research team - united states

Carlos Martínez-Vela (IPC), Graduate researcher / LIS Conference Director

Carlos Martínez-Vela is the LIS Conference Director. He is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the MIT Industrial Performance Center and a Ph.D. Candidate in Technology, Management and Policy at MIT’s Engineering Systems Division. His interests include science and technology policy, the management of innovation, and the organization and management of higher education. His current research explores how university-industry-government interactions affect the process of knowledge integration, a strategic challenge for a wide variety of industries. His dissertation, empirically grounded on three case studies of industrial upgrading in the machinery, motor sports (NASCAR) and biotechnology industries in Finland and the United States, advances new models for organizing knowledge integration in industry and interdisciplinary research and education in universities.

Martínez-Vela holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (Mexico) and a M.S. in Technology Policy from MIT, where he also has been a Martin Fellow for Sustainability. His professional experience includes higher education and technology policy at the United States – Mexico Foundation for Science in Mexico City and the World Bank in Washington DC, as well as teaching, research, and administrative duties at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, where he was Executive Assistant to the Dean of Science and Humanities. He also has worked throughout Latin America at the Avina Foundation, directly supporting Dr. Stephan Schmidheiny, founder of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.