Lillian Hoddeson

Lillian Hoddeson is the co-author of Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age along with Michael Riordan. She has been a professor of the history of science at the University of Illinois since 1989.  She also holds an appointment as a research physicist in the Physics department there.

Born in New York City in 1940, Hoddeson earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Barnard College in 1961, and a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University in 1966.  Hoddeson's current research focuses on the history of twentieth century science and technology, including large particle physics labs and the atomic bomb, and she is one of the foremost historians of solid state physics.  Transcripts of interviews she has conducted with solid state scientists were a key source of information for this site.  She is currently completing, with Vicki Daitch, a biography of John Bardeen that takes a new look at the controversial question of scientific genius.

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