W. Patrick McCray

W. Patrick McCray (born 1967) is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His subjects include the history of science and the history of technology.

Life McCray received a PhD from the University of Arizona in 1996. He is the author or editor of several books on the history of science and technology.

Works

Glassmaking in Renaissance Venice, 1999, Ashgate. Giant Telescopes: Astronomical Ambitions and the Promise of Technology, 2004, Harvard University Press. Keep Watching the Skies: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age, 2008, Princeton University Press. The Visioneers. How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future. 2012, Princeton University Press. Groovy Science: Knowledge, Innovation, and American Counterculture, co-edited with David Kaiser, 2016, University of Chicago Press, Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists Forged a New Creative Culture, 2020, MIT Press. Greedy Science: Creating Knowledge, Making Money and Being Famous in the 1980s, co-edited with Michael D. Gordin, 2025, Johns Hopkins University Press