Currently, he is directing a portfolio of activities centered around “Government-Industry Partnerships for the Development of New Technologies ” and initiating work on “Measuring and Sustaining the New Economy.” The Partnerships program constitutes one of the first program-based efforts to assess U.S. policy on government-industry partnerships. Recent publications include Conflict and Cooperation in National Competition for High Technology Industry, Policy Issues in Aerospace Offsets, International Friction and Cooperation in High-Technology Development and Trade, Trends and Challenges in Aerospace Offsets, New Vistas in Transatlantic Science and Technology Cooperation, Industry-Laboratory Partnerships: A Review of the Sandia Science and Technology Park Initiative, The Advanced Technology Program: Challenges and Opportunities, and The Small Business Innovation Research Program: Challenges and Opportunities. Dr. Wessner holds degrees in International Affairs from Lafayette College (Phi Beta Kappa) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy where he obtained an M.A., an M.A.L.D., and a Ph.D. as a Shell Fellow.

A member of the faculty of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, since 1979, Robert Wilson holds the Mike Hogg Professorship of Urban Policy. He teaches local and state economic development policy, technology policy, applied econometrics, public policy in Brazil, and local governance in developing countries. He was Assistant Dean at the LBJ School from 1980 through 1983 and served as the Coordinator of the Ph.D. Program in Public Policy from 1991 through 1994. Dr. Wilson has served as the Director of the Urban Issues Program, a university-wide program based in the Office of the Provost, since 1995, and Director of the Brazil Center since 2000. His most recent books include States and the Economy: Policymaking and Decentralization, and Public Policy and Community: Activism and Governance in Texas. Before coming to UT, Wilson taught urban planning at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil. During the spring of 1999, Wilson held the International Philips Chair at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During the summer of 2000, Wilson held the Fulbright/FLAD Chair in Knowledge Management and Policy at the Institute Tecnico Superior in Lisbon. He served as Fulbright Fellow in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and as a United States Information Agency Lecturer in Brazil and Argentina and has served as a consultant to the United Nations Development Program, Organization of American States, National Research Council, Urban Institute, Texas Legislative Education Board, and Texas Historical Commission. He holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.