RESEARCH
My third book project examines the planetary impacts of the boom in the polymer science in the aftermath of World War II. Taking the Copolymer Research Group——an organization created by the US government to oversee the rapid production of synthetic rubber following the Japanese occupation of Malaya——as a starting point, I investigate how the formation of the academic-military-industrial complex became a singular planetary transformative event. Based on ethnographic, archival, and community-engaged research with different stakeholders in the US, I analyze this unfolding through the notion of crosslinking, namely the formation of covalent bonds between polymer chains that expand functionality. By examining the geopolitical development and the socio-environmental impacts of synthetic rubber and thermoplastics, I show how the crosslinks between science, industry, and the military set out to create an imperial utopia that, in turn, overextended into a climate catastrophe.