Ms. Betsy Mendelsohn, Director
Science, Technology and Society Programs

Betsy Mendelsohn is a historian of environment and technology who taught STS at the University of Virginia for 3 years before becoming an instructor in both of the STS programs in 2004. She succeeded Prof. James Duncan as Director of the STS programs in June, 2007.

See profile page

Ms. Chrystal George Mwangi, Assistant Director
Email: chrystal@umd.edu

Chrystal George Mwangi is a first-year doctoral student in the Higher Education program. Her research interests are centered on alignment issues between secondary and post-secondary education, ethical leadership and institutional mission in higher education, and the college student experience of Black immigrants. Chrystal earned an M.S. degree in Higher Education Administration from Florida State University and a B.A. degree in International Business from Rollins College. Prior to coming to the University of Maryland, Chrystal was coordinator of Student Conduct & Civility Education at Towson University. Additionally, Chrystal has worked in a variety of other higher education settings including positions in Undergraduate Admissions, Multicultural Affairs, Academic Advising, and Career Services at Florida State University and Rollins College.

Mr. William Evans, Instructor
Email: William_C_Evans@mcpsmd.org

William C. Evans has taught choral music and been Music Department Chair at Sherwood High School in Montgomery County, Maryland since 1979. He received a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Clarion University in Pennsylvania and a Master of Music in Voice from The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Bill directs three choral groups at Sherwood: Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, and Freshman Chorus. He teaches the popular Electronic Music and Recording Studio Techniques class. Bill has been Musical Director, Technical Supervisor and Creative Writer for Sherwood High School's original musical production "Rock 'n' Roll Revival," now in its 37th year. Bill has served as a choral adjudicator for the Annapolis Music Festival for fourteen years, as well as festivals in Delaware, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Bill is a Acting Director of the Music Technology Lab at the University of Maryland - College Park, where he teaches Music Technology. During spring 2003 he was a part-time faculty member and guest conductor of the Towson University Vocal Jazz Ensemble. He has also been a guest lecturer for the Music Department at the Catholic University of America.

Mr. Evans has received numerous honors and awards over the years, including the University of Maryland Outstanding Teachers Award from the Center for Teaching Excellence (2004), Sherwood PTSA Educator of the Year (2006) and (2000), Maryland State Computer Educator of the Year from the Maryland Instructional Computer Coordinators Association (1991), Outstanding Contribution to the Community (1989) and the Outstanding Contribution to Youth Award (1987) from the Greater Olney Civic Association.

Mr. J. Rosser Matthews, Instructor
Email: jrmatt3@umd.edu

Rosser Matthews graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1985 as a mathematics and philosophy double major. Subsequently, he earned a Master's and Ph.D. degree from Duke University where his research focus was on the history of science and medicine. He has taught a wide variety of courses in the history of science, history of medicine, STS, and general history survey courses at a number of institutions - including North Carolina State University, Duke University, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the College of William and Mary, Christopher Newport University, and the STS program at Virginia Tech. This semester, in addition to being an instructor in the STS program at the University of Maryland, he is also an instructor in the George Washington University History Department.

His research focuses on the history of statistical reasoning as a way to illustrate the role of chance, uncertainty, and risk in both the scientific and public policy arenas. One product of this research was a book on the historical emergence of the clinical trial in contemporary medicine, which was published in 1995 by Princeton University Press under the title Quantification and the Quest for Medical Certainty. Since completing that project, Matthews has acquired additional expertise in the areas of contemporary public policy and public health analysis. He is particularly interested in using an "STS perspective" to analyze the reception of epidemiological studies in the legal and policy arenas. This research interest has resulted in a publication on the role of medical practice guidelines in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law and a 13-month appointment at the National Institutes of Health where he was a DeWitt Stetten Jr. Memorial Fellow in the History of Biomedical Sciences and Technology in 2001-2002. At present, Matthews is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University where he is collaborating with Alan I. Faden, a member of the medical school faculty, on a book that will use history as a way to illustrate the problems confronting contemporary American medicine.

Mr. Thomas Zeller, Professor of History
Email: tzeller@umd.edu

Thomas Zeller's work is mostly concerned with the intersections of the history of technology and environmental history. In particular, he has written on the history of roads and landscapes in the United States and Germany during the 20th century. His monograph, Driving Germany: The Landscape of the Autobahn, 1930-1970 was published in 2007; it is a revised english translation of the book Straße, Bahn, Panorama. Verkehrswege und Landschaftsveränderung in Deutschland 1930 bis 1990. His current research includes a comparative study of 20th century parkways in the United States and Germany; this project is entitled Consuming Landscapes and has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

Since the fall of 2002, he has been working at the University of Maryland, where he is based in the Department of History and holds a joint appointment with the A. James Clark School of Engineering. Besides teaching in the Department of History, he offers classes in the Gemstone Program and the College Park Scholars Program in Science, Technology, and Society. After a one-year position as a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., during the academic year 2002/2003, he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the GHI from 2003 to 2006. Since 2006, he has been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Transport History. For his curriculum vitae, please click here.