Joel A. Tarr

Joel A. Tarr is Richard S. Caliguiri University Professor Emeritus of History and Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci Medal from the Society for the History of Technology, the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Environmental History, and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society for Environmental History. He is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several prize-winning books, including Technology and the Rise of the Networked City in Europe and America, coedited with Gabriel Dupuy; The Search for the Ultimate Sink: Urban Pollution in Historical Perspective; Devastation and Renewal: An Environmental History of Pittsburgh and Its Region; and The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the 19th Century, with coauthor Clay McShane. He has served as president of the Public Works Historical Society and the Urban History Association. He has also served on National Research Council committees dealing with issues of urban infrastructure, public transit, water pollution, and the human dimensions of global change.