James R. Chiles began writing about technology and history while a student at the University of Texas Law School. His first piece was a 1979
Texas Monthly article on the Pantex nuclear weapons assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas. He began writing features for
Smithsonian in 1983, and since that time has published features and cover stories there and in
Audubon, Air & Space, Harvard magazine, and
American Heritage of Invention & Technology. He lives in Minnesota.
