Research
I'm interested in how science and technology have shaped the places we inhabit, from inside our heads and out to the global atmosphere. By combining machines with knowledge about natural world, humans have radically altered the material possibilities of their lives, with profound consequences for the environment. Where I live in Washington D.C., I have continual access to water, food, energy, goods, transportation, and information, piped more or less anywhere I want it. The technological systems that make this possible function almost invisibly. (Who notices the power except when it goes out?) But because we live in the sub-lunar world of change, the study of which Aristotle called "meteorology," these systems need to be continually managed, monitored, and maintained as the environment changes.
In my dissertation, "Weathering Heights: The Emergence of Aeronautical Meteorology as an Infrastructural Science," I investigate how the upper air became important for military power and commercial productivity during the first half of the twentieth century. To fly safely and reliably, people needed to know new things about the weather. These needs stimulated a transformation in meteorology, eventually leading to advances in atmospheric physics and computer simulation that guide climate change policy today. They also transformed public discourse about weather, influencing the television weather reports that are watched every night by millions of people. (The slide show below shows some examples.) Read more about my research.
(Slide show
produced by SAS Frontiers staff and narrated by myself.)