Norman M. Naimark was born in New York and was educated at Stanford University, where he received his B.A.(1966), M.A.(1968), and Ph.D. (1972) degrees. For fifteen years, he was Professor of History at Boston University and Fellow of the Russian Research Center at Harvard.
Naimark presently holds the Robert and Florence McDonnell Chair in East European History at Stanford University. He is also Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution and of the Institute of International Studies, where he was Convener of the “European Forum.” He has served as Director of Stanford’s Center for Russian and East European Studies (1989-95), Chair of its History Department (1995-1998), member of the Faculty Senate and its Steering Committee (2001-4), and Director of Stanford’s interdisciplinary programs in International Relations and International Policy Studies. He presently serves as the Burke Family Director of the Bing Overseas Studies Program.