Ames Professor's Research Helps Business Manage Rapid Change

Dr. Melissa Appleyard brings her expertise in helping businesses manage constant change to her new role as one of the first Ames Professors in the Management of Innovation and Technology. The professorship, created by Portland State alumni Gary and Barbara Ames, will enable Dr. Appleyard to continue her research focusing on how knowledge creation and diffusion catalyze economic growth and business longevity in technology-intensive industries. Over the past decade she has concentrated on the global semiconductor industry's ability to achieve perpetual innovation in design, process integration and manufacturing. One of her current research projects explores the unprecedented cooperation across semiconductor firms—including fierce rivals—in the development of next generation lithography systems that pattern silicon wafers on a nanoscale. Through a new grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, she is also investigating the "expertise networks" cultivated by engineers at leading companies.

"The U.S. economy is at a monumental transition point," observes Appleyard, "where the next phase of the electronics revolution will be influenced by new-to-the-world nanotechnologies. At the same time, globalization of both business operations and markets continues at an accelerated rate. This confluence of forces demands engagement between universities and the private sector, and Portland State is perfectly positioned to lead this engagement. In this challenging environment, leadership requires cutting-edge research and educational programs, and generous gifts like those made by the Ames family are essential."

Dr. Appleyard's work has been published in leading academic journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Industrial Relations, and California Management Review, and she has worked with a variety of business organizations on research projects and business cases for MBA and executive courses. A research fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, she most recently served on the faculty of the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.