W. Bernard Carlson

Bernie Carlson is a historian of technology who studies the careers of inventors and entrepreneurs in order to educate future engineering leaders. He grew up in New Jersey, studied history and physics as an undergraduate, earned a Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science, and pursued a postdoc in business history at the Harvard Business School. Bernie has published three books, including a biography of Nikola Tesla, which has been published in nine languages. He is co-editor of a book series with MIT Press, "Inside Technology," which has published over 60 books on the history and sociology of technology. In addition, he is committed to helping broad audiences understand the role of technology in society, and this has led to projects such as the 36 lectures on "Great Inventions" that he released on DVD with The Teaching Company. For his scholarship, he has received the Sally Hacker Prize from the Society for the History of Technology [SHOT] and the IEEE’s Middleton Award in Electrical History. Bernie has served as the Executive Secretary for SHOT as well as a consultant for Corning Incorporated and other organizations. At UVA, he helped create the Committee for the History of Environment and Technology and created both the Engineering Business minor and the Technology Entrepreneurship programs.