By Day
Like most people in Silicon Valley, I have a couple jobs.
First, I'm working on a new venture, called Future 2. It builds on my previous experience at the Institute for the Future, and seeks to bring cutting-edge design and science to the practice of futures research and facilitation. The project is in stealth, so no details yet; more in late 2009. In the meantime, imagine something that combines elements from the Renaissance court, Phillipe Starck hotels, Victorian expeditions, and The Matrix.
I'm a Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University. There I work with executive MBA students interested in strategy, futures, and sustainability. I'm also I'm a Visiting Scholar in the History and Philosophy of Science Program at Stanford University.
From 2000 to 2009 I was connected with the Institute for the Future, a Silicon Valley-based think tank. Most recently I was a Research Director and information ecologist for Signtific, a project on the future of science; I also directed or collaborated on a number of projects on everything from the future of pervasive computing, to the future of caregiving, to the development of new technologies for facilitation and workshops.
I occasionally get quoted by journalists who need a little color commentary on technology stories.
By Night
I'm a writer. My articles have appeared in both popular and scholarly publications, from the British Journal for the History of Science, Isis, and Journal for the History of Astronomy, to the American Heritage of Invention and Technology, Los Angeles Times, and Atlantic Monthly.
I've published one book, Empire and the Sun: Victorian Solar Eclipse Expeditions (Stanford University Press, 2002), and am currently at work on my second, about the end of cyberspace.
Probably my most widely-read piece is "Journeyman: Getting Into and Out of Academe," which I first posted in 1996.
How to Reach Me
The best way to reach me quickly is via e-mail, at alex dot s dot pang dot c dot 86 at alumni dot upenn dot edu. By voice, your best options are Skype-- I'm askpang, and if I'm not on you'll get my voice mail-- or calling my Grand Central number at 650-353-7049. You can also click on the buttons on the right.
Where I'm At
If you need up-to-the-minute reports, check Plazes and Twitter. My personal blog, Relevant History, and my Flickr stream offers a more leisurely view of my life. I'm also up-to-date on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Where I'm From
I started out as an academic. I received a B.A. and Ph.D. in History and Sociology of Science, and held postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. After that, I had a brief tenure (I use the term ironically) as a professor, teaching at Williams College and the University of California, Davis.
After several years I left the academic job market for the managing editorship of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, in Chicago. I oversaw the Britannica's transition from print to electronic publication, and lived in the same lakeside apartment building that Rob Lowe inhabited in Wayne's World.
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