
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