Meet the Author.
Strategist. Speaker. Expert.

Kathryn Ibata-Arens, PhD is an expert on innovation and entrepreneurship in Asia, science and technology policy, women’s economic empowerment, and inclusive innovation. Ibata-Arens’ recent research explores technology leadership, innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem development in biomedical industries in Asia. Her 2021 book Pandemic Medicine: Why the Global Innovation System is Broken and How We Can Fix It analyzes international competition in new drug discovery and access to essential medicines. Her 2019 book, Beyond Technonationalism: Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Asia (Stanford University Press) analyzes national policy and firm level strategy in China, India, Japan, and Singapore. From 2012 to 2013 she served on the METI-State Department Japan-US Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council, serves on the Board of Directors of the Japan-America Society of Chicago, and as a member of the U.S.-Japan Council (USJC). Ibata-Arens served as a Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP) Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Scholar in its first cohort (2011-2012). In 2012, Ibata-Arens was a visiting researcher at the Research Center for Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI, Tokyo), Ritsumeikan University Research Center for Innovation Management (Kyoto) (2011-2012), and as a Fulbright Fellow at Kyoto University (2010). 

In 2008 Ibata-Arens was a Japan Policy Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. In 2005 and 2006 she was a Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership Abe Research Fellow in the Faculty of Commerce, Doshisha University, Kyoto. Her dissertation research was conducted at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) at the University of Tokyo as a Fulbright Doctoral Fellow. Ibata-Arens’ previous book, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Japan: Politics, Organizations and High Technology Firms (Cambridge University Press, 2005) analyzes leading high technology firms and regional economies in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. 

She received a BA in international relations from Loyola University Chicago and a PhD in political economy from Northwestern University.