The transformation of the Venetian glass industry during the Renaissance was not only a technical phenomena, but also a social one. In this volume, Patrick McCray examines the demand, production and distribution of glass and glassmaking technology during this period and evaluates several key topics, including the nature of Renaissance demand for certain luxury goods, the interaction between industry and government in the Renaissance, and technological change as a social process. McCray places in its broader economic and cultural context a craft and industry that has been traditionally viewed primarily through the surviving artefacts held in museum collections.
W. Patrick McCray is a professor in the History Department at UCSB. McCray entered the historians' profession in an unusual way via his background in materials science and engineering. His doctoral research in materials science at the University of Arizona combined his understanding of materials with archaeology and history to examine the culture and technology of glassmaking in Renaissance Venice. He published widely on this topic in both technical and history journals and also authored a book on early modern glassmaking.
Following completion of his degree in 1996, McCray began to do research on the history of modern science and technology. His first major project was an exploration of the politics, policy, and technology behind the current generation of ground-based telescopes. His work was supported by the National Science Foundation and was published as Giant Telescopes: Astronomical Ambition and the Promise of Technology. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004). Before coming to UCSB in 2003, McCray had several postdoctoral fellowships and worked as a historian for three years at the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics.
McCray's next book addressed the role of amateur scientists during the opening years of the Space Age. This book was published in 2008 by Princeton University Press as Keep Watching the Skies: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age. It chronicles amateur members of Moonwatch during the birth of the Space Age by exploring the activities of citizen-scientists who organized a global network of satellite spotters. Combining interviews with scrapbooks, photos, and archival sources, the story reveals public enthusiasm for space and science during the Cold War.
When he arrived at UCSB, McCray became more interested in the history of nanotechnology and how it intersected with his prior research on the history of materials. He helped develop and write the proposal to the National Science Foundation that resulted in the creation of the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at UCSB and served as the Center's co-director for two years. He currently leads one of the CNS's research initiatives; this explores the history of nanotechnology and its place in the broader context of the technological enthusiasm in the late 20th century.
As a historian, McCray is fascinated by the visions of the future that litter the past. He is currently writing a new book for Princeton University Press about "visioneers" - people who connected their technical expertise to the visions of a more expansive future made possible by the technologies they studied, designed, and promoted. In 2010, he received a Collaborative Research Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies which will help support the research and writing of the book.
When not researching and writing, McCray is typically outside on some form of two-wheeled transportation. He received news that UCSB had hired him in 2003 while on a cross-country bicycle trip from California to Florida. The fact that there is good surfing five minutes from his office has not escaped his attention either.
