Research Expertise and Interest

history of science, History of Mathematics, history of technology, science and society, STS., science studies

Research Description

Massimo Mazzotti is the Thomas M. Siebel Presidential Chair in the History of Science, a professor in the Department of History. His primary field is the History of Science. He studies the history of science from the early modern period to the present, with a focus on the mathematical sciences, technology, and computing. He is interested in the social dimension of technical knowledge - and particularly in the way this knowledge is made, and made credible and authoritative. His interests include the gendering of mathematics, mathematics and religion, Enlightenment science and rationality, the politics of various processes quantification, standardization, and mechanization. His current projects explore the political dimension of mathematical reasoning in revolutionary Europe; the intersection of computing, design, and social planning in postwar Italy; and the social life of digital algorithms.