Alex Wellerstein Explained

Nationality:	American
Thesis Year:	2010
Thesis Title:	Knowledge and the Bomb: Nuclear Secrecy in the United States, 1939-2008
Doctoral Advisor:	Peter Galison
Discipline:	Historian
Sub Discipline:	History of nuclear weapons, History of science and technology
Workplaces:	Stevens Institute of Technology American Institute of Physics
Thesis Url:	https://www.proquest.com/openview/bc96a9d59523d34cd60aeb65686089a3

Alex Wellerstein (born 5 September 1981) is a historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology who studies the history of nuclear weapons. He is the creator of NUKEMAP.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Background

Wellerstein grew up in Stockton, California. He received a Bachelors of Arts in history from University of California, Berkeley in 2002 and a doctorate in the history of science from Harvard University in 2010. He was once a graduate fellow for the United States Department of Energy, a lecturer at Harvard University, a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School, and an associate historian at the American Institute of Physics. Since 2014, he has been a professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Stevens Institute of Technology.^[4]

In 2021, his book Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States was published by the University of Chicago Press.^[5]

Selected publications

• "Patenting the bomb: Nuclear weapons, intellectual property, and technological control," Isis 99, no. 1 (March 2008): 57–87.
• "Inside the Atomic Patent Office," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 64, no. 2 (May/June 2008): 26–31, 60–61.
• "From Classified to Commonplace: The Trajectory of the Hydrogen Bomb 'Secret'," Endeavour 32, no. 2 (June 2008): 47–52.
• "Die geheimen Patente – eine andere Sicht auf die Atombombe," in Atombilder: Ikongraphien des Atoms in Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit des 20. Jahrhundertsts, ed. Jochen Hennig and Charlotte Bigg (Berlin: Wallstein Verlag, 2009): 159–167.
• "States of Eugenics: Institutions and the Practices of Compulsory Sterilization in California," in Sheila Jasanoff, ed., Reframing Rights: Bioconstitutionalism in the Genetic Age (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2011): 29–58.
• "A Tale of Openness and Secrecy: The Philadelphia Story," Physics Today 65, no. 5 (May 2012), 47–53.
• "Manhattan Project," Encyclopedia for the History of Science (April 2019).
• (with Edward Geist), "The secret of the Soviet hydrogen bomb," Physics Today 70, no. 4 (March 2017), 40–47.
• "John Wheeler's H-bomb Blues," Physics Today 72, no. 4 (2019): 42–51.
• "The Kyoto Misconception: What Truman Knew, and Didn't Know, About Hiroshima," in Michael D. Gordin and G. John Ikenberry, eds., The Age of Hiroshima (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2020): 34–55.
• "Counting the Dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (4 August 2020).
• Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021).
• "The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Nuclear Bomb," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (29 October 2021).

External links

• Web site: Personal website of Alex Wellerstein. AlexWellerstein.com . 13 January 2021.
• Web site: About me. Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog. 18 August 2017.
• News: The Rush to Patent the Atomic Bomb. Npr.org. 18 August 2017.
• Web site: Contributor: Alex Wellerstein. New Yorker. 10 October 2017.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Alex Wellerstein :: Stevens Institute of Technology :: About. Alexwellerstein.com. 18 August 2017.
2. Web site: Alex Wellerstein. Atomicheritage.org. 18 August 2017.
3. Web site: Alex Wellerstein - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Belfercenter.org. 13 February 2014 . 18 August 2017.
4. Web site: Alex Wellerstein Faculty Website. Stevens Institute of Technology. 2021-11-18. 2021-11-18.
5. Web site: Curriculum Vitae . 2023-01-20 . Alex Wellerstein . en-US.