Robert Friedel

Robert Friedel is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Maryland, where he has taught the history of technology and science and environmental history for more than 30 years. Before coming to College Park, he was a historian at the Smithsonian Institution and the first director of the IEEE Center for the History of Electrical Engineering in New York City. His academic training is in history of science and technology with degrees from Brown, Imperial College London, and Johns Hopkins. Most of his research and writing has involved the history of invention, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he has written books on subjects ranging from early plastics to electric light to zippers, as well as a wide range of articles for both popular and academic audiences. His most recent book is an extensive overview of the history of technology since the Middle Ages, A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium.