Skip to main content

Neufeld, Michael John view

Dr,

German rocketry; early rocket development; U.S. space and guided-missile history; planetary exploration; World War II, the Holocaust, and strategic bombing.

Positions

Geographic Focus

Background And Education

Education And Training

Professional Biography

  • Clarkson University, 1983-85; SUNY Oswego 1985-86; Colgate University, 1986-88; NASM fellow 1988-90; NASM Museum Curator, 1990-2014, Senior Curator, 2014-

Awards And Honors

Public Biography

  • Michael J. Neufeld is a Senior Curator in the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, where he is responsible for the early rocket collection and for Mercury and Gemini spacecraft. He is also the lead curator of the Destination Moon exhibit project. Born and raised in Canada, he has four history degrees, including a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1984. Dr. Neufeld has written four books, The Skilled Metalworkers of Nuremberg (1989), The Rocket and the Reich (1995), Von Braun (2007) and Spaceflight (2018). He has edited five others: Planet Dora, The Bombing of Auschwitz, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Spacefarers, and Milestones of Space. In 2017 Secretary David Skorton gave him the Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Award, the highest research award of the Institution.

Publications

Selected Publications

Editor Of

  • Book

    • Neufeld, Michael J., editor. 2014. Milestones of Space: Eleven Iconic Objects from the Smithsonian Naitonal Air and Space Museum. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press. 2014
    • Neufeld, Michael J., editor. 2013. Spacefarers: Images of Astronauts and Cosmonauts in the Heroic Era of Spaceflight. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. 2013
    • Neufeld, Michael J. and Spencer, Alex M., editors. 2010. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: An Autobiography. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic. 2010

Contact

Location