The highest recognition from the Society for the History of Technology is the Leonardo da Vinci Medal, presented to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the history of technology, through research, teaching, publication, and other activities.
2024 Da Vinci Medallist Stuart W. (Bill) Leslie giving his Da Vinci Lecture titled ‘The Beach Boys v. The Snow Men: Cold War Suburbs in the US and the USSR ‘. (Photo SHOT)
Dr. Stuart (Bill) Leslie is awarded SHOT’s 2024 Leonardo da Vinci Medal in recognition of his scholarly contributions to the history of technology, his service to SHOT, and his dedication and influence as an educator.
Over the course of his career, Bill’s intellectual curiosity has drawn him to a range of topics in the history of nineteenth and twentieth-century American technology. The result has been a series of influential and prize-winning publications. His 1979 T&C article on “Charles F. Kettering and the Copper-Cooled Engine” won SHOT’s 1980 Usher Prize. His 2001 HSPS article on “Blue Collar Science: Bringing the Transistor to Life in the Lehigh Valley” won SHOT’s 2002 IEEE Life Members’ Prize. He has also won the Allan Nevins Prize from the Economic History Association; the Thomas Newcomen Award from the Business History Society, and the Derek Price/Rod Webster Prize from the History of Science Society. His 1983 book Boss Kettering: Wizard of General Motors (Columbia University Press) is an early landmark in bringing together the history of technology and business history. His 1993 book The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford (Columbia University Press) represents superb, influential research on the history of higher education, military, and corporate development as shaped by Cold War politics.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Bill has, more recently, focused much-needed attention on connections between the history of technology, architecture, and design, publishing wide-ranging articles on laboratory and hospital design; Cold War suburbia; Expo ’58; Eero Saarinen’s corporate campuses for GM, IBM, and AT&T; Southern California aerospace modernism; the Griffith Observatory; Pakistan and India nuclear structures; and more.
In Bill’s career, scholarly research has been complimented by his dedication and skill as a teacher. Johns Hopkins University awarded Bill the George Owen Distinguished Teaching Award (twice) plus the President’s Cup Distinguished Teaching Award. His classes on the history of the automobile and the history of Las Vegas were especially creative, influential courses. He fostered undergraduate research with class projects that immersed students in the JHU archives and special collections, as well as leading groups of students to Las Vegas and around Baltimore.
Bill is also outstanding mentor who has advised more than 20 graduate students formally and many more informally during his career at Johns Hopkins University. The student-advisor relationship sets the tone for the graduate school experience. Bill’s students know, through his words and actions, that he is always in their corner. His mentorship style is based on respect for his students as researchers and human beings. A generous collaborator, Bill has frequently invited his students to co-author scholarly publications on subjects of mutual interest. He is encouraging of his students’ professional ambitions, including those that extend beyond the academy. Appreciative of the power of history in diverse settings, Bill has supported numerous students in building careers in museums and cultural heritage sites.
Amidst all his other activities, Bill has found time to serve SHOT. Very early in his career, he served as the Program Chair for the 1982 annual meeting. His most significant service was as SHOT Secretary from 2000 through 2004. Many of us remember the charm, humor, and competence with which he handled all the secretary’s duties of organizing and running annual meetings, putting out a quarterly newsletter, handling all member correspondence, and much more. Bill also served two terms on the SHOT Executive Council, 1993-96 and 2016-2019, where his long experience with SHOT offered an invaluable contribution.
For all these reasons and many more, Bill Leslie is the worthy recipient of SHOT’s da Vinci Medal.