Mentoring

Dissertations/Theses Advised – Major Advisor

• Timothy Jennings
  Ph.D., expected May 2015, STS Blacksburg
  “Responsibility in STS and Biotechnology.”
• Merc Fox
  Ph.D., expected May 2015, STS Blacksburg
  “History of Seismology in Iran.”
• William Mullis
  Ph.D., expected May 2014, STS Greater Capital Region
  “High-Water Mark: Gender, Diversity, and the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunity Act of 1980.”
• Margaret Layne
  Ph.D., expected May 2014, STS Blacksburg
  “High-Water Mark: Gender, Diversity, and the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunity Act of 1980.”
• Sharon Elber
  Ph.D., expected May 2014, STS Blacksburg
  “Epistemology and Education at the Intersection of Science and Performance”
• Thomas Bigley
  Ph.D., expected December 2014, STS Blacksburg
  “Patent Law and Chinese Nationalism”
• Sumitra Nair
  Ph.D., expected May 2013, STS Blacksburg
  “Mustering India: Rural Poverty and the Promises of the Information Economy.”
• John Tucker
  Ph.D. August 2013, STS Greater Capital Region
  “Technologies of Intelligence and their Relation to National Security Policy: A Case Study of the U.S. and the V-2 Rocket”
  (co-chair with Shannon Brown)
• Thomas Faigle
  Ph.D. expected December 2012, STS Blacksburg
  “The Career Community College.”
• Kacey Beddoes
  Ph.D., December 2011, STS Blacksburg
  “Practices of Brokering: Between STS and Feminist Engineering Education Research.”
• Kuo-Hui Chang
  Ph.D., December 2010, STS Blacksburg
  “Engineering Construction as Community Formation: the High-speed Railway, Localized-democracy and Hybrid Culture in Taiwan”
• Brent Jesiek
  Ph.D., May 2007, STS Blacksburg
  Between Discipline and Profession: A History of Persistent Instability in Computer Engineering.
  (Recipient, 2007 Outstanding Dissertation Award, Graduate School, Virginia Tech; Assistant Professor, Engineering Education, Purdue University)
• Wairimu Njambi
  Ph.D., May 2001, Program STS Blacksburg
  Science and the Debate over Female Circumcision
  (Associate Professor, Florida Atlantic Honors College)
• Amy Crumpton
  Ph.D., December 1998, STS Blacksburg
  Epidemiology and Environmental Justice
  (Associate Curator, American Association for the Advancement of Science)
• Juan Lucena
  Ph.D., December 1996, STS Blacksburg
  Making Policy for Making People: Manpower Policy at the National Science Foundation
  (Associate Professor, Colorado School of Mines)
• Juan Rogers
  Ph.D., May 1996, STS Blacksburg
  Multiple Discourses on Information Infrastructure.
  (Associate Professor of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology)
• Rafael Balderrama
  Ph.D., May 1996, STS Blacksburg
  Standardization in Agricultural Machinery.
  (Visiting Professor, University of Texas)
• Dey W. Watts
  Ph.D., May 1995
  Department of Landscape Architecture, An Ethnomethodological Study of Architectural Design.
  (Associate Professor of Geography, Indiana University of Pennsylvania)
• Chung-Hsi Lin Ph.D.
  May 1994, STS Blacksburg
  The Politics of Development of Scientific Development in Taiwan: The Hepatitis B Control Program.
  (Associate Professor, Cultural Conservation, Yun Lin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan)
• Maarten Heyboer, Ph.D.
  May 1992, STS Blacksburg
  The Grass Counters: Range Management as Applied Science.
  (Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies, State University of New York, Utica)
• John Gibney
  M.S., expected May 2012, STS Greater Capital Region
  Exam option
• Grace Hood
  M.S. expected December 2012, STS Blacksburg
  exam option
• Margaret Layne
  M.S., May 2012, STS Blacksburg
  Exam option
• Timothy Jennings
  M.S., May 2012, STS Blacksburg
  Exam option
• Sumitra Nair
  M.S., May 2012, STS Blacksburg
  Exam option
• Nicholas Sakellariou
  M.S., May 2008, STS Blacksburg
  non-thesis
  (Ph.D. student, Environment and Society, University of California, Berkeley)
• Masanori Wada
  M.S., December 2007, STS Blacksburg
  “Engineering Education and the Spirit of Samurai at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo, 1871-1886”
  (Ph.D. student, History, University of Tokyo)
• Sharon Elber
  M.S., December 2007, STS Blacksburg
  non-thesis option
  (Ph.D. student, STS, Virginia Tech)
• Cora Olson
  M.S., May 2007, STS Blacksburg
  non-thesis option
  (Ph.D. student, STS, Virginia Tech)
• John Fiore
  M.S., December 2004, STS Greater Capital Region
  non-thesis option
• Amy Nichols
  M.S., May 2003, STS Blacksburg
  “Globalization on the Ground: An Ethnography of Volunteerism, Health, and Development in Rural Tanzania”
  (Ph.D. student, cultural anthropology, University of Virginia)
• Brent Jesiek
  M.S., May 2003, STS Blacksburg
  “Of Meme and Metaphor: Following the Evolution of a Controversial Discipline”
  (Ph.D. student, STS Blacksburg, Virginia Tech)
• Stephen Garber
  M.S., January 2002, STS Greater Capital Region
  “Birds of a Feather?: How Politics and Culture Affected the Designs of the U.S. Space Shuttle and the Soviet Buran”
  (Staff Historian, NASA)
• Krista Gile
  M.S., May 2000, STS Blacksburg
  non-thesis option
  (Ph.D. student, Statistics, University of Washington)
• Angela Ragusa
  M.S., May 2000, STS Blacksburg
  non-thesis option
  (Ph.D. student, Sociology, Virginia Tech)
• Bingbing Yu
  M.S. May 1999, STS Blacksburg,
  non-thesis
  (Ph.D. student, Instructional Technology, Case Western Reserve University)
• Ming-hui Hu
  M.S., May 1997, STS Blacksburg
  “Maintaining NASTRAN: The Politics and Technics of Aerospace Computing”
  (Ph.D. student, Department of History, UCLA)
• Carmen Sears
  M.S., December 1996, STS Blacksburg,
  “(Re)Visions of the Village.”
  (Senior Manager, Teloquent [software firm], Cambridge, Massachusetts.)
• Tobin White
  M.S., May 1996, STS Blacksburg,
  “How to Do a Physics Problem: Negotiation of Student Identities in Undergraduate Physics Courses.”
  (Ph.D. Student, Education, Standford University.)
• Sharon Hegg
  M.S., May 1995, STS Blacksburg,
  “A Guide to the Experiances of Undergaduate Women Engineers.”
  (Engineer/planner for Microsoft, Inc.)
• Chris Furlow
  M.S., May 1993, STS Blacksburg,
  “The Islamization of Scientific Knowledge.”
  (Ph.D. candidiate, History, University of Quebec at Montreal.)
• Virginia Salmon
  M.S., May 1991, STS Blacksburg,
  “Technical Theatre and the Computer.”
  (Librarian, state college, Tennessee)
• Maarten Heybower
  M.S., September 1989, STS Blacksburg,
  “Knowledge Development in Applied Science: The Case of Range Management.”
  (see above)
• Hong L. Oei
  M.S., June 1989 , STS Blacksburg,
  “A Study of Multi-Disciplinary Research Centers at Virginia Tech.”
  (Ph.D. 1994, Public Administration and Policy, Virginia Tech. Senior staff person, National Science Foundation, The Netherlands.)

Committee Member

• Brent Voelker
  M.S., expected May 2010, STS Alexandria
  .
• Jennifer Henderson
  Ph.D., expected May 2015, STS Blacksburg
  “The Emergence of Weather Prediction.”
• Yong-Seok Park
  Ph.D. expected May 2014, Department of Mechanical Engineering
  “Collaborative Design.”
• Amy Kaminski
  Ph.D., expected May 2014, STS Greater Capital Region
  TBD
• Frankie Bausch
  Ph.D., STS Blacksburg,
  “Design and Software Engineering”
  [leave of absence].
• Chris Hays
  M.S., May 2009, STS Blacksburg
  exam option
• Lorraine Woellert
  Ph.D., expected May 2010, STS Greater Capital Region,
  “Identity, Internet, and Inuit.”
• Victoria Friedensen
  Ph.D., expected May 2012, STS Greater Capital Region,
   “Risk Communication and Space Science.”
• Chris Hays
  Ph.D., expected December 2011, STS Blacksburg
  “Knowledge and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.”
• John Tucker
  Ph.D., expected May 2011, STS Greater Capital Region
   “American Intelligence, Unwilling Technology Transfer, and the V-2 Missile: A Case Study in the Epistemology of Technical Knowledge.”
• Jongmin Lee
  Ph.D., August 2013, STS Blacksburg
  “Engineering the Environment: Regulatory Engineering in the EPA’s Office of Research & Development: 1970-1980”
• Cora Olson
  Ph.D. expected December 2010, STS Blacksburg,
  “Doping Regulation in the United States”
• Jonson Miller
  Ph.D., December 2008, STS Blacksburg
  “Citizen Soldiers and Professional Engineers: The Antebellum Engineering Culture of the Virginia Military Institute.”
• Absalom Phiri
  Ph.D., May 2008,Teaching and Learning Virginia Tech
  “Science Education and Indigenous Knowledge in Malawi.”
• Jane Lehr
  Ph.D., December 2006, STS Blacksburg
  “Science Education & Non-Scientists: Social Justice, Scientific Literacy, and the Remaking of Democratic Citizenship”
• Laura DeNardis
  Ph.D., May 2006,STS Alexandria
  “Politics of the Next Generation Internet.”
• John McGlaughlin
  Ph.D., May 2006, Teaching and Learning, Virginia Tech
  “Social Shaping of Biotechnology in the Classroom”
• Gabriella Coleman
  Ph.D. June 2005,  Anthropology, University of Chicago
  “The Free Software Movement”.
• Dean Nieusma
  Ph.D., December 2004, STS Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  “Appropriate Expertise: Alternative Energy Technology Design in Sri Lanka.”
• Maria Rentetzi
  Ph.D., May 2003, STS Blacksburg
  “Crossing Boundaries: The Gendered Production of Knowledge at the Institute for Radium Research in Vienna, 1920-1938.”
• Stephen Poulson
  Ph.D., December 2002, Sociology, Virginia Tech
  “Islamic Soverignty as a Social Movement Frame in 20th Century Iran.”
• Annette Huston
  Ph.D., December 2001, STS Blacksburg
  “Carillion: A Corporate System of Managed Health Care.”
• Brenda Brand
  Ph.D., May 1998, Teaching and Learning Virginia Tech
  “Multiculturalism in Science Teaching and Learning.”
• Seungho Jung
  Ph.D., December 1997, Department of Industrial Systems Engineering
  “Total Quality Management between Organizations.”
• Charlotte Webb
  Ph.D., December 1997, STS Blacksburg,
  “A History of the Virginia Academy of Science.”
• Stuart Laughton
  Ph.D., May 1996, Department of Computer Science
  “An Ethnography of Internet-based Applications in Education.”
• Govindan Parayil
  Ph.D., May 1990, STS Blacksburg
  “Conceptualizing Technological Change: A Trans-Systemic Approach.”
• Steve Downes
  Ph.D., May 1990, STS Blacksburg
  “Prospects for a Cognitive Science of Science.”
• Michael Riordan
  Ph.D., June 1989, Department of Accounting
  “A Profile of the Accounting Profession.”
• Mike Conners
  M.S., expected May 2011, STS Greater Capital Region
  “Surveillance and Society.”
• Allison Martin
  M.S., expected May 2007, STS Blacksburg
  “Breaking News or Business Novelty: Technology Coverage in Modern American Print Media.”
• Frankie Bausch
  M.S., May 2002, STS Blacksburg
  “Examining One’s Own: Reflexivity and Critique in STS.”
• Victoria Friedensen
  M.S., December 1999, STS Falls Church
  “Nuclear Policy in Space.”
• Joseph Kestel
  M.S., May 1999, STS Blacksburg
  “Don’t Take My Kodachrome Away: Eastman Kodak and the Digital Age.”
•  Sherry Dawson
  M.S., May 1988, Sociology
  “The Meanings of Literacy.”
• Maureen McArthur
  M.S., May 1997, STS Blacksburg
  “Entrepreneurial Activity in the University.”
• Michael Seltzer
  M.S., August 1993, STS Blacksburg
  “Post-World War II Controversies over Radiation Testing.”
• Tracy Glenn
  M.S., May 1991, STS Blacksburg
  “Language Change in Chaos Theory.”
• William Lynch
  M.S., August 1989, STS Blacksburg
  “Politics in Hobbes\’ Mechanics: A Case Study in the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge.”
• Adam Serchuk
  M.S., May 1989, STS Blacksburg
  “Connectionism, Disciplinary Identity, and Continuity.”
• David M. Bott
  M.S., December 1988, STS Blacksburg
  “Program Officers at the National Science Foundation: A Case Study of the Biological Instrumentation Program.”
• Robert Griffiths
  M.S., June 1988, STS Blacksburg
  “Drug Lag in the Chemical Industry.”