Workshop on Original Policy Research

By: Diana Hicks, Chair and Professor, School of Public Policy

Title: The Distribution of Research Performance and the Allocation of Resources

Diana Hicks is Professor and Chair of the School of Public Policy, Georgia Tech. Hicks specializes in science and technology policy as well as in innovative use of large databases of patents and papers to address questions of broad interest at the intersection of science and technology. Her recent work has focused on assessing the technological impacts of scientific research and on using visualization to more effectively convey complex research results to the policy making community. She is also examining highly innovative small firms and exploring their survival and technological contributions. She has published extensively on issues at the interface between science and technology, examining quantitative evidence of the evolving character of the research system and its relationship to innovation in the US; establishing that high quality scientific research has a high impact on technology; examining why companies undertake basic research; and being the first to argue that the accepted view of Japanese university-industry links as weak is not entirely accurate. She has also published critiques and reflections on the methodology of bibliometric analysis. Her work has appeared in such journals as: Policy Sciences, Social Studies of Science, Nature, Research Policy, Science and Public Policy, Research Evaluation, Research Technology Management, R&D Management, Scientometrics, Revue Economique Industrielle, Science Technology and Human Values, Industrial and Corporate Change, Japan Journal for Science, Technology and Society.

For almost 10 years Hicks was on the faculty of SPRU, University of Sussex in the U.K. At SPRU she taught graduate level courses in science and technology policy, science studies as it relates to policy, and research methods. She also administered the masters degree.

Her work has been supported by and has informed policy makers on three continents. She was previously the Senior Policy Analyst at CHI Research, Inc. She has conducted quantitative assessments and served as a consultant for the Advanced Technology Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the American Cancer Society, the Council for Chemical Research, the Department of Energy, the heads of the UK Research Councils, the Japanese National Institute for Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation, the Small Business Administration, and The Royal Society in the UK. Prof. Hicks has taught at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and worked at the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP) in Tokyo. She is an honorary fellow of the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, UK and on the Academic Advisory Board for Center for Science, Policy and Outcomes, Washington D.C.

For additional information or a copy of the paper, e-mail: doug.noonan@pubpolicy.gatech.edu.

Refreshments will be served.

All are welcome.