Center for Contemporary History and Policy Staff Biographies

David Brock has studied the philosophy, sociology, and history of science at Brown University, the University of Edinburgh, and Princeton University. He specializes in oral history, the history of instrumentation, and the history of semiconductor science, technology, and industry. Before becoming a senior research fellow, Brock was CHF’s director of educational services and lead developer of its chemical history of electronics program. He is editor of and a contributor to Understanding Moore’s Law: Four Decades of Innovation (2006).

David Caruso earned a B.A. in the history of science, medicine, and technology from the 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.

Chi Chan holds a bachelor’s degree in math from Bucknell University, where he also studied physics and philosophy. Formerly the program assistant for CHF's emerging technologies program, Chan also interned at CHF, gathering and analyzing data for the Gordon Research Conferences.

Hyungsub Choi earned a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in the history of science and technology. He earned an M.S. in history of technology at Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. in engineering from Seoul National University. Choi took over the center’s electronic materials program in November 2006. He has published extensively on such subjects as the history of electronic manufacturing in post–World War II Japan, RCA’s transistor production, and solid-state innovations.

Arthur Daemmrich is an assistant professor in business, government, and international economy at Harvard Business School and a senior research fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. His research and teaching focus on business in regulated environments and international comparative analysis of risk and regulation. At HBS he also plays an active role in an interdisciplinary Healthcare Initiative, advancing scholarship and developing applied lessons for the business of creating and delivering health services and health-related technologies.

Daemmrich was previously the director of the Center for Contemporary History and Policy at CHF. He earned a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University in 2002 and has held fellowships at the Social Science Research Council/Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Chemical Heritage Foundation. He has published widely on pharmaceutical and chemical regulation, biotechnology business and policy, innovation, and history of science.

Jennifer Dionisio earned a B.A. in nonfiction writing from the University of Pittsburgh, where she also studied sociology. A freelance journalist for both regional and national publications, Dionisio joined CHF in September 2006 as the program assistant for biotechnology.

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 to manage, and conducts oral histories for the Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences project and 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).

Pei Koay earned an M.A. in the history and philosophy of science and technology at the University of Toronto, with a concentration in the history of biomedicine, and a Ph.D. in science and technology studies at Virginia Tech. Prior to joining CHF as the program manager for biotechnology, Koay was the Lingnan Foundation Teaching Scholar at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, a research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science Technology and Society in Austria, and an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University. Her research interests include the historical, social, cultural, and political aspects of biotechnologies, as well as public understanding of and participation in science, technology, and medicine.

Christophe Lécuyer is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and he received a doctorate 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. Prior to 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 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. He 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 currently working on a book titled Instrumental Community: Probe Microscopy and the Path to Nanotechnology.

Gwen Ottinger holds a Ph.D. in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering and science, technology, and culture from Georgia Institute of Technology. She was the 2005–2006 John C. Haas Fellow at CHF. Prior to 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 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 at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. He is also a member of Chemical Heritage Foundation’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, starting as a research engineer at the Marcus Hook laboratories. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Lafayette College, a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, and a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Drexel University.

Jody Roberts holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in science and technology studies from Virginia Tech and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Saint Vincent College. He was the 2005–2006 Charles C. Price Fellow and the 2006–2007 Gordon Cain Fellow at CHF. As program manager for environmental history and policy, he explores issues related to regulation, environmental and public health, and sustainability, including human biomonitoring, green chemistry, and energy.

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 thirty 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 advisor to governments. In 2004, she joined CHF as a volunteer visiting fellow. Her current research for the environmental science history and policy program includes the state of sustainability reporting standards and metrics among chemical, petroleum, and pharmaceutical companies.

Erica Stefanovich completed an M.S. in public history 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 the American Philosophical Society, where she worked with the manuscript collection of geneticist James V. Neel.

Dominique Tobbell earned a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Manchester in 2001 and a Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. Her dissertation research focused on the political and research strategies of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, and the relationships between drug companies, academic researchers, and physicians in the United States after World War II. Tobbell was the 2007-2008 Haas Fellow at CHF, and since June 2008, she has been acting program manager of the center’s biotechnology program.