Luciano Kay is a research professional with more than eight years of experience in policy research and analysis on issues related with economic development, science and technology (S&T,) and innovation. Luciano holds a Ph.D. degree in Public Policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology (2011).

Luciano currently works as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also a Research Associate with The Georgia Tech Program in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP), at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests are technological innovation, innovation policy, and new forms of scientific and technical work organization. 

Luciano has studied on the investigation of diverse policy issues related with economic development, S&T, and innovation, with recent emphasis on nanotechnology corporate research and commercialization in the U.S. and globally. Other recent research includes the assessment of the U.S. Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (NSEC) program and the investigation of knowledge acquisition and dissemination flows in the Malaysian economy. More information about these and other projects is available here.

Luciano’s doctoral dissertation, entitled “How do prizes induce innovation? Learning from the Google Lunar X Prize,” and subsequent research have investigated the means by which prizes induce innovation, the motivations, R&D activities and technological outputs produced by prize entrants, and the influence of the context in prize developments. His research on prizes has been funded by competitive grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation and The IBM Center for the Business of Government.

Luciano continues his research on innovation prizes and maintains the website Prize Research to disseminate research outputs and provide more information about his work on innovation prizes.

Luciano also held, between 2006 and 2007, a Graduate Research Assistant position with the Research Value Mapping Program (RVM) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In the context of this program, he investigated university-industry relationships involving small and medium enterprises.

In 2009, Luciano received the William H. Read Award for Outstanding Public Policy Student 2008-2009 at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Luciano has presented at conferences in the U.S. and abroad and published scholarly articles in top tier peer-review journals (e.g. R&D Management, Journal of Technology Transfer) and other professional publications.

Between 1998 and 2006, Luciano held different positions in the private and academic sectors in Argentina, and worked as an independent consultant to small companies and NGOs. In 2002, he also started and led his own business to develop hosted content management solutions.

Luciano also holds a Licentiate degree in Organizational Administration from Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, 2002) and a Mechanical-Electrical Technician degree from Escuela Industrial Superior (1995).