Asia Society Northern California brings together a leading group of scholars, scientists and business leaders to explore how far China has advanced in its science and technology capabilities in areas such as AI, quantum computing, semiconductor fabrication, and genomic editing. This program will look at how to aggregate data and policies to better understand China’s scientific accomplishments vis-à-vis the U.S. Hypotheticals, resources, materials, and lunch will be provided to attendees. 

Workshop speakers include:

• Jeff Alstott, Director, Center for Technology and Security Policy; Senior Information Scientist; Professor of Policy Analysis, Pardee RAND Graduate School

• Phil Arvanitis, Practice Director, Clarivate Center for IP and Innovation Research Intelligence Consulting

• Mark Cohen, Senior Tech Fellow, Asia Society Northern California and the Asia Society Policy Institute

• Suzanne Harrison, Principal, Percipience LLC and Chair Patent Public Advisory Committee at USPTO

• Barry Naughton, So Kwan Lok Chair of Chinese International Affairs, School of Global Policy and Strategy, UC San Diego

• Ellie Sakhaee, Manager, AI and Emerging Tech Policy, Google

• Glenn Tiffert, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution

• Caroline Wagner, Faculty, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University

This program is complimentary for Asia Society Northern California & Seattle Board, Advisory Council, Groundbreaker and Innovator Members. Learn how to become a member here. This program is not open to the press. Registration and confirmation of registration is required. 

AGENDA

Date: Tuesday, Feb 4, 2025, 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. PT

• 9:30 a.m.       Event Registration and Networking
• 10:00 a.m.     Workshop Begins (Livestream begins)
• 12:00 p.m.     Lunch is Served
• 1:00 p.m.       Workshop Concludes (Livestream ends)

Location in downtown San Francisco or Zoom link will be emailed to registered attendees 1 week before the event.

Speaker Bios

Jeff Alstott is founding director of RAND's center for Technology and Security Policy (TASP), which performs policy R&D on technology competition and risks. Jeff is also also a senior information scientist and professor of policy analysis at RAND, and an expert at the National Science Foundation, where he runs a program on technology forecasting and improving R&D investment returns. His government service includes time at the White House as Director for Technology and National Security at the National Security Council and Assistant Director for Technology Competition and Risks at the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He previously worked in the Intelligence Community as a program manager at IARPA, with an R&D portfolio that included artificial intelligence, analytic methods, biosecurity, and science and technology forecasting; he helped lead intelligence working groups on AI intelligence collection and analysis, and was part of an award-winning team on technology counterintelligence. He has worked in academia for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Singapore University of Technology and Design, the World Bank, and the University of Chicago. Alstott's published research covers animal behavior, computational neuroscience, complex networks, design science, statistical methods, and science and technology forecasting. He obtained his doctorate studying complex networks at the University of Cambridge, and his MBA and bachelor's degrees from Indiana University.

Phil Arvanitis is the Practice Director for Clarivate’s Intelligence Consulting service, where he advises organizations on innovation, IP strategy, and IP operations transformation. Based in London, he is a key thought leader at the Clarivate Center for IP and Innovation Research, bringing 13 years of experience in intellectual property consulting.

Throughout his career, Phil has led and delivered IP management consulting, IP strategy, and innovation intelligence engagements across various industries and organizations worldwide. Recognized as an industry strategist, he is listed among the Intellectual Asset Magazine World’s Leading IP Strategists for 2023-2025.

Recently, Phil has advised corporations and governments on China's emergence in their core and adjacent fields, helping to distinguish valuable insights from noise. His government work has particularly focused on fostering Academic-Corporate partnerships and leveraging best practices from high-performing economies. Based on his analysis, clients have successfully established formal relationships with suggested partners. 

Phil has also spoken at the Annual Chinese Competitive Intelligence Conference in Yinchuan, China. Phil holds a bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Durham and a master's degree in Management of Intellectual Property from Queen Mary, University of London.

Mark Cohen currently serves as the first Senior Tech Fellow at Asia Society Northern California and the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, DC. Mark was most recently Director of the Asia Intellectual Property and Technology Project at Berkeley Law (2016-2023). He is also a non-resident fellow at several universities and think tanks, including UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, George Mason University Law School and the National Bureau of Asian Research. Prior to joining  Asia Society, Mark had a distinguished career in the U.S. government. He received the “Meritorious Honor Award”, the highest award in the US civil service, from President Donald Trump for his work on technology transfer issues involving China. He established the first office of the US Patent and Trademark Office in China and thereby launched the USPTO IP Attaché program.  He invited China and Korea to join the “IP-5” consisting of the five largest patent, trademark and design offices in the world, and he established Track II IP dialogues under the US Chamber of Commerce with China as well as India. Mark was an exchange student in Chinese at Nanyang University (Singapore). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chinese Studies from SUNY Albany, a Master’s degree in Chinese Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University. He formerly taught at Fordham University in China and Renmin University in Beijing and served as General Counsel to a mid-sized European pharmaceutical company. He has been named an “IP Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal, a “Diplomat of the Year” by PhRMA, and a “Top 300 Global IP Strategist” by Intellectual Asset Management magazine. He has testified frequently before Congress and published widely on IP, antitrust and technology issues.

Suzanne S. Harrison is an author, patent futurist, and economist. She works with companies both large and small to help them utilize their patent data to make more informed decisions and realize the true value of their intellectual property.

She just completed a 3 year term on the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) for the USPTO. She is also the Founder and Principal of Percipience LLC, a board-level advisory group focused on IP and innovation strategy, management, and quantifying and mitigating IP risk.

Since 1995, she has led a group called the ICM Gathering, an invitation-only group of 20 companies that meet regularly to define, create, benchmark and test best practices in IP management. Her books draw on her work with the Gathering, and feature success stories of companies leading the way in innovative IP management.

She is a Founder of The Diversity Pledge, working with 50 global companies in increasing inclusivity in inventorship and innovation.  She is also a co-founder of the non-profit Increasing Inclusivity in Innovation, iDII.

She holds an undergraduate degree in economics from UC Davis, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. She lives in San Francisco, CA, with her husband and two children.

Barry Naughton is the So Kwan Lok Chair of Chinese International Affairs at the School. He is one of the world’s most highly respected economists working on China. He is an authority on the Chinese economy with an emphasis on issues relating to industry, trade, finance and China's transition to a market economy.

Recent research focuses on regional economic growth in China and its relationship to foreign trade and investment. He has addressed economic reform in Chinese cities, trade and trade disputes between China and the United States and economic interactions among China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Naughton has written the authoritative textbook “The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth,” which has now been translated into Chinese. His groundbreaking book “Growing Out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform, 1978-1993” received the Ohira Memorial Prize, and he most recently translated, edited and annotated a collection of articles by the well-known Chinese economist Wu Jinglian. Naughton writes a quarterly analysis of the Chinese economy for China Leadership Monitor. 

Dr. Ellie Sakhaee leads AI policy for research and innovation at Google, driving responsible innovation in advanced AI systems and emerging technologies. Ellie’s background spans academic research, public and corporate policy, and AI R&D. As an ML scientist with a PhD in Computer Engineering, she has led engineering teams on developing AI algorithms, published extensively on AI safety research, co-organized scientific workshops, and led teams in risk assessment and mitigation development for cutting-edge AI systems. 

Glenn Tiffert is a distinguished research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a historian of modern China. He co-chairs Hoover’s program on the US, China, and the World, and also leads Stanford’s participation in the National Science Foundation’s SECURE program, a $67 million effort authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 to enhance the security and integrity of the US research enterprise.

Tiffert collaborates closely with government and civil society partners around the world to document and build resilience against authoritarian interference with democratic institutions. He works extensively on the security and integrity of ecosystems of knowledge, particularly academic, corporate, and government research; science and technology policy; the domestic and international affairs of the People’s Republic of China (PRC); and malign foreign influence. He has authored or contributed to numerous Hoover publications, among them Silicon Triangle: The United States, Taiwan, China, and Global Semiconductor Security (Hoover Press, 2023).

A specialist on the political and legal history of the PRC, Tiffert's academic scholarship includes publications in English and Chinese on the origins of the modern Chinese court system and judiciary, the drafting of the PRC Constitution, and the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to globalize its censorship regime and rewrite its turbulent past. He earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Caroline S. Wagner conducts research in the field of science and technology and its relationship to policy, society and innovation, with a particular focus on international collaboration. She currently serves on the faculty of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, and as an advisor to the Battelle Center for Science and Technology Policy — a research center within the Glenn College. She is on the advisory board of Ohio State University ADVANCE program to increase the participation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers. 

Prior to joining Ohio State’s faculty in 2011, Wagner was a policy analyst working with and for government in a career that spanned more than 30 years and three continents. At The RAND Corporation, she was deputy to the director of the Science & Technology Policy Institute, a research center serving the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Also, with RAND, Wagner served at RAND Europe’s office in Leiden, Netherlands, working for the European Commission. She also worked twice as staff member for the U.S. Congress, once as a Professional Staff Member for the Committee for Science, Space and Technology, and once as an analyst for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. With the U.S. State Department, Wagner was stationed for two years at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, as an economic officer reporting on technological change in Asia. Wagner is a distinguished fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Knowledge creation, dissemination and application are at the core of Wagner’s research. She is particularly interested in collaborative efforts to conduct research, development and innovation. Public policy towards investments in science, technology and new economy are at the center of her work, and this extends to developing countries that seek to use knowledge as the basis for growth. Her 2008 book, “The New Invisible College: Science for Development,” focused on using network concepts to diffuse knowledge and application of new ideas.

Wagner serves as a consultant to the United Nations for the Sustainable Development Goals, and has served as a consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. For the Royal Society of London, Wagner advised and co-wrote the report on “Knowledge, Networks and Nations.” She served on the Millennium Development Goals Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation. She is the editor of the journal Science and Public Policy. In Ohio, she is actively working with Smart Cities and the “Maker Movement” to disseminate ideas for economic growth. 

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