Contact Info:
575-646-1824
Breland 240
Education:
B.A., Grinnell College
Ph.D., Columbia University
Research and Teaching Interests:
Russia, History of Science, and World History.
Professor Brooks started out wanting to become a scientist, but in college became fascinated with Russian culture and graduated with a double major in Chemistry and Russian. He began graduate work in biochemistry at Princeton University, but soon realized he wanted to focus on Russian studies and then transferred to Columbia University, where he studied Russian history and the history of science. After spending 1 ½ years of dissertation research in the Soviet Union, Professor Brooks moved back to the US and worked at the RAND Corporation while writing his thesis. He has taught at several different institutions before starting at NMSU in 1991. He travels back to Russia often to conduct research in archives and libraries.
Selected Publications:
Brooks, Nathan M. and Masanori Kaji, “The Early Reception of the Periodic Law in Russia,” in: M. Kaji, H. Kragh, and G. Pallo, eds., The Reception of the Periodic Law in Europe. Oxford University Press, 2014 (in press).
Nathan M. Brooks, Masanori Kaji, and Elena Zaitseva, “Russia: The Formation of the Russian Chemical Society and Its Development until 1914,” in Anita Kildebaek Nielson and Sona Strbanova, eds., Creating Networks in Chemistry: The Founding and Early History of Chemical Societies in Europe (London: Royal College of Chemistry, 2008): 281-304.
Nathan Brooks, “Mendeleev, Dmitrii Ivanovich,” in Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. 23 (Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2008): 105-110.
Nathan M. Brooks, “The Road to ‘Big Chemistry’ in the Soviet Union during the 1920s,” Historia Scientiarum, vol. 16 (2007): 264-274.
Nathan M. Brooks, “Munitions, the Military, and Chemistry in Russia,” in: Roy MacLeod and Jeffrey Johnson, eds., Frontline and Factory: Comparative Perspectives on the Chemical Industry at War, 1914-1924 (Dordrect: Springer, 2006): 75-102.
Nathan M. Brooks, “Growing Links Between Chemistry and Industry in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900-1953,” Ambix, Vol. 52, No. 1 (2005): 27-43.
Nathan M. Brooks, “D. I. Mendeleev kak ekonomicheskii sovetnik Rossiiskogo pravitel’stva,” in: N. N. Smirnov, ed., V last’ i nauka, uchenye i vlast’: 1880-e—nachalo 1920-kh godov (St. Petersburg: Dmitrii Bulanin, 2003): 26-40.
Nathan M. Brooks, “Alexander Butlerov and the Professionalization of Science in Russia,” Russian Review, Vol. 57 (1998): 10-24.
Nathan M. Brooks, “The Evolution of Chemistry in Russia During the Nineteenth Century,” in: D. Knight and H. Kragh, eds., The Making of the Chemist: The Social History of Chemistry in Europe 1789-1914 (Cambridge University Press, 1998): 163-176.
Courses:
Undergraduate
Graduate
