David Kaiser
Associate Professor (STS), and Lecturer (Department of Physics)
David Kaiser is an associate professor in MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society, and a lecturer in MIT's Department of Physics. He received his A.B. in physics at Dartmouth College in 1993, completed a Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University in 1997, and a Ph.D. in the history of science at 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 the development of physics during the twentieth century. He is the author of Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics (University of Chicago Press, 2005), which traces how Richard Feynman's idiosyncratic approach to quantum physics entered the mainstream. He has also edited several books on the history of modern physical sciences, including, most recently, Pedagogy and the Practice of Science: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (MIT Press, 2005). His work has been featured in Science, Scientific American, Science News, and American Scientist, as well as on National Public Radio and NOVA television programs, in addition to dozens of specialist articles in physics and history. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy, and has been honored with awards from the American Physical Society, the History of Science Society, the British Society for the History of Science, and MIT.
