Ellan Spero’s research bridges history of technology and business with application in future-facing technology and policy research and materials research. Spero focuses on the ways people envision human progress through the systems, institutions, objectives, and narratives they create with emphasis on systems of production, academic-industrial ecosystems, infrastructure, and risk mitigation. She is an Instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Technology and Policy Program and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and an academic entrepreneur, serving as co-founder and board director at the non-profit research and education institution, Station1. 

Dr. Spero serves on the Board of Trustees of the BHC, Board of Directors of the Lawrence History Center, The Watch Library Foundation, and Station1. She serves as the chair of the Prometheans (history of engineering) within the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), co-chair of the engineering studies working group in the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM), and on the Trescott Prize Committee for the Business History Conferenc (BHC).  Dr. Spero participates in international research communities across disciplines in the history of science and technology, economic and business history, and specialty conferences on World’s Expos, academic-entrepreneurship, the Anthropocene, and maintenance and innovation. Selected fellowships include Linda Hall Library, the Chemical Heritage Foundation (Science History Institute), and Hagley Museum and Library.

Spero has held visiting appointments at the Ca’ Foscari University (Venice, Italy), University of Padova (Italy), École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland), and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD, Singapore). Dr. Spero holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in History, Anthropology, Science, Technology and Society. Spero also has a B.S. and M.S. from Cornell University in Fiber Science and Apparel Design, and a M.A from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Museum Studies and Textile Conservation.