The prestigious IEEE Fellowship in the History of Electrical and Computing Technology recognizes a deserving scholar for one year of full-time graduate work or one year of post-doctoral research to support important historical research in any field of interest covered by an IEEE Society. This unique fellowship, dedicated specifically for the history of technology, is funded by donations to the IEEE Life Members Fund.

Daniela Russ recently received this honor to continue her research in 2020–2021. Her research focuses on the making of energy resources since the 19th century and the organization of capitalist and socialist energy economies in the 20th century. Her thesis is “Computers, Optimal Planning, and the Science of Energetics in the Soviet Union (1951–1982).” She is also working on a book, Working Nature: Steam, Power and the Making of the Energy Economy (1830–1980).

Russ is a postdoctoral fellow and historical sociologist at the University of Toronto and the University of Guelph, Canada. She earned her M.A. degree in social sciences from Humboldt University, Berlin, and her Ph.D. degree in sociology (summa cum laude) from Bielefeld University, Germany. She was a Fulbright scholar with Timothy Mitchell at Columbia University (2016–2017) and, together with Thomas Turnbull (the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), holds an Independent Social Research Foundation Flexible Grant for Small Groups (2020–2021).

Daniela Russ will continue her research on the making of energy resources since the 19th century and the organization of capitalist and socialist energy economies in the 20th century.