Ameritech Research Scholar

Dr. Charles (Chuck) Wessner is recognized as a national and international expert on public private partnerships, early stage financing for new firms, and the special needs and benefits of high technology industry.  He frequently testifies to the U.S. Congress and major national commissions, acts as an advisor to agencies of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government, and frequently lectures at major universities in the U.S and abroad.  He also maintains an extensive international outreach program addressing policy issues of shared international interest with foreign governments, universities, and research institutes.  In this capacity, he serves as an advisor to the OECD Committee on Science and Technology Policy.

Dr. Wessner’s work focuses on the linkages between science-based economic growth, new technology development, university-industry clusters, and small firm finance. He has also addressed policy issues associated with international technology cooperation and investment as well as trade in high technology industries.  For example, Dr. Wessner’s work at the National Academies has included a White House-initiated study on U.S. aerospace competitiveness and a major cooperative review of international competition and cooperation in high-technology industry.  Currently, he directs a portfolio of activities centered on government measures to support the development of new technologies and the policies that may be required to continue the productivity gains characteristic of the New Economy.

Specifically, the Academy leadership has given him responsibility for three high-profile studies.  Work underway includes the first program-based study of Public-Private Partnerships, led by Gordon Moore, Chairman Emeritus of Intel.  The Chairman of the NRC Board on Science, Technology, and Economy Policy, Dale Jorgenson of Harvard University, has charged him with a major research program focused on Measuring and Sustaining the New Economy. The recent review of the Small Business Innovation Research Program at the Department of Defense led the Congress to task him with the study of this $1.2 billion R&D program at five agencies, responsible for 96% of the program’s expenditures. By better understanding this key phase in the U.S. innovation system, this analysis will seek to improve our ability to capitalize on the nation’s substantial R&D investment.

Dr. Wessner frequently lectures and testifies on United States technology policy and its role in the global economy.  Most recently, he briefed Congressmen and their staff on the Academy’s assessment of the Advanced Technology Program and has also testified before national commissions such as the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission and the Presidential Aerospace Offsets Commission.  In cooperation with universities, think tanks, and government ministries, he leads a national and international outreach program of conferences on technology development programs and their assessment, their consequences for the international trading system, and international technology cooperation.  Dr. Wessner also lectures at leading universities in the United States such as Harvard, The College of William & Mary, and Georgetown, as well as foreign universities such as Nottingham, Potsdam, and Helsinki University of Technology.  He was recently appointed Ameritech Research Fellow at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs and is a Special Professor at the University of Nottingham.

Publications under the Partnerships program include New Vistas in Transatlantic Science and Technology Cooperation (1999), Industry Laboratory Partnerships: A Review of the Sandia Science and Technology Park Initiative (1999), The Small Business Innovation Research Program: Challenges and Opportunities (1999), The Advanced Technology Program: Challenges and Opportunities (1999), The Small Business Innovation Research Program: An Assessment of Department of Defense Fast Track Initiative (2000), A Review of the New Initiatives at the NASA Ames Research Center (2001), The Advanced Technology Program: Assessing Outcomes (2001), and Capitalizing on New Needs and New Opportunities: Government-Industry Partnerships in Biotechnology and Information Technologies (2002)s.  Forthcoming reports include Regional and National Programs to Support the Semiconductor Industry and Partnerships for Solid State Lighting.  These reports constitute the first objective, program-based effort to assess U.S. policy on government-industry-university partnerships to develop new technologies.  

Previous research led to a major Academy report on Conflict and Cooperation in National Competition for High-Technology Industry (1996), now in its third printing and translated into German, Korean and Hungarian.  A companion volume to this study is International Friction and Cooperation in High-Technology Development and Trade (1997).  The White House request for a review of the impact of offsets on the U.S. aerospace sector led to two volumes.  The first was an overview of the offsets issue entitled Policy Issues in Aerospace Offsets (1997).  The second was a larger volume entitled Trends and Challenges in Aerospace Offsets (1999), which has become the standard reference on the topic.  It was instrumental in the creation of the Presidential Commission on Aerospace Offsets. He has also published two volumes under the New Economy work:Measuring and Sustaining the New Economy, and Cyclicality and Productivity in Semiconductors: Trends, Implications, and Questions  (2002).