Robert W. Smith is a scholar of history and the classics at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

, and he directed the Science, Technology and Society Program in the Faculty of Arts. He researches the history of big science, especially U.S. technology and the history of spaceflight. He wrote ''The Space Telescope: A Study of NASA'', ''Science, Technology and Politics'' and he co-edited ''Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years After the Soviet Satellite''. He served as the Walter Hines Page Fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina in 1993–94. He held the

Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History The Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History, also known as the Lindbergh Chair, is a one-year senior fellowship hosted by the U.S. National Air and Space Museum (NASM), to assist a scholar in the research and composition of a book about aer ...

at the U.S.

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

during the academic year 2006–07. He is interested in the technology and politics of the

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Spa ...

. In 2020 he was awarded the

LeRoy E. Doggett Prize The LeRoy E. Doggett Prize is Awarded biennially by the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society for individuals who have significantly influenced the field of the history of astronomy by a career-long effort. The prize is ...

for his histories of the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

and the planned

References

Living people Canadian male non-fiction writers Historians of aviation Academic staff of the University of Alberta 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian historians 21st-century Canadian historians Year of birth missing (living people) {{Canada-historian-stub