Ciencia Puerto Rico

Dr. Brock received his B.S. in zoology from Auburn University and M.S. in marine science at the University of South Florida. After a career in government regulatory affairs for the agrochemical industry, he followed his avocational passion for the history of science and returned to academia. He earned his M.A. in history from Claremont Graduate University in 2009 and his Ph.D. in Latin American History from Fordham University in May 2014.

His current research focus is completing a book for the University of Alabama Press based on his dissertation: “American Empire and the Scientific Survey of Puerto Rico.” This study examines, through the lens of science, America’s turn-of-the-century imperial projection into the Caribbean. More specifically, it traces the colonial science projects of New York’s leading scientific institutions, including the New York Academy of Sciences, as agents for the modernization of Puerto Rico. Dr. Brock’s broader interest encompasses the global history of science. He has thus applied an historical analysis of science in two earlier books: China and Darwinian Evolution (2010) and his co-edited work Mr. Science and Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution (2013). The British Council awarded him a fellowship to present at the Darwin Sesquicentennial Celebration in Alexandria, Egypt during 2009, and the Wellcome Foundation provided another fellowship, in 2012, to speak on Confederate chemistry in Valencia, Spain.

 I was born in Aguadilla and my mother's last name is Villanueva.