Gary Grossman

Gary M. Grossman, Emeritus Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University (ASU), offers four decades of experience in addressing institutional factors impacting social transformation in both theoretical and applied contexts, involving local, national, and global issues. Utilizing a deeply interdisciplinary perspective, his work seeks to identify the barriers to human progress and identify avenues for inclusive change. His areas of focus include higher education, sustainable development, and democratization in the emerging societies, with a special interest in the Southern European, Eastern Mediterranean, and Middle East regions.
Trained as a political sociologist and experienced in the administration of World Bank, U.S. Government, and privately funded projects, Professor Grossman also led the development of new curricula, academic units, and campuses at Arizona State University and elsewhere around the world. A special focus of his work was the co-founding of a unique transdisciplinary, transnational major in ASU's Master of Science in Technology program. This degree concentration, entitled 'Global Technology and Development' (GTD), features the combined perspectives of social science research and emerging technological models, aimed at providing students an opportunity to explore the critical questions of globalization, commerce, sustainable development, information technology, transportation, education, and biotechnology which impact all nations. The program is designed to empower students to guide and direct those impacts. Classes in the GTD program began in 2001, became a stand-alone Master of Science program in 2012, and transitioned to the School for the Future of Innovation in Society in 2015.
Professor Grossman is internationally recognized for leadership in his areas of interest and has expressed his work in numerous peer-reviewed and public interest publications, policy briefs, and presentations in many forums around the world, as well as in large and small-scale project management. Professor Grossman was awarded two consecutive Fulbright Grants (2002-2004) and spent that period engaged in research and teaching at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. Between 2019 and 2022, he worked as an International Programme Consultant/Visiting Scientist with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) in Rome, Italy. His current research concerns the implementation efficacy of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) globally, with a particular focus in the nations of Central Asia, and the future of the Turkish Republic as it enters its second century.