Timothy Sacco

Timothy Sacco received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2021, and studies the dynamics of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. His dissertation was a five-year ethnography into how ties between higher education and the market shaped STEM training. A manuscript based on this work is under contract with NYU Press. Following his Ph.D., Sacco was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Research Laboratory, a national lab that manages the ground-based telescopes in which the federal government has invested. In 2023, he was awarded an LSST-Discovery Alliance Catalyst Research Fellowship to investigate how astronomers at small or under-resourced institutions experience collaborations differently than their R1 counterparts. He conducted this project at the University of Arizona. Sacco has several ongoing projects that explore the intersection of STEM careers, higher education, big data, artificial intelligence, and markets.

Recent Courses Taught

Sociology of Science
AI and Society

Research Interests

Sociology of science, gender and STEM, academic capitalism, research collaboration, diversity and inclusion in science, higher education

Distinctions

• LSST-Discovery Alliance Catalyst Research Fellowship, University of Arizona (2023)
• NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (2018)
• National Science Foundation Research Assistantship (2015–2020)

Selected Publications

Books

• Sacco, Timothy. Making Market Scientists: Inventor Masculinity, Devalued Femininity, and STEM Training Regimes. Under contract at New York University Press
• Norman, Dara, Timothy Sacco, and Dorian Russell (eds.). An Astronomical Inclusion Revolution. Institute of Physics ebooks (2024)

Peer-Reviewed

• Sacco, Timothy. "Inventor Masculinity in For-Profit Science." Men & Masculinities (2025)
• Martinez, Elisa, Laurel Smith-Doerr, and Timothy Sacco. "Measured Success: Knowledge, Power, and Inequality in the Professional Work of Evaluation." Research in the Sociology of Work, 34: 169-192 (2020)
• Sacco, Timothy. "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Dimensions of Success and Failure in Research Collaboration." Sociological Forum 35(2): 488-510. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12591 (2020)

Professional Affiliations

American Sociological Association
Eastern Sociological Society
Society for the Social Studies of Science
American Astronomical Society

Appointed to the Faculty

2026

Educational Background

Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst
M.A., Loyola University Chicago
B.A., Plymouth State University

Dissertation

By the Numbers: How Academic Capitalism Shapes Graduate Student Experiences of Work and Training in Material Sciences