Panel speaker bios

Erica R.H. Fuchs

Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Professor Fuchs research focuses on the development, commercialization and global manufacturing of emerging technologies, and national policy in that context. She was the founding Faculty Director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative – an initiative across six schools aimed to revolutionize the commercialization and local production of advanced manufactured products. Over the past decade, Dr. Fuchs has played a growing role in national and international meetings on technology policy, including being one of 23 participants in the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology workshop that led to the creation of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, and serving on the expert group that supported the White House in the 2016 Innovation Dialogue between the U.S. and China. In 2012 she was selected a World Economic Forum “Young Scientist” (top 40 under 40 globally.) 

David M. Hart

Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where he served as senior associate dean from 2013 to 2015. Prof. Hart served as assistant director for innovation policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from 2011 to 2012, where he helped coordinate the work of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership and contributed to the National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing. He co-chairs the Innovation Policy Forum at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Prof. Hart’s current research focuses on clean energy innovation policy. He co-authored Unlocking Energy Innovation (MIT Press, 2012) with Richard K. Lester.  His recent work for ITIF includes “Manufacturing USA at DOE: Supporting Energy Innovation” (with Peter L. Singer, May 2018) and “Making ‘Beyond Lithium’ a Reality: Fostering Innovation in Long-Duration Grid Storage” (November 2018).

Glenda Kruss

Deputy Executive Director of the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators at the Human Sciences Research Council.

Over the past ten years, Dr. Kruss has worked in the field of innovation studies, to understand the role of universities and public research institutes in economic and social development, and the determinants of skills and knowledge flows within sectoral, national and global systems of innovation. Her current research focus is oriented towards more contextually appropriate measures of STI for inclusive and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa. She has collaborated widely on comparative research projects in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe, and has led large scale projects for national government, building alliances and networks between researchers, policy makers and practitioners in South Africa.


Edward Lorenz

Edward Lorenz is Professor of Economics at the University of Côte d’Azur, France, Visiting Professor at the SARChI Industrial Development, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and Associated Professor at the University of Aalborg, Denmark.

Professor Lorenz regularly provides expert advice to the OECD, EUROFOUND and the European Commission and has contributed to numerous expert committees including the Measurement Working Group of the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry at the OECD, the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship, and the expert group invited to discuss the “Future of Europe’s innovation policies” by the DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission. In 2017 he was an invited speaker at the Regional meeting on “Innovations for infrastructure development and sustainable industrialization” organized by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) of the United Nations and he participated in an expert panel on the “Implications of Technology and Innovation for the Future of Manufacturing” organized by UNIDO at the Forum on Science Technology and Innovation held at the UN headquarters in New York. In February 2018 he participated in the Workshop on “Science Technology and Innovation for the SDGs” organised by DESA and ESCAP in Bangkok, Thailand.