William Aspray

Bill and Lewis Suit Professor of Information Technologies

Education

Dr. Aspray holds a B.A. in philosophy and mathematics and M.A. in mathematics from Wesleyan University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Biography

Dr. Aspray served for six years as executive director of Computing Research Association, an educational nonprofit that represents the doctoral-granting computing-related academic organizations and industrial and government computing research laboratories in North America.

His previous experience includes teaching at Harvard, Minnesota, Penn, Rutgers,Williams, and Indiana University. He has also held research and management positions with the Charles Babbage Institute (a historical research center) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

He has published widely on both historical and contemporary issues facing the computing research community. Current work is on the history of information in everyday life in America, the informatics of diabetes, Internet and new media studies, and the history of privacy in America.

Research Interests

My research focuses on historical, political, and socio-economic studies of information technology. Current research interests include information in everyday life, labor and education issues associated with IT globalization and offshoring; health informatics; legal, business, and economic issues related to the Internet and new media; history of computing, information, and information technology; gender and entrepreneurship in high technology; and the social dimensions of privacy and security in the digital age.

Select Publications

My research output includes approximately 20 books, 70 articles, and 200 oral histories, often written or edited with others. A sample:

Political Studies

• Globalization and the Offshoring of Software (ACM, 2006; ed. with Frank Mayadas and Moshe Vardi)
• Chasing Moore’s Law: Information Technology Policy in the United States (SciTech Publishers, 2004, ed.)
• The Supply of Information Technology Workers in the United States (Computing Research Association, 1999; with Peter Freeman)

Historical Studies

• The Internet and American Business (MIT Press, 2008; ed. with Paul Ceruzzi)
• Computer: A History of the Information Machine (Basic Books, 1996; 2nd ed. Westview 2004; with Martin Campbell-Kelly)
• John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing (MIT Press, 1990)
• History and Philosophy of Modern Mathematics (U. Minnesota Press, 1988; ed. with Philip Kitcher)

Interdisciplinary and Sociological Studies

• The Informatics of Diabetes (forthcoming; ed. with Barbara Hayes)
• “Access to Financial Capital: A Review of the Research Literature on Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Information Technology Field” (National Center for Women & Information Technology, 2007; with Joanne Cohoon)
• Women and Information Technology (MIT Press, 2006; ed. with Joanne Cohoon)

Select Professional Activities

• board of directors, Computing Research Association
• editor, MIT Press Series on the History of Computing
• editorial board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
• history committee, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• history committee, Association for Computing Machinery
• history committee, International Federation of Information Processing
• advisory committee, Computer History Museum
• social science and entrepreneurial alliances, National Center for Women and Information Technology
• board, Communications of the ACM

Materials relating to: