S e t h S h u l m a n
Biography
Seth Shulman has worked for more than 25 years as a writer and editor specializing in issues in science, technology and the environment. A graduate of Harvard University, he has written five books and hundreds of articles for magazines including Smithsonian, The Atlantic, Parade, Discover, Rolling Stone, Popular Science, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Progressive, and Time, and for newspapers including the Times of London, The Boston Globe, and The Los Angeles Times.From 1988 through 1991 he served as Boston Correspondent for the British science journal Nature, and from 1993 to 2004 as a Contributing Writer for Technology Review where, for three years, he also wrote a widely acclaimed monthly column on innovation and intellectual property. In the 2004-5 academic year, he was the first science writer ever invited as a fellow at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT.
His latest book, The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret (W.W. Norton, 2008) recounts his experience as a researcher at MIT stumbling across evidence of a twisted and troubling mystery surrounding Bell’s role in the invention of the telephone. Working from primary source material including Bell’s laboratory notebooks, the book offers a gripping and surprising nonfiction detective story as well as a meditation on how we remember the past. (More on the The Telephone Gambit.)
In 2004, Shulman’s work earned worldwide headlines when he served as the lead author of two investigative reports issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists that charged the George W. Bush administration with a misuse of science and lack of scientific integrity in policymaking. To date, the reports have been publicly endorsed by more than 12,000 U.S. scientists, including 48 Nobel Laureates and 62 National Medal of Science winners. His reporting on the topic was expanded in 2006 into the book: Undermining Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration (University of California Press). (More on Undermining Science).
Shulman’s book, Unlocking the Sky (HarperCollins, 2002), is a nonfiction, historical narrative about aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss and the birth of the airplane. Called “enlightening” by the New York Times and “a superbly entertaining and lively story,” by the Boston Herald, the book was an alternate selection of the Book of the Month Club and a Scientific American “editor’s pick.”
Shulman is also the author of Owning the Future (Houghton Mifflin, 1999), examines the battles to control the new intangible assets—such as genes, software, databases, and technological know-how—that make up the lifeblood of the emerging economy (more on Owning the Future), and The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Military (Beacon Press, 1992). Funded in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Threat at Home presents the in-depth story of the U.S. military’s toxic environmental legacy. The culmination of Shulman’s three-year investigation of the matter, the book helped spur landmark federal legislation requiring the Pentagon to obey the nation’s environmental laws (more about The Threat at Home).
In addition to his books and journalistic writing, Shulman has consulted for major U.S. companies on technology and design issues. He has written several policy reports and contributed to a variety of science and environmental textbooks, encyclopedias, and science museum exhibits, including the standing telecommunications exhibit at the Chicago-based Museum of Science and Industry. During the 1985-6 academic year, Shulman was selected as a Vannevar Bush Fellow at MIT (now known as the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship).
A resident of Northampton, Massachusetts, Shulman has received support for his work to date from numerous sources besides the MacArthur Foundation, including the Center for Public Integrity, the Fund for Constitutional Government, the Fund for Investigative Reporting, the Goldensohn Fund, and the New America Foundation.
He has also won several awards for his writing. His work was selected as a finalist for a 2001 National Magazine Award in the public interest category. In 1991, he was a finalist for a Livingston Award for the best example of national reporting by a journalist under the age of 35; in 1988 he was chosen by the Free Press Association as a finalist for an H.L. Mencken Award for "outstanding journalism in support of liberty," and in 1987, his work was included in Project Censored's annual list of the "ten best underreported stories" of the year.
Biographies for download
This biographical sketch (pdf format)
Seth’s complete cv and publication list (pdf format)
