Center for Contemporary History and Policy Staff Biographies

Amanda Antonucci earned a B.A. in art conservation and art history from the University of Delaware in 2007. She first joined CHF as the assistant image archivist by maintaining the photographic collection and answering image requests. She was also a member of of the curatorial team for CHF’s ongoing exhibition, Making Modernity.   

Antonucci is now the program assistant for electronics and emerging technology. She is currently working on processing and digitizing Gordon Moore’s archival papers from Intel Corporation.

David C. Brock is a senior research fellow with the Center for Contemporary History and Policy. As a historian of science and technology, he specializes in the history of semiconductor science, technology, and industry; the history of instrumentation; and oral history. Brock has studied the philosophy, sociology, and history of science at Brown University, the University of Edinburgh, and Princeton University. 

In the policy arena Brock recently published Patterning the World: The Rise of Chemically Amplified Photoresists, a white-paper case study for the Center’s Studies in Materials Innovation. With Hyungsub Choi he is preparing an analysis of semiconductor technology roadmapping, having presented preliminary results at the 2009 meeting of the Industry Studies Association.

David Caruso earned a B.A. in the history of science, medicine, and technology from Johns Hopkins University in 2001 and a Ph.D. in science and technology studies from Cornell University in 2007. His dissertation research focused on the interaction of American military and medical personnel from the Spanish-American War through World War I and the institutional transformations that resulted in the rise of American military medicine as a unique form of knowledge and practice.

Caruso is the program manager for CHF's oral history program. His current research interests are the discipline formation of biomedical science in 20th-century America and the organizational structures that have contributed to such formation.

Hyungsub Choi is manager of the emerging technologies program at the Center for Contemporary History and Policy. His training is in the history of science and technology, with specialties in recent developments in the fields of semiconductors, materials science, and nanotechnology. He has received degrees from Seoul National University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Johns Hopkins University. Choi’s works have appeared in leading professional journals, such as Technology and Culture and Social Studies of Science.
                                                                                                
Currently, he is preparing a book examining the history of the semiconductor industry in the United States and Japan. He also directs the Robert W. Gore Materials Innovation project. From August 2009 to March 2010 he will be on leave from CHF as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo, Japan.

Arthur Daemmrich is an assistant professor in the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School (HBS) and a faculty member of the HBS Healthcare Initiative. His research examines science, medicine, and the state, with a focus on advancing theories of risk and regulation through empirical research on the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chemical sectors. Daemmrich has published on regulation and innovation as well as science, technology, and business policy. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Hilary Domush completed a B.S. in chemistry at Bates College before earning an M.S. in organic chemistry and an M.A. in the history of science at the University of Wisconsin. As a graduate student, her research focused on 19th-century chemistry in Edinburgh.

As program associate for the oral history program, Domush helps manage the program and conducts oral histories for the Women in Chemistry project.

Ted Everson, the director of clinical communications at Vital Issues in Medicine (VIM), a medical education company, earned a Ph.D. in history and philosophy of science and technology from the University of Toronto and an M.S. in medical genetics from the University of British Columbia. During his tenure at CHF he founded the biotechnology program, which included focused scholarship on industry development. He is the author of The Gene: A Historical Perspective (2007), “Genetic Engineering Methods” in The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Technology (2004), and “Genetics and Molecular Biology” in History of the Exact Sciences and Mathematics (2002).

Kavita Hardy graduated from Swarthmore College in 2009 with a B.A. in chemistry and economics. She is currently an intern with the Environmental History and Policy Program in the Center for Contemporary History and Policy.

Her research focuses on the chronological evolution of political, economic, and social forces that inform chemical regulation.

Sarah Hunter completed an M.S. in public history at Temple University after earning a B.A. in history at the University of Pennsylvania. Before she joined CHF as program assistant for the oral history program, Hunter was the Peregrine Arts’ Samuel W. Fels research intern and Hidden City project coordinator. Additionally, she has been the archives intern for Valley Forge National Historic Park and the curatorial assistant intern for the Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. She also worked as the museum inventory assistant for the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Hunter’s scholarship has focused on the way groups and individuals create, modify, and use their histories through words, objects, landscapes, and memory. As program assistant for the oral history program, Hunter processes oral histories and writes for The Center. Currently, she is developing ways to connect the oral history program’s collections to the public.

Pei Koay earned a Ph.D. in science and technology studies from Virginia Tech in the political and policy studies track; an M.A. in the history and philosophy of science, medicine, and technology from the University of Toronto, with a concentration in the history of biomedicine; and a B.A. in science, technology, and society from the New School for Social Research. Before joining CHF as the program manager for biotechnology history and policy, she was the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University’s Humanities Research Center. She was also a Lingnan Foundation Teaching Scholar at Lingnan University in Hong Kong and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science Technology and Society in Graz, Austria.

Her work examines and explores institutional changes for medicine, public health, and life sciences as they coalesce under the banner of “personalized genomic medicine”; social and political aspects of race, gender, and the life sciences; the production of expertise and authority in bioscience and biomedical science, technology, and medicine; and historical, social, and political aspects of nature-nurture debates.

Christophe Lécuyer is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and he received a Ph.D. in history from Stanford University. He was a fellow of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology and has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Virginia. Before becoming a senior research fellow at CHF, Lécuyer was the program manager of the electronic materials department. He has published widely on the history of electronics, engineering education, and medical and scientific instruments, and is the author of Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930–1970 (2005).

Cyrus Mody is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Rice University. He holds a Ph.D. in science and technology studies from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and materials engineering from Harvard University and was the 2004–2005 Gordon Cain Fellow at CHF. Mody has published widely on the history and sociology of materials science, instrumentation, and nanotechnology. He is the author of Instrumental Community: Probe Microscopy and the Path to Nanotechnology.

Elizabeth McDonnell earned an M.S. in arts administration from Drexel University and a B.A. in creative writing from Franklin and Marshall College. Her graduate research focused on the restructuring of volunteer management strategies in annual Philadelphia festivals. Before joining the Environmental History and Policy Program, she worked at the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania, as a freelance writer, and as a research assistant for two ongoing book projects.

As the Environmental History and Policy program associate, McDonnell conducts research and works with program staff to propose and develop new projects. She also assists in the design and production of the Studies in Sustainability series, select oral history projects, and the program’s Web content.

Gwen Ottinger holds a Ph.D. in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and B.S. degrees in aerospace engineering and science, technology, and culture from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She was the 2005–2006 John C. Haas Fellow at CHF. Before returning to CHF as a program researcher in the Environmental History and Policy Program, she taught in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia.

Ottinger’s work focuses on the construction of expertise around environmental justice issues. She has conducted ethnographic research on the relationships between residents, environmentalists, and petrochemical industry experts in a Louisiana community and written about her findings for the Environmental History and Policy Program Studies in Sustainability white-paper series. Her latest research looks at the strategies for ambient air monitoring employed by communities next to petrochemical facilities.

Ron Reynolds is the director of the Center for Contemporary History and Policy. He is also a member of CHF’s leadership team and advises the president on strategic issues. Before joining CHF, Reynolds worked for Sunoco, Inc., where his most recent position was director of acquisitions and business development for the chemicals division. In his career at Sunoco he also had responsibility for various financial, manufacturing, and research functions. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Lafayette College, an M.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, and an M.S. in environmental engineering from Drexel University.

Reynolds’s areas of current research interest are long-term solutions to climate change and future energy sources. His belief is that these issues are fundamentally interrelated.  A long-term integrated solution is required for moving from the use of carbon to a system based on energy from the sun and a system where that energy is captured and used without adding new materials to the atmosphere.

Jody Roberts manages the Environmental History and Policy Program in the Center for Contemporary History and Policy. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in science and technology studies from Virginia Tech and a B.S. in chemistry from St. Vincent College. Before joining the Center he was the Charles C. Price Fellow and Gordon Cain Fellow in the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at CHF.

His work explores changes in the practice of chemistry resulting from technological innovations, social and political pressure, and emerging science. Recently, those interests have led to projects on green chemistry, endocrine disruption, human biomonitoring, chemical regulation, and the evolution of the chemistry laboratory.

Susan Saltzman is the former president of Saltzman Consulting Services, which provided regulatory expertise regarding the safe and legal shipment of packaged dangerous goods. She has over 30 years of industry experience as a research chemist, patent searcher, and hazardous materials consultant. A former board member of the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council and chair of its International Regulations Committee, Saltzman served as an international industry adviser to governments. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from Brooklyn College and an M.S. in organic chemistry from the University of Minnesota. In 1992 Saltzman received the George M. Wilson Award for Promoting Safety in the Hazardous Materials Industry from HMAC and the RHYTHM (Remember How You Treat Hazardous Materials) Recognition Award from Du Pont. She is a recognized expert in the field and has written technical articles and reports of technical meetings for Hazmat Packager and Shipper (West Chester, PA) and Hazardous Cargo Bulletin (London).

In 2004 Saltzman joined CHF as a volunteer visiting fellow. Her current research for the Environmental History and Policy Program, which is essentially complete, includes the state of sustainability reporting standards and metrics among chemical, petroleum, and pharmaceutical companies. Her findings explore the fact that corporate sustainability reporting has essentially replaced traditional financial-only reporting among major corporations in the last two decades. However, there is no comparability among sustainability indicators and report formats between industries and companies, no metrics for many indicators, and little or no translation of environmental impacts into financial implications. There are over 100 institutions with an interest in this area, and their activities and publications have been documented. A white paper providing a historical perspective and a state-of-the-art report is in preparation.

Erica Stefanovich completed an M.S. in public history with a specialization in archival science at Temple University after earning a B.A. in English and history at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Before joining CHF as the program assistant for the oral history program, Stefanovich interned for the Philly History Web site archiving images and writing content and for the American Philosophical Society, where she worked with the manuscript collection of geneticist James V. Neel. 

As a program assistant in the oral history program, she processes and organizes oral histories to prepare them for use by scholars. She also writes for CHF’s podcast, Distillations, and the Center’s blog, The Center.