Emeritus Scholars, Space History Department Curator Emeritus
Bio

Dr. Paul E. Ceruzzi, curator emeritus, is an authority in aerospace electronics and computing. His work includes research, writing, planning exhibits, collecting artifacts, and lecturing on the subjects of microelectronics, computing, and control as they apply to the practice of air and space flight.

Dr. Ceruzzi attended Yale University and the University of Kansas, from which received a PhD in American studies in 1981. Before joining the staff of the National Air and Space Museum, he taught history of technology at Clemson University in South Carolina.

He is the author or co-author of several books on the history of computing and related topics:

  • GPS (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2018)
  • Computing, a Concise History (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012). 
  • A History of Modern Computing (MIT Press, 1998).
  • Smithsonian Landmarks in the History of Digital Computing: A Smithsonian Pictorial History (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994, with Peggy Kidwell).
  • Reckoners: The Prehistory of The Digital Computer (Greenwood Press, 1983).
  • Beyond the Limits: Flight Enters the Computer Age (MIT Press, 1989, companion volume to the exhibition of the same name at the Museum).
  • Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (Routledge, 2001, co-edited with James Trefil and Harold Morowitz).
  • Internet Alley: High Technology in Northern Virginia, 1945-2005 (MIT Press, 2008).

Dr. Ceruzzi was a co-curator for Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There, and worked on such major exhibitions as Beyond the Limits: Flight Enters the Computer Age; Space Race; and How Things Fly.

Dr. Ceruzzi retired in 2018 and is now a curator emeritus.

Media Inquiries For media inquiries, please contact us via email or call 202-633-2370.
Contact Information ceruzzip@si.edu
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