Master of Public Management (MPM) Info Session

Kira Matus received her PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University in 2009. Her primary research focus is at the intersection of innovation, sustainability science, and public policy, focusing on sustainable production-consumption systems. A large portion of her research is on how policy interacts with the development and implementation of "green" technologies in supply chains, especially those that include the production and/or use of chemicals. She looks at how policy can incentivize innovation- but also at how innovation can feed-back into policy, and when new technologies allow for, and sometimes even demand, new approaches to policy on the part of public, private and civil society actors. This includes areas such as certification and voluntary regulatory tools, as examples of some of the different approaches being used to effectively regulate emerging technologies. She also has a longstanding interest in the use of scientific expertise in the policy process, which has led to work on the controversies surrounding efforts to control bovine Tb with the culling badgers in the UK and possums in the NZ. Previous to joining HKUST, Prof. Matus was a Senior Lecturer in Innovation and Sustinability and Deputy Head of Department at UCL STEaPP, and Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Management at the LSE. She was also a Ruffalo Sustainability Fellow in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University, where she was project co-director of "Innovation and Access to Technologies for Sustainable Development."

Donald Low is Director of HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Senior Lecturer and Professor of Practice at the HKUST Institute for Public Policy, as well as Director of Leadership and Public Policy Executive Education (LAPP) at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is an accomplished consultant and lecturer in economics and behavioural economics, decision-making and risk analysis, inequality and social policy, complexity in public policy, organisational behaviour, and the politics and governance of Singapore.

Masaru YARIME is Associate Professor at the Division of Public Policy in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He also has appointments as Honorary Reader at the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) in University College London, Visiting Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP) in the University of Tokyo, and Visiting Scholar at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Research Institute. He has been awarded Abe Fellowship 2014 by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) of the United States.
His research interests center around science, technology, and innovation policy for energy, environment, and sustainability. For the past years he has been engaged in research and educational activities from interdisciplinary perspectives, with an intention to understand the complex interface between engineering and social sciences and the dynamic interactions between technology and institutions in creating sustainability innovation. He is particularly interested in exploring the structure, functions, and evolution of innovation systems involving stakeholders in various sectors, with a focus on smart cities. He has many experiences of cooperation and collaboration with academia, industry, government, and civil society in Asia, Europe, and North America.