I am a historian of science, technology, and medicine, especially interested in microbes, biotechnology, and natural history.

Currently, I am a visiting researcher in history at Caltech and teach history at an independent school near Los Angeles. I completed a PhD at the Program in History of Science at Princeton University in 2020 and was appointed the Ahmanson Postdoctoral Instructor in History of Biology at Caltech from 2020 through 2023. I have written peer-reviewed articles for the Journal of the History of Biology (2022) and Engaging Science, Technology and Society (forthcoming, 2024). Recently, I completed an essay for an upcoming exhibition on scientific visualizations at Caltech, sponsored by the Getty Foundation. Currently, I am writing a chapter on extremophile studies on public lands for an edited volume on the history of recent microbiology, to be published with University of Pittsburgh Press. My research has been sponsored by the Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM), and the German-American Fulbright Commission.

ckollmer [at] caltech [dot] edu | Download CV