Wise was a physics professor at
Auburn University and
Oregon State University before becoming a history professor at UCLA and then, from 1991 to 2000, at Princeton, before returning to UCLA, where he remained until his retirement. He famously attacked
Gross and Levitt's book in which they perceive the obstruction of science by the academic left. In 2004/5 he taught at
Utrecht University and also spent much of his time at the
Max Planck Institute in
Berlin. He is the recipient of the Berthold Leibinger
Berlin Prize and was a Fellow at the
American Academy in Berlin for Spring 2012. ==References==