OVERARCHING VISION
My historical research examines how knowledge, politics, and diplomacy shape one another, with a focus on the geopolitical significance of science, technology, and media. I trace how actors, institutions, and infrastructures mediate the movement of knowledge and resources across national and disciplinary boundaries. I’m currently working on these themes:
1 DATA SHARING, c. 1972-1991
This ongoing project—the foundation of my second book—brings together several strands of media and tech history to examine the mechanisms of international data sharing. I analyze how computers transformed research in physics and reshaped public communication networks.
Drawing on archival sources from the early history of computer networking, as well as oral history interviews [open access here], this work provides a prehistory of the World Wide Web and its development at CERN. Through a transnational lens, I seek to reconstruct the infrastructural origins and techno-diplomatic implications of what would later be recognized as the digital divide.
Alongside this larger project, I am working on a smaller project examining why and how the FRG shaped the formation of the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) in the 1960s, as part of the ERC-funded project Neworldata.
2 HISTORY OF FUSION
My research also extends into the history of energy, specifically focusing on the decades-long pursuit of thermonuclear fusion. Although a viable reactor remains a future prospect, I argue that fusion should not be dismissed as a failed vision. Instead, it serves as a compelling case study of the inherent unpredictability of technological progress and the persistence of goal-oriented research.
Fusion also represents a legacy of late Cold War megascience, where massive experimental scaling became inextricably linked with international collaboration. A key outcome of this work—focusing on CERN’s role—was featured as a spotlight in the American Institute of Physics weekly news; see [here].
3 NON-STATE ACTORS IN INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Informal diplomatic encounters represent a significant dimension of the history of science and technology that merits further reflection. I have explored Science for Vietnam and related grassroots movements to reveal how solidarity-based research emerged as a form of politics from below. Activists scientists, mathematician, and librarians produced and shared knowledge to address the severe impacts of military technology. This project is expanded by a new initiative rooted in the belief that integrating diverse international perspectives is essential to establishing a more robust analytical foundation for this under-explored field in contemporary history. Publication in prep!
OUT IN JANUARY 2027: Nuclear Training in Cold War Geopolitics: Coaching Atoms across Nations
My first book is under contract with Oxford University Press as part of the new series Science and Technology in International Affairs. The book offers insights into the history of knowledge sharing and the mechanisms governing the transatlantic movement of nuclear materials and trainees during the first two decades of the Cold War.
By shifting the analytical lens from state-to-state diplomacy to the granular level of laboratory exchanges between the United States and Western Europe, Coaching Atoms expands existing narratives. It demonstrates how massive funding for nuclear technoscience transformed the demand for specialized knowledge, showing how access to training programs became a powerful tool in international affairs. The publication benefits from Open Access Grant SNSF No. 243837.
BEYOND INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH…
I have collaborated and continue to collaborate on international research projects: on Science and Democracy, developing international perspectives on their intersection (2025–2030; PI João Carlos Salles); on Diversity in the History of Science, serving as an external advisor (2024–2026; PI Climério Silva Neto); on the History of Fusion in Europe, contributing data to a quantitative analysis (2023–2026; PI Roberto Lalli); and on Education and the European Digital Agenda (2019–2023; PI Michael Geiss).
EXPERTISE
- Science, Technology and Media from the mid-20th Century to the Present
- History of Transnational Data Exchange Infrastructures, Computing, Satellites
- History of the International Organizations CERN, OECD, IAEA
- Techno-Diplomacy, Non-State Actors in International Affairs