Erik Rau, Ph. D.

BA, Stanford University, 1989.
MA, University of Pennsylvania, 1991.
PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1999.
Instructor, Drexel University, 1996-

As a historian of technology and science, my interests focus on how technology and science are deployed to exert and express social power, including gender relationships. I teach a course on graduate course on technology and gender, and all of my graduate courses include gender studies components.

My current book project is on the development of operations research, one of the so-called decision sciences that emerge from World War II and mediated between technological developments and policymaking. Applications of OR have included techniques for assessing the effectiveness of family planning clinics in the developing world, assessing the impacts of racial integration in the military, and organizing hospitals and health care networks, and more generally the probable outcomes of business and policy decisions. More information can be found on http://www.drexel.edu/coas/histpol/Rau.asp