Vyacheslav (Slava) Alexandrovich Gerovitch (; born 1963) is an American

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 ...

of Russian origin, considered a leading scholar on

Soviet space program The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Euro ...

history in the US and

Cybernetics in the Soviet Union Cybernetics in the Soviet Union had its own particular characteristics, as the study of cybernetics came into contact with the dominant scientific ideologies of the Soviet Union and the nation's economic and political reforms: from the unmitig ...

. In his work, Gerovitch emphasizes the influence of underlying cultural processes on science progress. For example, he introduced the term "cyberspeak", that is a

newspeak In the dystopian novel '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also published as ''1984''), by George Orwell, Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian superstate. To meet the ideological requirements of Ingsoc (English Socialism) in O ...

cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

, i.e., "the language we use to talk about that computer" that was a must in Soviet Union to survive in science. In his research, Gerovitch demonstrates how the progress of technology (e.g., aeronautics in Soviet Union) fits into the surrounding reality, culture and politics. Slava Gerovitch is an author of more than 50 peer reviewed journal publications, translations and book chapters on

history of technology The history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques by humans. Technology includes methods ranging from simple stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and information technology that has emerged since the 19 ...

and science, including mathematics, cybernetics and aeronautics that were highly acknowledged by the experts in the field. In 2010, together with

Pavel Etingof Pavel Ilyich Etingof (; born 1969) is an American mathematician of Russian-Ukrainian origin. He does research on the intersection of mathematical physics (exactly integrable systems) and representation theory, e.g., quantum groups. Biography Eti ...

he co-founded Program for Research In Mathematics, Engineering and Science (PRIMES), the MIT Program for Research in Mathematics, Engineering and Science for High School Students, and has since served as its Program Director. Since 2012 Gerovitch has served as program director for the Math Department'
RSI
an
SPUR
summer programs. In addition to writing on the history of scientific theories, Slava Gerovitch writes poetry in English and Russian. His lyric poetry contains allusions to the works of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

Trakl Georg Trakl (; 3 February 1887 – 3 November 1914) was an Austria-Hungary, Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionism, Expressionists. He is perhaps best known fo ...

, Pasternak, Mandelshtam,

Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

, Brodsky, and Okudzhava.

Education and awards

Gerovitch was born in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. He received his M.S. in applied mathematics from the Oil and Gas Institute in

, Ph.D. in philosophy of science from the Institute for the History of Natural Science and Technology in Moscow in 1992 with thesis "The Dynamics of Research Programs in the Artificial Intelligence Field.", and Ph.D. in history and social study of science from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

's Science, Technology and Society Program in 1999 under

Loren Graham Loren R. Graham (June 29, 1933 – December 15, 2024) was an American historian of science, particularly science in Russia. Early life and career Graham was born on June 29, 1933. He earned his B.A. in chemical engineering at Purdue Universit ...

with thesis "Speaking Cybernetically: The Soviet Remaking of an American Science". In 2001–2006 Slava Gerovitch was a Dibner/Sloan Postdoctoral Researcher and then a research associate at the

Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology The Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology (1992–2006) was a research institute established at MIT, and housed in a renovated building (E56) on campus at 38 Memorial Drive, overlooking the Charles River.Charles H. BallMIT to ...

at MIT. Gerovitch has been lecturing in

since 1999. His most recent class is Cultural History of Mathematics. His research interests include history of mathematics, cybernetics, and computing, space history and policy, history of Russian and Soviet science and technology, history and memory, and rhetoric and science. His book, ''From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetic'', received the honorable mention for the Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize for an outstanding monograph in

Russian studies Russian studies is an interdisciplinary field crossing politics of Russia, politics, history of Russia, history, Culture of Russia, culture, economy of Russia, economics, and languages of Russia, languages of Russia and its neighborhood, often gr ...

. According to the MIT press release, 2002 David Holloway, Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History,

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

called it "An exceptionally lively and interesting book. This is by far the best-informed and most insightful account of cybernetics in the Soviet Union". The British Journal for the History of Science describes that "the book offers useful and stimulating insight into this most American of technology" Gerovitch's most recent books are ''Voices of the Soviet Space Program: Cosmonauts, Soldiers, and Engineers Who Took the USSR into Space'' and ''Soviet Space Mythologies: Public Images, Private Memories, and the Making of a Cultural Identity''

Selected references

Books * ''Soviet Space Mythologies: Public Images, Private Memories, and the Making of a Cultural Identity'' * ''Voices of the Soviet Space Program: Cosmonauts, Soldiers, and Engineers Who Took the USSR into Space'' * ''From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics''

References

External links

Profile at MIT websitePersonal homepageSerious Science video interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerovitch, Vyacheslav 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American science writers Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni American historians of science Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty 1963 births Historians from Boston 21st-century American male writers