In 1969, Herken received a
B.A. from
University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1974, he received a
Ph.D. in modern American diplomatic history from
Princeton University. Herken held teaching positions at
California State University, San Luis Obispo,
Oberlin College,
Yale University, and
California Institute of Technology, and was a
Fulbright-Hays senior research scholar at
Lund University. During 1988–2003 he was a senior historian and curator of military space, as well as chairman of the Department of Space History at the
Smithsonian Institution's
National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C. In 1994–95, he served on the U.S. government's
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. Since 2005, Herken has been a Senior Fellow at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in
Monterey, California. ==Works==