Alex Wellerstein is a

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...

at the

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a Private university, private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely de ...

who studies the

history of nuclear weapons Building on major scientific breakthroughs made during the 1930s, the United Kingdom began the world's first nuclear weapons research project, codenamed Tube Alloys, in 1941, during World War II. The United States, in collaboration with the Uni ...

. He is the creator of

NUKEMAP Nukemap (stylised in all caps) is an interactive map using Mapbox API and declassified nuclear weapons effects data, created by Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology who studies the history of nuclear we ...

Background

Wellerstein grew up in

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is the most populous city in the county, the List of municipal ...

. He received a Bachelors of Arts in history from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 2002 and a doctorate in the

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 2010. He was once a graduate fellow for the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

, a lecturer at Harvard University, a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

at the

Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

, and an associate historian at the

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

. Since 2014, he has been a professor of

Science and Technology Studies Science and technology studies (STS) or science, technology, and society is an interdisciplinary field that examines the creation, development, and consequences of science and technology in their historical, cultural, and social contexts. Histo ...

at the

. In 2021, his book ''Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States'' was published by the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

Selected publications

* "Patenting the bomb: Nuclear weapons, intellectual property, and technological control," ''Isis'' 99, no. 1 (March 2008): 57–87. * "Inside the Atomic Patent Office," ''

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' is a nonprofit organization concerning science and global security issues resulting from accelerating technological advances that have negative consequences for humanity. The ''Bulletin'' publishes conte ...

'' 64, no. 2 (May/June 2008): 26–31, 60–61. * "From Classified to Commonplace: The Trajectory of the Hydrogen Bomb 'Secret'," ''Endeavour'' 32, no. 2 (June 2008): 47–52. * "Die geheimen Patente – eine andere Sicht auf die Atombombe," in ''Atombilder: Ikongraphien des Atoms in Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit des 20. Jahrhundertsts'', ed. Jochen Hennig and Charlotte Bigg (Berlin: Wallstein Verlag, 2009): 159–167. * "States of Eugenics: Institutions and the Practices of Compulsory Sterilization in California," in Sheila Jasanoff, ed., ''Reframing Rights: Bioconstitutionalism in the Genetic Age'' (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2011): 29–58. * "A Tale of Openness and Secrecy: The Philadelphia Story," ''

Physics Today ''Physics Today'' is the membership magazine of the American Institute of Physics. First published in May 1948, it is issued on a monthly schedule, and is provided to the members of ten physics societies, including the American Physical Society. ...

'' 65, no. 5 (May 2012), 47–53. * "Manhattan Project," ''Encyclopedia for the History of Science'' (April 2019). * (with Edward Geist), "The secret of the Soviet hydrogen bomb," ''

'' 70, no. 4 (March 2017), 40–47. * "John Wheeler's H-bomb Blues," ''

'' 72, no. 4 (2019): 42–51. * "The Kyoto Misconception: What Truman Knew, and Didn't Know, About Hiroshima," in Michael D. Gordin and G. John Ikenberry, eds., ''The Age of Hiroshima'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2020): 34–55. *
Counting the Dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (4 August 2020). *
Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States
' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021). *
The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Nuclear Bomb
" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (29 October 2021).

References

External links

* * * * Living people American historians of science Historians of nuclear weapons Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Writers from Stockton, California Stevens Institute of Technology faculty 1981 births Historians from California {{US-sci-historian-stub