NIOSI, Jorge 1945-

PERSONAL: Born December 8, 1945, in Buenos Aires, Argentina; son of Salvador (in business) and Emilia (Farina) Niosi; married Graciela Ducatenzeiler (a university professor), November, 1971; children: Marianne, Laurence. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: National University of Buenos Aires, license in sociology, 1967; Institut d'Études du Developpement Economique et Social, Paris, France, certificate in advanced studies in economics, 1970; École Pratique, Paris, Ph.D., 1973.

ADDRESSES: Home—4052 Marlowe, Montreal, Quebec H4A 3M2, Canada. Office—Inter-University Research on Science and Technology, University of Quebec—Montreal, P.O. Box 6192, Downtown Station, Montreal, Quebec H3C 4R2, Canada; fax: 514-987-3343. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Quebec—Montreal, associate professor, 1970-74, aggregate professor, 1974-81, professor of sociology, 1981—, professor of administrative science, 1989—, director of Center for Research on the Development of Industry and Technology, 1986—. Statistics Canada, researcher, 1987-90.

MEMBER: International Sociological Association, International Management of Technology Association, European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, Royal Society of Canada (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS: John Porter Award, Canadian Sociological Association, 1983, for Canadian Capitalism; Fulbright fellow, 1995-96.

WRITINGS:

Los Empresarios y el estado Argentino (title means "Business and the Argentine State"), Siglo XXI, 1974.

The Economy of Canada, Black Rose Books (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1978.

Canadian Capitalism, Lorimer (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1981.

Canadian Multinationals, Garamond (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1985.

The Decline of the American Economy, Black Rose Books (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1988.

La Montee de l'ingenierie canadienne, Presses de l'Université de Montréal (Montréal, Québec, Canada), 1990.

Technology and National Competitiveness, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1991.

Flexible Innovation, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1995.

(Coeditor) The Economic and Social Dynamics of Biotechnology, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Norwell, MA), 2000.

Canada's National System of Innovation, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2000.

Also coauthor of Biotechnologie et industrie au Québec, Transcontinental (Montréal, Québec, Canada).

WORK IN PROGRESS: A book on Canada's regional system of innovation; research on Canadian technology transfer abroad.

SIDELIGHTS: Reflecting on his career, Jorge Niosi noted: "I started working on Canada with the idea of comparing it to Argentina. Both countries were similarly rich and successful fifty years ago. Why did Argentina fail when Canada succeeded? The comparison, however, never materialized.

"In Canada, I discovered that Canadian-owned large firms were much stronger and numerous than generally believed, that many of them were multinational corporations, and that their industrial base was much healthier than most of the literature had previously stated. The relative decline of American industry is not strongly affecting Canada's manufacturing industry, which is mostly based on energy-and resource-intensive strongholds like pulp and paper, metal refining, and petrochemicals.

"In 1982 I started studying Canadian innovation and technology. This is, and will remain, my main field of study. My main motivation for writing is pure curiosity."