Deborah Fitzgerald, associate professor in the history of technology in the Program in Science, Technology and Society (STS), has been named the Class of 1956 Career Development Professor.
The career development chair was established by the class in celebration of its 25th reunion to recognize exceptional promise in gifted young faculty. In announcing the appointment, Philip S. Khoury, dean of the school of humanities and social science said that "Deborah Fitzgerald is one of the leading historians of technology of her generation and has contributed in important ways to the life of STS and the Institute through her intensive teaching and extensive service."
Professor Fitzgerald is the author of The Business of Breeding: Hybrid Corn in Illinois (Cornell University Press 1990) and several articles on technological changes in agriculture in America and developing countries. Her current research focuses on the role of agricultural economists and engineers in redefining 20th-century American agriculture. Professor Fitzgerald is co-editor of a Johns Hopkins University Press book series on rural change and is an advisory editor for the journal Technology and Culture. She also sits on the editorial board of the MIT Press.
Before coming to MIT in 1988, Dr. Fitzgerald was assistant professor and head tutor in Harvard's History of Science department. She received her BA in history and English at Iowa State University in 1978, and her MA in 1981 and PhD in 1985 in the history and sociology of science and technology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1992 she was awarded MIT's Graduate Student Council Teaching Award for the School of Humanities and Social Science.
A version of this article appeared in the November 4, 1992 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 37, Number 12).
