Science, Environment and Development Group

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Thursday, 4 December 2003
R&D Systems for High Tech Commercial Innovations - Internal and External Knowledge Sources
Lewis Branscomb, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Corporate Management, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and former Vice President and Chief Scientist of IBM
11:45 am - 2:00 pm, Perkins Room (E-415), 4th Floor, Eliot Building, KSG (Map)
Lunch will be served

Biography:

Lewis M. Branscomb is the Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Corporate Management, Emeritus Director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program and a member of the Board of Directors of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. His AB in physics is from Duke University in 1945, summa cum laude, and PhD degree in physics by Harvard University in 1949, after which he was Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. A research physicist at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) from 1951 to 1969, he was Director of NBS from 1969 to 1972. He is an elected member of all three Academies: the National Academy of Science, National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. In 1972 Branscomb was named Vice President and Chief Scientist of IBM, and a member of the Corporate Management Board, serving to his retirement in 1986. He served as chairman of the National Science Board from 1980 to 1984. He is a former director of Mobil Corporation and General Foods Corporation and serves on the Board of Lord Corporation. He is an emeritus Trustee of Vanderbilt University, member of the C.S. Draper Laboratory Corporation, and emeritus Trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is a former Overseer of Harvard University. He has served five presidents in various advisory positions. His current research is on early-stage high-tech innovation, on innovation policy in China, on business development in the field of information technology, on the role of science and technology in countering terrorism, and in a new policy paradigm for federal support of basic research.

Branscomb's awards include the National Science Board’s Vannevar Bush Award (2001); Rockefeller Public Service Award (1957-58); Gold Medal for Exceptional Service, U.S. Department of Commerce (1961); Arthur Bueche Prize, National Academy of Engineering (1987); Okawa Prize in Communications and Informatics (1999). His recent books include: Making the Nation Safer: The Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism (with Rick Klausner as co-chair, NRC committee on S&T for Countering Terrorism; National Academies Press, 2002); Taking Technical Risks: How Innovators, Executives, and Investors Manage High-Tech Risks (with Philip Auerswald; MIT Press, 2001); "Industrializing Knowledge: University-Industry Linkages in Japan and the United States" (with Fumio Kodama and Richard Florida; MIT Press, 1999); and Investing in Innovation: Creating a Research and Innovation Policy that Works (with James Keller; MIT Press, 1998).

Presentation slides:

Branscomb, Lewis. "R&D Systems for High Tech Commercial Innovations - Internal and External Knowledge Sources." Presentation slides from Knowledge for Development Seminar, 4 December 2003, Center for International Development, Harvard University.

Background documents:

Auerswald, Philip E., Lewis M. Branscomb, Nicholas Demos, and Brian K. Min. 2003. "Understanding Private-Sector Decision Making for Early-Stage Technology Development." Report to the Advanced Technology Program, National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce, 5 March.

McGroddy, James C. 2001. "Raising Mice in the Elephant's Cage." Pp. 83-91 in Taking Technical Risks: How Innovators, Executives, and Investors Manage High-Tech Risks, edited by Lewis M. Branscomb and Philip E. Auerswald. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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