Dr. Martin Melosi, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor of History

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Department of History

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• Areas of expertise

  • Environmental history
  • Energy history
  • Urban history
  • History of technology

• Awards

  • Society of Fellows, Honors College, University of Houston (2010)
  • Distinguished Service Award, American Society for Environmental History (2009)
  • Honorary Member, La Societe des Eleves du Centre d’Histoire des Techniques et de l’Environnement, Cnam, Paris (2008)
  • Ester Farfel Award, University of Houston, [The highest university recognition for career achievement in research, teaching, and service] (2005)
  • Excellence in Research and Scholarship Award, University of Houston (2002)
  • Greenwood Community Award, Houston (1993)
  • George P. Hammond Prize: Phi Alpha Theta National Award for the best paper written by a graduate student (1972)

• Publications

  • Atomic Age America. Pearson, 2013.

  • The Sanitary City: Urban Infrastructure in America from Colonial Times to the Present. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Winner of the George Perkins Marsh Prize, American Society for Environmental History, for the best book in environmental history (2000); winner of the Abel Wolman Prize, Public Works Historical Society for the best book in public works history (2001); winner of the Urban History Association Prize for the best book in North American Urban History (2001); and winner of the Sidney Edelstein Prize, Society for the History of Technology, for an outstanding scholarly book in the history of technology (1999-2001).

  • Precious Commodity: Providing Water for America’s Cities (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011).

  • Energy Metropolis: An Environmental History of Houston and the Gulf Coast (with Joseph Pratt) (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007).

  • The Sanitary City: Environmental Service in Urban America from Colonial Times to the Present, Abridged Edition (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008).

  • The History of Large Federal Dams: Planning, Design, and Construction (with David P. Billington and Donald C. Jackson) (Denver, CO: U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, 2005).

  • Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform and the Environment. Rev,ed. (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005).

  • Effluent America: Cities, Industry, Energy, and the Environment (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001).

  • Public History and the Environment, (co-author with Philip Scarpino). (Krieger Publishers, 2004).

  • Urban Public Policy: Historical Modes and Methods (Penn State Press, 1993) (Editor and contributor).

  More publications in CV below.

• Patents

  • None available

• Grants and Funded Research

  • “Energy Resources, Europe, and Its Former Colonies,” Rachel Carson Center for the Environment and Society, Munich, Germany, to the Center for Public History (2011-12)
  • “Energy Capitals: Local Impact, Global Influence,” National Science Foundation Grant, to the Center for Public History (2009-10)
  • Grant, National Park Service-Denver, National Heritage Proposal [Buffalo Bayou] (2008-09)
  • Grant, National Park Service-Denver, National Heritage Proposal [Buffalo Bayou] (2004-05)
  • Grants, Environmental Institute of Houston, UH (1994-1999, 2001-10)
  • Inter-Country Travel Grant, Finnish Fulbright Commission, Helsinki (2001)
  • Faculty Development Grant, College of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication, University of Houston (2000- 01)
  • Faculty Development Summer Grant, College of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication, UH (1995)
  • Faculty Development Grant, College of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication, UH (1992-93)

• Curriculum Vitae

  • Martin Melosi CV

• Contact information

  Agnes Arnold Hall, Room 556

  Phone: (713) 743-3090

  mmelosi@uh.edu