My research

I research and teach the history and politics of knowledge and information infrastructures, focusing especially on climate science and environmental data systems. My books include A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming (MIT Press, 2010) and The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America (MIT Press, 1996), along with numerous articles. With Janet Vertesi, I co-edit the Infrastructures book series for MIT Press. I served as a Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2021). I also co-direct the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative and lead Stanford’s Program in Science, Technology & Society.