Mike Sokal: An Engineer Turned Historian

By Ray Bert '93

Mike Sokal has been, for the last 30 years or so, a historian whose primary interest has been in the development of science and engineering. That's a reversal, though, of how he began his career: as an engineer who happened to have an interest in history.

Sokal graduated in 1966 with an electrical engineering degree from Cooper Union. That vocational choice was not to last, though. "The more I did the engineering, the less I wanted to devote my career to it," he says. There was a lot of money available then for graduate study, and with a National Defense Education Act Fellowship in hand, Sokal--who had always been good at and enjoyed history--enrolled at Case Tech (now Case Western Reserve University) in the fall of 1966 to pursue graduate work in the history of science and technology. He received both his M.S. and his Ph.D. in the history of science and technology from Case, and he obviously does not regret making the switch. "I certainly enjoy this more," he says. "I was a competent engineer, but I'm a better historian."

Sokal's vitae provides ample evidence of that. In 2000 he completed a term as chair of the Section on History and Philosophy of Science at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ("Leonard Kinnicutt was, I believe, the only previous WPIer to hold that position," Sokal notes proudly.)

He also served as a visiting program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1995, and was twice named a visiting scholar at Harvard University, in 1981-1982 and 1993-1994. And then, of course, there is his two years as a program director of science and technology at the National Science Foundation, where he says he was also in good company. "Kevin Clements--a very highly distinguished, talented engineer--was the first person from WPI to serve as an NSF program director."

Off-campus appointments aren't Sokal's only noteworthy professional achievement, however. He is one of three authors of The Establishment of Science in America: 150 Years of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, published last December. A well-reviewed, comprehensive history of the AAAS--with a foreword by Stephen Jay Gould that Sokal smilingly acknowledges may have had a hand in making the book more visible--the hardcover tome was an important achievement for Sokal, who lists the history of scientific organizations as one of his primary research interests.

That same interest also infuses a longtime fascination with James McKeen Cattell, who owned and edited the AAAS's Science magazine from the late 1800s until 1944. Sokal has written on Cattell before, but he is working on a biography of the man--a goal he acknowledges that he may not reach until after he retires.

When the time comes and he is busy polishing up that biography, he also plans a very different sort of post-academia activity: "I'm going to volunteer at day care centers to work with four-year-olds," he says. "I really like kids that age and they like me." His love of children has even spawned an unlikely scrapbook from his time at NSF: he asks grantees to send him pictures of their children and grandchildren, and they do--dozens and dozens of photos that he shows off as proudly as if they were his own kids.

Sokal also has children of his own--older daughter Kathryn Groves is a technical writer with PeopleSoft in Pleasanton, California, and son Matthew Sokal recently completed training as a computer support technician. The elder Sokal's wife, Charlene Key Sokal, is a reference librarian at Worcester Public Library.

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Last modified: Aug 31, 2004, 17:07 EDT