I am a historian of science working on the history of science in Russia and the Soviet Union, history of science during the Cold War, transnational history, the history and politics of environmental data collection, the history of evolutionary biology, and other topics. My most recent book, Scientific History: Experiments in History and Politics from the Bolshevik Revolution to the End of the Cold War (University of Chicago Press, 2021), tells an intriguing story of attempts to integrate scientific knowledge and new technologies — from plant genetics to computers — into historical research. Using the history of Russia and the Soviet Union as the anchoring point, this book reconnects the disciplinary histories of the sciences and those of the humanities to reveal a landscape of socialist political imaginaries where one would least expect it: in the debates about scientific history.

Selected reviews:

  • HIST 105CW: Science and Technology in the Cold War
  • HIST 107S: Biology and Society
  • HIST 105D: Visionary Biology: Between Science and Science Fiction
  • HIST 107C: The Darwinian Revolution
  • HIST 105R: Research Seminar — History of the Atomic Age
  • HIST 105Q: Reading Seminar — Histories of the Future
  • HIST 201HS: Advanced Approaches to the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (syllabus varies each time the course is being offered)
  • HIST 201S: Topics in the History of Science (topics vary each year the course is being offered)
  • HIST 277 A-B: Research Seminar in the History of Science (team-taught, topics vary)
  • Member of the Advisory Board, Journal for the History of Knowledge
  • History of Science Society Nominating Committee, 2018-2020
  • Fellowship Review Committee, Linda Hall Library, 2018-2019
  • IHC Faculty Fellow, 2018-2019
  • Research Associate, Graduiertenschule für Ost- und Südosteuropastudien, Munich, Germany (2018 – pres)
  • Levinson Book Prize Committee, History of Science Society, 2016-2018
  • Scholar-In-Residence, Graduate School for the East and Southeast European Studies (Die Graduiertenschule für Ost- und Südosteuropastudien), Munich, Germany (April-June 2014)
  • Fellow-In-Residence, the Institute for Advanced Study (the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg) in Greifswald, Germany, 2011-2012
  • Scholar-In-Residence, The Rockefeller Archival Center, 2005
  • Fulbright scholar to US (2004-2005)
  • Egide – CNRS fellow, hosted by the Institut d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences et des techniques, Paris (2003)