Rate My Professor Kathryn Ibata-Arens

Kathryn Ibata-Arens is the Vincent de Paul Professor of Political Science (Political Economy) at DePaul University in the Department of Political Science, with an additional appointment in Global Asian Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. She holds a B.A. with honors in Political Science and International Relations from Loyola University Chicago in 1991 and a Ph.D. in Political Economy, International Relations, and Japan from Northwestern University in 2001. Her dissertation research was conducted at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo as a Fulbright Graduate Research Fellow. Ibata-Arens's research focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship in Asia, science and technology policy, high technology policy, women’s economic empowerment, inclusive innovation, technology leadership, and entrepreneurial ecosystem development in biomedical industries in Asia. She examines national policy and firm-level strategy in China, India, Japan, and Singapore, emerging life science regions in Japan and the United States, biomedical and life science entrepreneurship, and the global innovation system for new drug development.

Major publications include Pandemic Medicine: Why the Global Innovation System Is Broken, and How We Can Fix It (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2021), Beyond Technonationalism: Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Asia (Stanford University Press, 2019), and Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Japan: Politics, Organizations, and High Technology Firms (Cambridge University Press, 2005). She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Vincent de Paul Professorship, Sloan Foundation Industry Studies Grant (2008), Fulbright New Century Scholar at Ritsumeikan University (2009-2010), Mike Mansfield Foundation U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Fellow (2010-2011), SSRC-Japan Foundation Abe Fellow (2005-2006), JSPS Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (2002), and Fulbright Doctoral Fellowships. Ibata-Arens has served as visiting researcher at RIETI (2012), Kyoto University (2010), CSIS Japan Policy Fellow (2008), and on the METI-State Department Japan-US Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council (2012-2013). She serves on the Board of Directors of the Japan-America Society of Chicago and is a member of the U.S.-Japan Council. Her work has appeared in journals such as Journal of Asian Business and Management, Prometheus, and Enterprise & Society, influencing discussions on regional innovation systems and cluster culture.