Dean Philip S. Khoury of the School of Humanities and Social Science has announced the appointment of Professor Michael M.J. Fischer as director of the Program in Science, Technology and Society, effective July 1. He will succeed Professor Merritt Roe Smith, who has been program director since 1992.
In making the appointment, Dean Khoury said that Professor Fischer "enjoys a major international reputation as a teacher and scholar with a deep commitment to interdisciplinary education and research."
Dr. Fischer, professor of anthropology and science and technical studies, is a distinguished anthropologist well known for his many contributions to the cultural studies of science and to Middle Eastern studies, as well as for a seminal theoretical work, Anthropology as Cultural Critique (1986, with George Marcus).
He joined the MIT faculty in 1993, having previously been the director of the Center for Cultural Studies at Rice University. Professor Fischer received the BA degree (1967) in liberal arts/anthropology from The Johns Hopkins University, and the MA (1969) and PhD (1973) in anthropology from the University of Chicago.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 15, 1996.
