ITIF Names David Hart Senior Fellow; GMU Tech Policy Professor to Focus on Clean Energy Innovation Policies

WASHINGTON—The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a leading science and tech policy think tank, today announced that David M. Hart has been appointed as senior fellow. Hart, a professor and the director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, will focus on clean energy innovation, including policies that would expand and accelerate research, development, and deployment of highly efficient, low-carbon energy systems.

“Tackling climate change is fundamentally an innovation challenge,” said Hart. “Until we have low-carbon energy systems that will meet our power, transportation, and industrial needs affordably and reliably, we will not be able to meet our targets and head off the worst effects of climate change. We are not there yet, but the opportunities are immense. I am excited to work with ITIF to develop ideas and policies that push for a major transformation of the global energy ecosystem.”

Hart has served as a member of ITIF’s board since the organization’s founding in 2006, and his new role as a senior fellow marks an expansion of his long-time affiliation with the think tank. In addition to his academic career at MIT, Harvard, and George Mason, Hart served from 2011 to 2012 as assistant director for innovation policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he focused on advanced manufacturing issues. He also served as senior associate dean of the George Mason School of Public Policy during the 2014 and 2015 academic years. He currently cochairs the Innovation Policy Forum at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and is a nonresident senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.

“David’s many years of experience working on these issues will be a tremendous asset to ITIF as we continue developing policies to spur clean energy innovation, research, and investment,” said Robert D. Atkinson, ITIF founder and president. “He brings both issue expertise and time as a policymaker—meaning he understands what it takes to make policy solutions work in practice.”

Hart will moderate the discussion at ITIF’s October 27th event, “Mission Innovation One Year After Paris: The Present and Future of Federal Clean Energy RD&D.”