Yulia Frumer

Yulia Frumer is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Bo Jung and Soon Young Kim Professorship of East Asian Science at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on science and technology in East Asia, particularly Japan, emphasizing themes such as science and technology transfer, scientific translation, measurement instruments, humanoid robotics, and science fiction. She holds a PhD in History of Science and Technology from Princeton University.

Her current NSF-funded research examines how emotions influence robotic design decisions in Japan, revealing how biases embedded in technology persist across generations. She is completing a book monograph and coauthored work analyzing robot-making processes. Her earlier book, Making Time: Astronomical Time in Tokugawa Japan (2018), explores the material roots of time concepts through astronomical instruments. She has authored articles on topics like cross-cultural knowledge transmission and instrument-driven spatial perception.

Frumer’s interdisciplinary approach stems from her multicultural background, fluency in multiple languages, and interest in how subjective factors shape scientific practices. She advocates for engaged scholarship to address design biases in technology.