Merritt Roe Smith

Merritt Roe Smith is the Leverett and William Cutten Professor of the History of Technology. His primary research and teaching interest is American industrialization, particularly the role of the military as a catalyst of technological change. He is the author or editor of seven books, the most recent being Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revoltion (MIT Press, 2010) and Inventing America: A History of the United States (2^nd ed., W. W. Norton, 2006). He is currently working on a volume about technology and its implications during the American Civil War. His book, Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology (Cornell UP, 1977), received numerous honors, including the Frederick Jackson Turner Award (Organization of American Historians), the Pfizer Award (History of Science Society), and nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. Other recognitions include the Arthur C. Smith Award (MIT), the Levitan Teaching Award (MIT), an honorary guest professorship at Kanazawa Institute of Technology (Japan), an honorary doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Regents Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Senior Fulbright Scholarship (Sweden), and a Thomas Newcomen Fellowship at the Harvard Business School. Professor Smith is a past president of the Society for the History of Technology from which he received the Leonardo da Vinci Medal, the Society’s highest honor.