Don E. Kash

Don E. Kash is professor emeritus in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is also a member of the Faculty of Tsinghua University (the Chinese MIT) located in Beijing.

Before taking his present position, he was George Lynn Cross Research Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma, and was the founding director of the science and public policy program. From 1978-81, he headed the division of the U.S. Geological Survey that regulated an annual $25 billion of energy and mineral activities on federal and Indian lands and the Outer Continental Shelf.

Kash’s research has focused on the interaction of technology, public policy, and society. He has coauthored a new book that will be published in both English and Chinese editions entitled: The Complexity Challenge: Technological Innovation for the 21st Century. The book investigates the fundamental rethinking required by the transition from an industrial to a synthetic production system. Key to success in the contemporary period is the capacity of organizational systems to evolve with changing technologies. Complex organizational systems now have the capacity to repeatedly produce what has never existed before and to do it in spite of the fact that the process of creation is beyond the capacity of any individual to understand.

Kash is presently working on a comparative study of complex systems that includes cases in the Peoples Republic of China, Japan, India, Germany, France, and the United States. Within the last year, Kash has lectured at 11 universities in Japan, the Peoples Republic of China, the Netherlands, U.K., and Ireland, plus the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Japanese National Institute for Science and Technology Policy.

Kash has been a member of the Assembly of Engineering of the National Research Council (NRC) and has chaired or been a member of 15 NRC boards or committees. He served on 13 Congressional Office of Technology Assessment committees and has chaired the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Public Policy Section of the American Political Science Association.

Kash is the author or coauthor of eight other books. He is the author of numerous articles published in journals ranging from Science to Research Policy.

Areas of Research

• Technology Policy
• Technological Innovation