Ken Alder

Ken Alder is a Professor of History and Milton H. Wilson Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University. He holds a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard University (1991) and an A.B. in Physics with honors from Harvard (1981). Alder specializes in the history of science and technology, particularly their social and political contexts. His research spans forensic sciences, the history of the polygraph, the metric system, and military technology during the French Revolution.

He has authored multiple award-winning books, including The Measure of All Things (2002), The Lie Detectors (2007), and Engineering the Revolution (1997). His current project examines forensic techniques from the Renaissance to the genomic era, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and Guggenheim Foundation.

Alder founded Northwestern’s Science in Human Culture Program, fostering interdisciplinary science studies. He has held visiting positions at the American Bar Foundation, the École Nationale des Mines (Paris), and the Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation. His awards include the Davis Prize, Dingle Prize, and Kagan Prize.

Teaching focuses on courses like the history of science, law and science, and technology’s role in American identity. He has directed over two dozen graduate field exams and offers seminars on objectivity in science and senior thesis supervision.