David
M. Roderick Professor of Technology and Social Change,
Department of History,
Social
and Decision Sciences, and Engineering
and Public Policy.
Technological
and organizational innovation, technology policy,
industrial research and development, university-industry
relationships, regional economic development, history
of science, technology, business, and engineering.
B.S. (Electrical
Engineering), Southern Methodist University, 1972
M.A. (History), University of Delaware, 1975
Ph.D. (History), University of Delaware, 1978.
Carnegie
Mellon, 1991-.
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.
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.
Representative
Publications
D. Hounshell,
"Measuring the Return on Investment in R&D: Voices
from the Past; Visions of the Future," in T. Dunning
(ed.), Assessing the Value of Research in the Chemical
Sciences [provisional title], Board of Chemical
Sciences and Technology, National Research Council,
National Academy Press, Washington, DC., 1998.
D. Hounshell,
"The Medium is the Message, or How Context Matters:
The RAND Corporation Builds an Economics of Innovation,
1946-1962," in T. P. Hughes and A. Hughes (eds.),
Systems, Experts, and Computers, MIT Press
and the Dibner Institute, 2000.
D. Hounshell,
"Assets, Organizations, Strategies, and Traditions:
Organizational Capabilities and Constraints in the
Remaking of Ford Motor Company, 1946-1961," in P.
Temin, N. Lamoreaux and D. Raff (eds.), Creating
Asymmetries by Actions Between Firms, University
of Chicago Press and the National Bureau of Economic
Research, Chicago, 1998. |
