David Hart has made it his business to understand how public policy influences scientific knowledge and technological innovation. By setting developments in science and technology in their broader social, political, and economic context, he provides insights to practitioners, scholars, and students about how to manage change for the greater benefit of society.

Dr. Hart taught for a decade at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University before taking up his present position as a tenured professor in George Mason University’s School of Public Policy. He is an award-winning teacher, offering general courses on policy-making and political strategy as well as specialized courses dealing with technological innovation, governance, and the global knowledge economy. Hart’s students have gone on to influential positions in government, academia, industry, and the non-profit sector.

Dr. Hart’s research focuses on how private and public actors craft policies together. He is currently working on major projects in the areas of high-skill migration, energy technology, and entrepreneurship.  His work reaches the policy community as well as scholars, appearing in such venues in Nature, Issues in Science and Technology, and the Congressional Quarterly Press. Hart’s expertise is frequently drawn upon by journalists; he has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Science, National Journal, and The Boston Globe, among others. He has worked with an array of public and private organizations in the U.S. and abroad, including the U.S. National Research Council, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, and the U.K. Treasury Department.

Dr. Hart regularly organizes programs and panels, and has directed several major conferences. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Political Science Association, the Business History Conference, the Midwest Political Science Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society for the History of Technology.

• Business and Politics
• Entrepreneurship
• Global Governance
• International Migration
• Lobbying and Representation
• Science and Technology Policy
• U.S. Policy History, especially Business, Economic and Political History
• U.S. Public Policy Process

Book Sections
Hart, D. M. “Political Theory of the Firm.” Forthcoming in David Coen and Graham Wilson, eds. Oxford Handbook of Business and Government (Oxford University Press).

Hart, D. M., and Tian, F. “Talent for a Knowledge- Based and Innovation-Oriented Economy: Hong Kong’s Challenges and Opportunities.” Forthcoming in Douglas B. Fuller, ed., Choosing to Lose: The Failures of Hong Kong’s Laissez-faire Innovation Policy.

Hart, D. M. “The Social Context for High-Potential Entrepreneurship in the U.S.: An Historical-Institutional Perspective.” Forthcoming in Alan Bird, ed., Entrepreneurship in Japan, China, and the U.S. (McGill University Press).

Hart, D. M. “Brain Gain.” Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy (Princeton University Press, 2008).

Hart, D. M. “U.S. Politics, Economy, and Technology.” Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Technology (Blackwell, 2007).

Hart, D. M. “Political Economy of Science and Technology.” In Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics. Macmillan, 2005.

Journal Articles
Hart, D. M. “Accounting for Change in National Systems of Innovation.” Research Policy 38:647-654 (2009).

Hart, D. M. “The Politics of ‘Entrepreneurial’ Economic Development Policy in the U.S. States.” Review of Policy Research 25, no. 2 (2008): 149-168.

Hart, D. "Red, White, and 'Big Blue': I.B.M. and the Business-Government Interface in the U.S., 1956-2000." Enterprise and Society 8(1) (2006): 1-34.

Hart, D. "Understanding Immigration in a National Systems of Innovation Framework." Science and Public Policy 34(1) (2006): 45-53.

Hart, D. "From Brain Drain to Mutual Gain: New Opportunities to Share the Benefits of High-Skill Migration." Issues in Science and Technology (2006): 53-62.

Hart, D. "Managing the Global Talent Pool: Sovereignty, Treaty, and Intergovernmental Networks." Technology in Society 28(4) (2006): 421-434.

Hart, D. M. “The Political Development of William C. Norris and Control Data Corporation, 1957-1886.” Enterprise & Society 6 (2005): 197-223.

Selected Working Papers and Work in Progress
“Don’t Worry About the Government? The LEED-NC ‘Green Building’ Rating System and Energy Efficiency in U.S. Commercial Buildings.” MIT Industrial Performance Center Energy Innovation Project Working Paper no. 1. March, 2009.

“Governing the Global Knowledge Economy.” Presented at Atlanta Conference on Science and Technology Policy, October, 2007; IDEFF Lisbon Conference, June, 2008.

“High-Technology Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the U.S.” Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration, June, 2009.

“Solar Power in New Jersey.” MIT Industrial Performance Center Working Paper Series, July 2009.

Presentations and Proceedings
Hart, D. M. “International Mobility of Human Resources.” Presented to the OECD, Paris, 2008.

Hart, D. M. “Global High-Skill Labor Markets.” Presented at the Sloan Industry Studies Conference, Boston, MA, 2008.

Hart, D. M. “Governing the Global Knowledge Economy.” Presented at the IDEFF Lisbon Conference, 2008.