IEEE History Center: Daniel Jon Mitchell, DPhil, Senior Historian

Daniel Jon Mitchell joined the IEEE History Center as Senior Historian in July 2022. Previously he served as the Director of the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Daniel was educated in the UK. He holds a B.A. in physics and a D.Phil. in modern history from the University of Oxford (2010), and an M.A. in philosophy and history of science from the University of Bristol. Two years teaching scientific and technological literacy at the University of Hong Kong sparked a global career in academia and the nonprofit library and museum sector, during which time Daniel has written, presented, and taught widely on the history of modern physical science. He has held research fellowships at RWTH Aachen University in Germany; at the Science Museum, London and University of Cambridge in the UK; and at Harvard University and the Science History Institute in the US. Daniel recently acted as a consultant on a major grant project for the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, MD, USA.

The history of electricity and its associated technologies has interested Daniel ever since he embarked upon a series of summer engineering internships at National Grid while a physics student. His recent research has focused on measurement and quantification in the work of early electrical pioneers, such as Lord Kelvin and James Clerk Maxwell.