Keynote address:

The World Schumpeter Made: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and the New Economy

David A. Hounshell
Professor, Social and Decision Sciences, and Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Trained in both engineering and history, Professor Hounshell studies innovation at the intersection of science, technology, and industry. His work includes extensive studies of industrial research and development, the development of manufacturing technology in the United States, and the role of independent inventors and entrepreneurs in the development of technology.

He has recently served on a panel of the National Research Council that evaluated the effects of government research funding on the development of computer science and technology. He directs a NSF-funded graduate research and training program on understanding the role of the Cold War in shaping the content and nature of science and technology. For his research excellence, he was awarded the 2007 Leonardo da Vinci award by the Society for the History of Technology.

Hounshell is the author of the award-winning books, From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States, and (with John Kenly Smith, Jr.) Science and Corporate Strategy: Du Pont: Du Pont R&D, 1902-1980. He is currently working on a sequel to the first book and also a history of the RAND Corporation from its creation to the end of the Cold War.