Staff profile

I am a historian of science and technology, focusing on the modern physical sciences. I earned a PhD from the Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Minnesota in 2013. Before joining Durham, I spent time at Colby College, Michigan State University, the Consortium for History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, and the University of Cambridge.

My current research investigates history of categorisation practises in science. How did scientists and societies negotiate the boundaries of concepts, including the boundaries of science itself, from the nineteenth through the early twenty-first centuries? How have these boundaries been enforced by institutions, and with what consequences? What happens to the categories we use to make cultural sense of science as scientific practice changes around them? These questions are crucial for understanding the solidification of science’s cultural authority during the twentieth century, and for navigating our contemporary relationships with scientific expertise.

Some of my other interests include:

· The sciences of stuff—that is, solid state physics, condensed matter physics, and materials science. My 2018 book, Solid State Insurrection, traced the growth of American solid state physics, showing how it remade the scope and mission of American physics and the identity of American physicists in ways that helped physics maintain its outsized role on Cold War American society.

· The role of industrial patronage in post–World War II university research. I have examined how universities like Michigan and Chicago partnered with industry in order to check government influence over basic research, especially in nuclear science, from the conviction that industry support offered an avenue to academic freedom.

· The pedagogy and popular image of science. The communication of science—through both teaching and public engagement—is crucial to understanding its historical importance. My work has examined the pedagogical practices of the carbon physicist Mildred Dresselhaus, the public prestige asymmetries between different areas of physics, and John Tyndall’s 1872–73 American lecture tour.

· Philosophical questions about contingency in the history of science and how they can inform the methodology of history and philosophy of science.

I welcome inquiries from potential postgraduate students interested in studying any aspect of modern science and technology, particularly the physical sciences, scientific institutions and patronage, or Cold War science and technology.

Authored book

• Martin, J. D. (2018). Solid State Insurrection: How the Science of Substance Made American Physics Matter. University of Pittsburgh Press

Book review

• Martin, J. D. (2021). Demystifying Manhattan. Metascience, 30, 417-419. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-021-00682-9
• Martin, J. D. (2021). The Relativity of Theory by Moti Mizrahi: On the Necessity of History in Philosophy of Science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 87, 170-172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2021.04.004
• Martin, J. D. (2020). A Global History of Changing Knowledge. Physics today, 73(9), 55-56. https://doi.org/10.1063/pt.3.4572
• Martin, J. D. (2020). Thomas C. Lassman, Edward Condon’s Cooperative Vision: Science, Industry, and Innovation in Modern America. Minerva, 58(2), 315-317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-020-09406-5
• Martin, J. D. (2019). The Ether Drag Show. Endeavour, 43(3), Article 100693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2019.100693
• Martin, J. D. (2018). The Experimenter's Redress
• Martin, J. D. (2018). Truth with a Vengeance. Science, 360(6391), https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat0237
• Martin, J. (2017). Who Owns the Twentieth Century? (And Is It Worth Owning?). https://doi.org/10.1086/691208
• Martin, J. D. (2016). A Paean to Contingency. Metascience, 25(3), 437-441. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-016-0098-1
• Martin, J. D. (2015). New Straw for the Old Broom. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2015.09.009
• Martin, J. D. (2015). How Revolutionary Was the Scientific Revolution?. Physics today, 68(4), 53-54. https://doi.org/10.1063/pt.3.2750
• Martin, J. D. (2014). Linnda R. Caporael, James R. Griesemer, and William C. Wimsatt (eds): Developing Scaffolds in Evolution, Culture, and Cognition. Acta Biotheoretica, 62(4), 531-535. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-014-9230-z

Chapter in book

• Martin, J. D. (in press). The Age of Industrial Laboratories. In R. P. Crease (Ed.), Between Science and Industry: Institutions in the History of Materials Research. World Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/13625
• Martin, J. D. (in press). Drawing the Line between Pure and Applied Physics. In R. Lalli, & J. Navarro (Eds.), Globalizing Physics: One Hundred Years of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. Oxford University Press
• Martin, J. D., & Mody, C. C. (in press). Lithography. In J. D. Martin, & C. C. Mody (Eds.), Between making and knowing : tools in the history of materials research (327-340). World Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811207631_0029
• Martin, J. D. (in press). Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. In J. D. Martin, & C. C. Mody (Eds.), Between making and knowing : tools in the history of materials research (561-569). World Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811207631_0049
• Martin, J. D. (in press). Tools for Characterizing Materials. In J. D. Martin, & C. C. Mody (Eds.), Between making and knowing : tools in the history of materials research (403-424). World Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811207631_0036
• Martin, J. D. (2024). Word and Image in Popular Science. In F. Grant, & L. Jordanova (Eds.), Where Words and Images Meet. London: Bloomsbury
• Martin, J. D. (2023). Critiques of Big Science. In P. Charitos, T. Arabatzis, H. Cliff, G. Dissertori, J. Forneris, & J. Li-Ying (Eds.), Big Science in the 21st Century: Economic and Societal Impacts. IOP Publishing
• Martin, J. D., & Mody, C. C. (2020). Introduction: Tools in Materials Research. In J. D. Martin, & C. C. Mody (Eds.), Between making and knowing : tools in the history of materials research (1-12). World Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811207631_0001
• Martin, J. D. (2020). Scales and Balances. In J. D. Martin, & C. C. Mody (Eds.), Between making and knowing : tools in the history of materials research (53-61). World Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811207631_0006
• Martin, J. D. (2019). Cultural Scaffolding and Technological Change. In A. C. Love, & W. C. Wimsatt (Eds.), Beyond the Meme: Development and Structure in Cultural Evolution (425-444). University of Minnesota Press
• Martin, J. D. (2018). Seitz, Frederick. In S. Ware (Ed.), American National Biography. Oxford University Press
• Martin, J. D. (2015). Nuclear, High Energy, and Solid State Physics. In G. M. Montgomery, & M. A. Largent (Eds.), A Companion to the History of American Science (186-198). John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119072218.ch15

Edited book

• Barton, M. D., Martin, J. D., Radick, G., & MacLeod, R. (Eds.). (2023). The Correspondence of John Tyndall, Volume 13, The Correspondence, June 1872–September 1873. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Martin, J. D., & Mody, C. C. (Eds.). (2020). Between Making and Knowing: Tools in the History of Materials Research. World Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/11482

Journal Article

• McGuire, C., & Martin, J. D. (2023). Revenge of the Nerds. Physics in Perspective, 25, 169-172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-023-00304-3
• Federico, L. E., & Martin, J. D. (2021). PTSD: equity in diagnostic practice. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(12), 1024-1026. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366%2821%2900366-7
• Bolinska, A., & Martin, J. D. (2021). The Tragedy of the Canon; or, Path Dependence in the History and Philosophy of Science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 89, 63-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2021.07.008
• Martin, J. D., Mateos, G., Munns, D. P., & Suárez-Díaz, E. (2021). Special Issue Introduction: Historical Peculiarity and the Order of the Phoenix. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 51(2), 169-178. https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2021.51.2.169
• Martin, J. D. (2021). Science in the Age of Invincible Surmise: Nuclear Optimism and the Michigan Memorial–Phoenix Project. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 51(2), 179-208. https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2021.51.2.179
• Martin, J. D. (2021). On Revolutions and Scientific Monuments
• Martin, J. D. (2020). The Simple and Courageous Course: Industrial Patronage of Basic Research at the University of Chicago, 1945–1953. Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, 111(4), 697-716. https://doi.org/10.1086/711949
• Bolinska, A., & Martin, J. D. (2020). Negotiating History: Contingency, Canonicity, and Case Studies. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 80, 37-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2019.05.003
• Martin, J. D. (2019). Mildred Dresselhaus and Solid State Pedagogy at MIT. Annalen der Physik, 531(10), Article 1900274. https://doi.org/10.1002/andp.201900274
• Besley, J. C., Zahry, N. R., McCright, A., Elliott, K. C., Kaminski, N. E., & Martin, J. D. (2019). Conflict of Interest Mitigation Procedures May Have Little Influence on the Perceived Procedural Fairness of Risk-Related Research. Risk Analysis, 39(3), 571-585. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13182
• Martin, J. D. (2019). When Condensed-Matter Physics Became King. Physics today, 72(1), 30-37. https://doi.org/10.1063/pt.3.4110
• Martin, J. D. (2017). Prestige Asymmetry in American Physics: Aspirations, Applications, and the Purloined Letter Effect. Science in Context, 30(4), 475-506. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0269889717000242
• Besley, J. C., McCright, A. M., Zahry, N. R., Elliott, K. C., Kaminski, N. E., & Martin, J. D. (2017). Perceived Conflict of Interest in Health Science Partnerships. PLoS ONE, 12(4), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175643
• Martin, J. D. (2017). Resource Letter HCMP-1: History of Condensed Matter Physics. American Journal of Physics, 85(2), 87-97. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4967844
• Fisher, A. A., & Martin, J. D. (2016). Special Issue Introduction: Emerging Prospects for History of the Physical Sciences. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 46(3), 261-269. https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2016.46.3.261
• Martin, J. D. (2016). The Peaceful Atom Comes to Campus. Physics today, 69(2), 40-46. https://doi.org/10.1063/pt.3.3081
• Martin, J. D. (2015). Fundamental Disputations: The Philosophical Debates that Governed American Physics, 1939-1993. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 45(5), 703-757. https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2015.45.5.703
• Martin, J. D., & Janssen, M. (2015). Beyond the Crystal Maze: Twentieth-Century Physics from the Vantage Point of Solid State Physics. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 45(5), 631-640. https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2015.45.5.631
• Martin, J. D. (2015). What’s in a Name Change?. Physics in Perspective, 17(1), 3-32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-014-0151-7
• Martin, J. D. (2015). Evaluating Hidden Costs of Technological Change: Scaffolding, Agency, and Entrenchment. Society for Philosophy & Technology quarterly electronic journal, 19(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.5840/techne201522325
• Martin, J. D. (2013). Is the Contingentist/Inevitabilist Debate a Matter of Degrees?. Philosophy of Science, 80(5), 919-930. https://doi.org/10.1086/674003

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Mody, C. C., & Martin, J. D. (2020). Materials Science. [[Media unknown]]

Other (Print)

• Martin, J. D. (2023). Alexander Müller (1927–2023). [Obituary]
• Martin, J. D. (2021). Motivate, Situate, Evidence, Illustrate: Teaching beyond Primary and Secondary Sources
• Halina, M., & Martin, J. D. (2019). Five Ways AI Is Not Like the Manhattan Project (and One Way It Is)
• Martin, J. D. (2019). El estado sólido y el nuevo mapa de la física