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Erica R.H. Fuchs

Kavčić-Moura Professor, Engineering and Public Policy

Bio

• Carnegie Mellon 2007-

Erica R.H. Fuchs is a Kavčić-Moura Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Ò»±¾µÀÎÞÂë, and by courtesy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. She is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dr. Fuchs’ research focuses on the development, commercialization and global manufacturing of emerging technologies, and national policy in that context.

Dr. Fuchs is passionate about building nationally the intellectual foundations, data, and analytic tools to inform National Technology Strategy across government missions. Toward realizing this vision, Dr. Fuchs catalyzed and was Director of the one-year $4M pilot funded by NSF’s Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Office, and involving academic thought-leaders from more than 13 Tier I research universities across the country, which culminated in the report . She also founded Carnegie Mellon’s  – an initiative spanning Carnegie Mellon’s schools of engineering, computer science, and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. Dr. Fuchs was previously founding Faculty Director of Ò»±¾µÀÎÞÂë’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative – an initiative across six schools aimed to revolutionize the commercialization and local production of advanced manufactured products, which today is an endowed institute.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Fuchs has played a growing role in national and international dialogues on technology policy, particularly as it relates to advanced manufactured products, trade, innovation, and labor outcomes. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Semiconductor Technology Center and has been appointed by President Biden to the White House Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Dr. Fuchs has also served on a variety of academic visiting committees and advisory boards, including currently serving on M.I.T. Corporation’s Visiting Committee for M.I.T.’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, of which M.I.T.’s Technology Policy Program is a part; and on the Advisory Editorial Board for Research Policy. Dr Fuchs’ work has been published among other places in Science, the Nature journals, Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, and Management Science. She has testified in Congressional hearings in both the House and Senate and had her work covered by National Public Radio, Bloomberg, and the New York Times. Dr. Fuchs completed her Ph.D. in Engineering Systems (2006), her Masters in Technology Policy (2003), and her Bachelors in Materials Science and Engineering (1999), all from M.I.T.  She spent 1999-2000 as a fellow at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Beijing, China. Dr. Fuchs grew up and attended K-12 in the Reading Public School District in Reading, PA.

Education

• Ph.D. (Engineering Systems), 2006, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• S.M. (Technology Policy), 2003, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• S.B. (Materials Science and Engineering), 1999, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Publications

Global Manufacturing and the Technical Frontier

Cheng, A., Fuchs, E., Karplus, V., Michalek, J. Electric vehicle battery chemistry affects supply chain disruption vulnerabilities. 2024. Accepted. Nature Communications.

Cotterman, T., Combemale, C., Whitefoot, K, Fuchs, E. The transition to electrified vehicles: Evaluating the labor demand of manufacturing conventional versus battery electric vehicle powertrains. 2024. Accepted. Energy Policy.

Reolfi, R., Fuchs, E., and Karplus, V.. Anticipating the impacts of light-duty vehicle electrification on the U.S. automotive service workforce. Environmental Research Letters. Volume 18. Number 3. DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/acbb93

Combemale, C., Whitefoot, K., Fuchs, E. 2021. Not all Technologies are Equal: How the Separability of Tasks Mediates the Effect of Technological Change on Skill Demand. Industrial and Corporate Change. Accepted. . Industry Studies Best Paper Award. Freeman & Nelson Award.

Fuchs, E., Combemale, C., Orr, A., Whitefoot, K. 2019. The Weighty Manufacturing Sector: Challenges Transforming from Raw Materials to Physical Products in the Innovation Economy.  Beyond 140 Characters: The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth. Edited Volume. Eds Scott Stern, Aaron Chatterji, and Josh Lerner. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/chapters/c14373

Yang, C., Nugent, R., and Fuchs, E. 2016. Gains from Other’s Losses: Technology Trajectories and the Global Division of Firms. Research Policy. 54(3): 724-745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2015.12.005

Fuchs, E. 2014. Global Manufacturing and the Future of Technology. Science. 345(6196): 519-520. 

Fuchs, E., Field, F., Roth, R., and Kirchain, R. 2011. Plastic Cars in China? The Signifiance of Production Location over Markets for Technology Competitiveness in the United States versus the People’s Republic of China.  International Journal of Production Economics. 132(2011): 79-92.

Fuchs, E., and Kirchain, R. 2010. Design for Location?: The Impact of Manufacturing Off-Shore on Technology Competitiveness in the Optoelectronics Industry. Management Science, 56(12): 2323-2349.

Veloso, Francisco and Fuchs, E. 2002. The Future of the Asian Auto Industry: Regional Integration, Alternative Designs, and Chinese Leadership. International Journal of Vehicle Design. 35(1): 111-136.

Manufacturing Variety
(See also papers on additive manufacturing in Role of Government and Accelerating Commercialization)

Laureijs, R., Fuchs, E. Whitefoot, K. 2019. Is More Less: Benefits and Costs of High Variety Production in Non-Assembled Production Environments. ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. doi:10.111.5/1.4041943

Engelman, C., Epple, D., Argote, L., and Fuchs, E. 2016. Learning by Doing in a Multi-Product Manufacturing Environment: Product Variety, Customizations, and Overlapping Product Generations. NBER Working paper No 19674. Management Science. 63(2):405-423. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2352

Role of Government at the Technical Frontier

Hoffman, E. Karplus, V., and Fuchs, E. 2024. Complete and Accurate? The Role of Profit Orientation in the Production of Public Health Data. Accepted. Business & Society.

Kalathil, N., Morgan, G., Fuchs, E. 2023. Short-term economic dynamism as a policy tool to address supply shortages during crises. Industrial and Corporate Change.  

Amaral, A., Mendoca, J., Morgan, G., Fuchs, E. 2023.: Regulation of ventilators and new market entrants in Portugal and Spain, Research Policy. Vol. 53 No. 104715.

Bonnin-Roca, J., Vaishnav, P., Mendoca, J., Morgan, G., Fuchs, E. 2020. Technology Forgiveness: Why emerging Technologies differ in their resilience to institutional stability. Technology Forecasting and Social Change. Accepted.  

Helveston, J., Karplus, V., Wang, Y., and Fuchs, E. 2019. Institutional Complementarities: The (Unlikely) Origins of Experimentation in China’s Plus-In Electric Vehicle Industry. Research Policy. Vol 48. Issue 1. February 2019, 206-222  Industry Studies Association Best Paper Award.

Azoulay, P, Goldstein, A., Kearney, M., Fuchs, E. 2018. Funding Breakthrough Research: Promises and Challenges of the “ARPA Model.” National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Innovation Policy and the Economy Series. Editors Scott Stern and Josh Lerner. MIT Press. Volume 19.

Khan, H., Hounshell, D. and Fuchs, E. 2018. Science Policy for the End of Moore’s Law. Nature Electronics. Vol. 1. January 2018, 14-21.  (Accepted Nov 15, 2017)

Bonnin-Roca, J., Vaishnav, P., Mendoca, J., Morgan, G., Fuchs, E. 2017. When Risks Cannot be Seen: Fostering the (safe) introduction of Metal Additive Manufacturing in Commercial Aviation. Research Policy. vol. 46, issue 7, 1215-1233

Ventura, S., Nugent, R., and Fuchs, E. 2015.  Seeing the Non-Stars: (Some) Sources of Bias in Past Disambiguation Approaches and a New Public Tools Leveraging Labeled Records. Research Policy. Special Issue on Data. 44(9): 1672-1701. (Disambiguation challenges in the United States Patent and Trademark Office Database) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2014.12.010

Helveston, J.,  Liu, Y., Feit, E., Fuchs, E., Klampfl, E., and Michalek, J. 2015.  Will subsidies drive electric vehicle adoption in China and the U.S.? Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 73: March 2015 pp. 96-112. 

Woolley, A. and Fuchs, E. 2011. Collective Intelligence in the Organization of Science, Invited Paper. Special Issue on New Directions in Organization Science. Organization Science. 22(5): 1359-1367.

Fuchs, E. 2010. Rethinking the Role of the State in Technology Development: DARPA and the Case for Embedded Network Governance, Lead article. Research Policy, 39(2010): 1133-1147.

Accelerating Commercialization at the Technical Frontier
(see also Design for Location and Plastic Cars in China under Global Manufacturing)

Funk, P., Vaishnav, P., White, B., Davis, A., Fuchs, E. 2020. Individual inconsistency and aggregate rationality: Overcoming inconsistencies in expert judgment at the technical frontier.  Technology Forecasting and Social Change. 155: 119984

Bonnin-Roca, J., Vaishnav, P., Mendoca, J., Fuchs, E. 2019. Technology cost drivers for a potential transition to decentralized manufacturing. Additive Manufacturing.

Sakti, A., Azevedo, I., Fuchs, E., Michalek, J., Gallagher, K., and Whitacre, J. 2017. Consistency and robustness of forecasting for emerging technologies: The case of Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Energy Policy. Vol 106, July 2017, p. 415-426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.03.063

Laureijs, R., Bonnin-Roca, J., Prabha Narra, S., Montgomery, C., Beuth, J., Fuchs, E. 2017. Metal Additive Manufacturing: Cost Competitive Beyond Low Volumes. ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering. 139(8), 081010 (May 10, 2017) (9 pages) doi: 10.1115/1.4035420

Sakti, A., Michalek, J., Fuchs, E., and Whitacre, J. 2014. A techno-economic analysis and optimization of Li-ion batteries for personal vehicle electrification. Journal of Power Sources. 273: January 2015 pp. 966-980. 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2016.09.072

Fuchs, E., Kirchain, R., and Liu, S. 2011. The Future of Silicon Photonics – Not So Fast?: Insights from 100G Ethernet LAN Transceivers. Journal of Lightwave Technology. 29(15): 2319-2326.

Fuchs, E., Field, F., Roth, R., and Kirchain, R. 2008. Strategic Materials Selection in the Automotive Body: Economic Opportunities for Polymer Composite Design. Composite Science and Technology. 68(9): 1989-2002.

Fuchs, E., Bruce, E., Ram, R., and Kirchain, R. 2006. Process-Based Cost Modeling of Photonics Manufacture: The Cost-Competitiveness of Monolithic Integration of a 1550nm DFB Laser and an Electro-Absorptive Modulator on an InP Platform. Journal of Lightwave Technology. 24(8): 3175-3186.

Other

Fuchs, E. and Johnsson, P. 2000. Inclusion Characteristics in Bearing Steel and During Ingot Casting. High Temperature Materials and Processes. 19(5): 333-344

WORKING PAPERS

Global Manufacturing and the Technical Frontier

L., Combemale, C., Fuchs, E., Whitefoot, K. 2021. How It’s Made: A General Theory of the Labor Implications of Technological Change  

Manufacturing Variety

Laureijs, R., Syversen, C., Fuchs, E., and Whitefoot, K. Mix and Match: Exploring Person-Product Match Effects in High Variety Manufacturing.

Treado, C. and Fuchs, E. Manufacturing Variety: Scale Economies in a Low-Volume High Mix Environment.

Role of Government in the Technical Frontier

Cheng, A., Fuchs, E., Michalek, J. Power Play: Evaluating the Effect of Inflation Reduction Act Subsidies on Electric Vehicle Battery Technology Choices and Supply Chain Vulnerabilities. Submitted to Nature Energy.

Khan, H., Hounshell, D. and Fuchs, E. 2017. Scaling Moore’s Wall: A Public Private Partnership in Search of a Technological Revolution. Revise and Resubmit. Research Policy.

Accelerating Commercialization at the Technical Frontier

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Testimonies

Fuchs, Erica R.H., Testimony. Hearing on Building a Resilient Economy: Shoring up Supply. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. March 22, 2022.  |  | 

Fuchs, Erica R.H., Testimony.  Hearing on Building Regional Innovation Economies. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Subcommittee on Research and Technology. June 9, 2021. Written Testimony | Oral Remarks

Fuchs, Erica R.H., Testimony. Hearing on Trade, Manufacturing, and Critical Supply Chains: Lessons from COVID-19. House Ways & Means Committee. Subcommittee on trade. July 23, 2020. Written Testimony | Oral Remarks | 

Fuchs, E., Karplus, V., Kalathil, N., Morgan, G. 2020. Inadequate Data on Manufacturers of Critical Medical Supplies Weakens U.S. Capabilities for Pandemic Response. Testimony. U.S. International Trade Commission. Investigation No. 332-580. COVID-19 Related Goods: The U.S. Industry, Market, Trade, and Supply Chain Challenges. September 23, 2020. Prehearing Brief | Oral Remarks |

Policy Briefs

Berger, A., Khan, H., Schrank, A., Fuchs, E. A new policy toolbox for semiconductor supply chains. Issues in Science and Technology..

Fuchs, E. Building the Analytic Capacity to Support Critical Technology Strategy. Policy Proposal. The Hamilton Project. Brookings Institute. September 2022.  |

Blanton, S.; Fuchs, E. (Corresponding); Hovy, E.; Mai, K. (Corresponding); Pileggi, L.; Zhang, P.  October 21, 2021. Innovation and Chip Redesign to Address Semiconductor Shortages in the Automotive Industry. Ò»±¾µÀÎÞÂë Policy Brief created for the White House National Economic Council.  

Fuchs, E. and Karplus, V. 2021. A New Approach to Coordinate U.S. Critical Supply Chains in Crisis. Policy Brief. Insights derived from: “Lessons from COVID medical supply chains for critical technologies: Real-time situational data infrastructure and adaptive manufacturing ecosystems.” Chatham House Rule Workshop. Ò»±¾µÀÎÞÂë. September 10, 2021. 

Fuchs, E.R.H. What is a National Technology Strategy and Why the U.S. Needs One. Issues in Science and Technology. Next 75 Years of Science Policy Series. September 9, 2021. 

Fuchs, E.R.H. While missions are important, even more important are new institutions that will cut a path across them. Forum. Industrial Policy’s Comeback. Boston Review | MIT Press. September 15, 2021. 

Fuchs, E., Karplus, V., Kalathil, N., Morgan, G. 2020. To respond to the pandemic, the government needs better data on domestic companies that make critical medical supplies.  Issues in Science and Technology. December 18, 2020.  

Fuchs, P., Xue, L., Zheng, P., Gallagher, K., Cowhey, P., Fuchs, E. 2017. Why China Needs Data Sharing to Address It’s Air Quality Challenge. National Science Review. nwx059,

Bonnin-Roca, J., Vaishnav, P., Fuchs, E., and Morgan, G. 2016. Additive Manufacturing: Policy Needed. Nature Materials. 15, 815–818. doi:10.1038/nmat4658

Fuchs, E.  2009. Cloning DARPA Successfully. Issues in Science and Technology. Volume XXVI. Number 1. Fall 2009.

National Academies and other Peer-Reviewed Reports

NNCTA [National Network For Critical Technology Assessment]. 2023. . A report by the National Network for Critical Technology Assessment. Lead E. Fuchs; Editor-at-large & review moderator A. Jaffe. Senior advisor W. Bonvillian. Editor C. Fletcher.

(Committee Member.) 2017. An Assessment of ARPA-E. Science Technology and Economic Policy (STEP) Board. National Academy of Sciences.

(Committee Member.) 2013. Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for Our Nation. Board of Manufacturing and Engineering Design, National Materials Advisory Board, National Academy of Sciences.

Research Interests

Global manufacturing; technology development and commercialization, innovation policy.