Charles Wessner

Charles Wessner is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, where he teaches global innovation policy while also serving as a senior adviser (non-resident) to the CSIS Renewing American Innovation Program. He is active as a speaker, researcher, and writer with a global lens on innovation policy and has frequently advised technology agencies, universities, and governments on effective innovation policies. He served for two decades as a National Academies scholar, where he founded and directed the National Academy of Sciences' Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program. At the National Academies, Dr. Wessner’s research addressed the importance of semiconductor research and production to innovation and national security.  In collaboration with Gordon Moore and Bill Spencer, his influential reports included Securing the Future: Regional and National Programs to Support the Semiconductor Industry and Innovative Flanders: Innovation Policies for the 21st Century, which reviewed the role of IMEC, the cooperative research center. His most recent publication with Thomas Howell, Regional Renaissance: How New York’s Capital Region Became a Nanotechnology Powerhouse (Springer, 2020), documents how state investments in universities, new institutions, and infrastructure created a vibrant semiconductor cluster creating thousands of jobs and regional growth.  He is also a leading U.S. expert on Sematech, the U.S. semiconductor consortium, and the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which provides awards to promising small businesses and start-ups. Reflecting his commitment to transatlantic cooperation, he was awarded the Order of Merit by the president of France.