Arthur Daemmrich

Professor of Practice,

School for the Future of Innovation in Society

ASU Washington Center 1800 I Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006
Mail code: 6002

Campus: Tempe
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Long Bio

Arthur Daemmrich is director of the Arizona State University Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO) and a Professor of Practice in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. Located in the nation’s capital, CSPO develops and shares methods for real-time technology assessment, responsible innovation, and community consultation on emerging technology, biomedicine and scientific knowledge. Members of the consortium collaborate to rethink and rework the role of science and technology in society.

Daemmrich has published international comparative research on pharmaceutical innovation and regulation, chemical risk, healthcare systems, invention and governance of sports technology, and is currently researching the history of US technology policy. He was director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation from 2015 through 2022 and previously held faculty appointments at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and Harvard Business School. Daemmrich is a graduate of Cornell University (PhD) and the University of Pennsylvania (BA).

Education

Ph.D., 2002. Cornell University, Department of Science & Technology Studies

B.A., 1991. University of Pennsylvania, Department of History & Sociology of Science; dual-degree in Germanic Languages and Literatures

Curriculum Vitae

Images

Recording the online MOOC, "What is Innovation?"

Video

Research Website URL

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthurdaemmrich/

Google Scholar URL

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cU5D__YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

ORCID Profile ID

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5798-5494

Research Interests

Pharmaceutical innovation and regulation
Risk management and the chemical sciences and industries
Technology & Science Policy

Publications

My research uses qualitative (often historical) and comparative social science methods to explore how science and technology interface with regulation and policy at the national and international levels. Below, I have grouped a selection of my published work into broad categories; my CV has a more complete listing.

Regulation and Innovation in the pharmaceutical sciences and industries

Daemmrich, A. (2017) Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in America: A Brief History, Pharmacy in History 59, 63-72.

Daemmrich, A., & Mohanty, A. (2014) Healthcare reform in the United States and China: Pharmaceutical market implications. Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice, 7(1), 1-13.

Daemmrich, A. (2013) US Healthcare reform and the pharmaceutical market: Projections from institutional history. Pharmaceuticals Policy and Law, 15(3-4), 137-162.

Daemmrich, A. (2013) The political economy of healthcare reform in China: negotiating public and private. SpringerPlus, 2(1), 1-13.

Daemmrich, A. (2009) Synthesis by microbes or chemists? Pharmaceutical research and manufacturing in the antibiotic era. History and technology, 25(3), 237-256.

Daemmrich, A. (2004) Pharmacopolitics: Drug regulation in the United States and Germany. University of North Carolina Press.

Daemmrich, A. (2003) Invisible monuments and the costs of pharmaceutical regulation: twenty-five years of drug lag debate. Pharmacy in History, 45(1), 3-17

Daemmrich, A. (2002) A tale of two experts: thalidomide and political engagement in the United States and West Germany. Social History of Medicine, 15(1), 137-158.

Risk and Regulation of the chemical sciences and industries

Daemmrich, A. (2015) Anticipatory Markets: Technical Standards as a Governance Tool in the Development of Biodegradable Plastics, in: S. Borrás and J. Edler (eds.) The Governance of Socio-Technical Systems: Explaining Change. Edward Elgar, 49-69.

Daemmrich, A. (2008) Risk Frameworks and Biomonitoring: Distributed Regulation of Synthetic Chemicals in Humans. Environmental History, 13(4), 684-694.

Technology and Science Policy

Daemmrich, A. (2021) Inventor-Entrepreneurs: Patents and Patent Licensing in the Early Republic. Technology & Innovation, 22(1), 55-63.

Daemmrich, A. (2021) Recognizing Artificial Intelligence Systems as Inventors. Lemelson Center Blog (18 November). https://invention.si.edu/recognizing-artificial-intelligence-systems-inventors

Daemmrich, A. (2020) Inventing and Reinventing Stadiums. Lemelson Center Blog (23 June). https://invention.si.edu/inventing-and-reinventing-stadiums

Daemmrich, A. (2019) Technology and Employment: Pin making and the first industrial revolution’s long tail. Medium (25 March). http://bit.ly/2ULCuw8

Daemmrich, A. (2017) Invention, Innovations Systems, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Technology and Innovation 18(4), 257-265. https://doi.org/10.21300/18.4.2017.257

Daemmrich, A. (2012). Epistemic Contests and Legitimacy of the World Trade Organization: The Brazil-USA Cotton Dispute and Incremental Balancing of Global Interests. Trade Law & Development, 4, 200-240.

Daemmrich, A., Gray, N. R., & Shaper, L. (2006) Reflections from the frontiers, explorations for the future: Gordon Research Conferences, 1931-2006. Chemical Heritage Foundation.

Research Activity

History of the Science and Technology Policy Profession: A Discipline in the Making?

This project studies the emergence of science and technology policy as a field, explores why it has not become a more tightly organized discipline, and evaluates what needs to change to increase diversity and inclusion while also clarifying professional pathways and expanding training programs. We will analyze the development of science and technology policy as separate but closely connected interdisciplinary fields over the past seventy years, create new data sets on training programs and career trajectories for science and technology policy professionals, map key institutional changes that shaped the field(s) since WWII, and explore tradeoffs associated with becoming a more organized discipline.

Risk and Resistance: Dilemmas in the Testing, Use, and Marketing of new Antibiotics

The increasing risk of antibiotic resistant infections is intertwined with regulatory policy and prescribing patterns for these important medicines. Even as we invest resources to develop new antibiotics to expand treatment choices, increased use contributes to resistance. This project studies the development of the regulatory standard for “non-inferiority,” which sets statistical margins on efficacy when running clinical trials in which placebo use is unethical or impossible. Looking at developments since the early 1990s, the project explores disputes among clinicians, statisticians, regulators, and industry over non-inferiority. It finds that the regulation of new antibiotics reveals deeper tensions in the regulatory function of biomedical standards. Lessons from this study important not just for future antibiotic drug development, but also for the design of clinical trials and market uptake of antiviral treatments, vaccines, anti-cancer agents, and other areas where traditional placebo use is increasingly challenged.

Explaining Technology Failure: Mismatches between Inventions and Consumers

Failure is a common—perhaps universal—experience for inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs. This project looks historically at case studies of failed technologies as the basis for developing a more systematic categorization and analysis of innovation failure. Early research suggests failure arises from promotion of a technology before its time, mismatches with consumer needs, or misjudgments of cultural or societal fit for a new technology or technological system. Research on failure and a more systematic approach to studying failed technologies will benefit inventors and innovators, while also adding critical perspective to America’s current technology policy.

Courses

2025 Spring

Course Number	Course Title
FIS 494	Special Topics
FIS 494	Special Topics
PIT 598	Special Topics
PIT 598	Special Topics

2023 Fall

Course Number	Course Title
PIT 503	Technology Impact Assessments
PIT 503	Technology Impact Assessments

Presentations

ASU Global Launch / Cintana Network: What is Innovation? (Online 10-hour course created in spring 2023.)

Published case studies and teaching notes, Ivey Business School: https://www.iveypublishing.ca/s/global-search/Daemmrich?c__results_layo…;

Published case studies and teaching notes, Harvard Business School: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/search?N=&Nrpp=25&Ntt=Daemmrich&action=&search…;

Work History

Inspiring STEM Pathways, educational video series with accompanying classroom and at-home learning tools, role: project director, January 2023 - present. https://invention.si.edu/inspiring-stem-pathways.

Picturing Women Inventors, museum exhibition and poster series, role: project manager and curator, June 2020 - Spring 2025, https://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/picturing-women-inventors.

Innovations in Defense: Artificial Intelligence and the Challenge of Cybersecurity, museum exhibition, role: lead curator, April 2017 - September 2017, https://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/innovations-defense.

Expertise Areas

Global Political Economy

Industrial Policy

Trade and Technology

Risk Management

Sociotechnical Systems

Technology and Democratic Systems

Technology Management