Alex Wellerstein (born 5 September 1981) is a

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

at the

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a 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 dedicated to mechanical ...

who studies the

history of nuclear weapons Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive power from nuclear fission or combined fission and fusion reactions. Building on scientific breakthroughs made during the 1930s, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and free France collaborat ...

. He is the creator of NUKEMAP.

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. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

. 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 land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 2002, and a doctorate in the

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

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 manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

, 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). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

at the

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

, 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) is an interdisciplinary field that examines the creation, development, and consequences of science and technology in their historical, cultural, and social contexts. History Like most interdisciplinary fie ...

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 largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

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. I ...

'' 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