This program will be presented virtual via Zoom webinar.
The atomic detonations over Alamogordo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki fundamentally transformed our perception of time. Simulating nuclear fission or modeling the growth of mushroom clouds required new tools that could help humans make sense of complex phenomena operating across a wide range of temporal scales. Scientists turned to early computers, such as ENIAC and SEAC, to model the behavior of subatomic particles. By the 1950s, analog and digital computing would be repurposed to manage all aspects of nuclear weapons development and air defense, from factories and road systems to chemical refineries and radar stations. In this talk, Bree Lohman (2023-24 Linda Hall Library Fellow) will explore the entanglement of computation and nuclear weapons at the dawn of the Anthropocene.
Bree Lohman is a PhD Candidate specializing in the history of technology, computing, and the environment in Cold War North America. She is based at the University of Toronto's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. Her dissertation explores the emergence, maintenance, and decline of the SAGE nuclear defense infrastructure in Canada and the United States. Bree holds an M.A. from Columbia University and an M.Sc. from London School of Economics, both in the field of history. She has worked with various museums, including the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Computer History Museum, and Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation. She currently holds fellowships with the Linda Hall Library, the Jackman Humanities Institute, and the National American History Museum's Lemelson Center.
