Elena Titova - Introduction

I am a second-year Master’s student in Administration and Public Policy. I am doing my degree at Center for Economic Investigation and Teaching in Mexico City. I am originally from Russia, but moved to live in Mexico in the year 2013. I made my Bachelor’s degree in International Relations which I completed in Moscow. Currently I am studying in CMU as an exchange student from Mexico.

This year I am working on my Master’s thesis paper which is required for graduation at my school. The topic of the thesis is the public policy of science, technology and innovation in Mexico. The particular focus of the paper is on the biotechnology industry.  I am studying the networks in biotechnology that include Mexican scientists, public and private research centers, universities and tech start-ups and I try to answer the question: how does the governmental policy affect the creation of such networks and subsequent productivity of the country in biotechnological innovations. I believe that the class on Innovation Policy at CMU will help me develop new insights and provide me with useful tools for my research.

In summer I made an internship in the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology. I was particularly involved in the area responsible for the policy on biological security of the country. The primary focus of the department where I worked is on genetically modified organisms, and one of the objectives of the department was to boost national investigation and research related to this type of technology. I would like to expand the scope of my knowledge beyond this narrow area to a broader context of the life sciences, not only on Mexico, but in the whole world. I would be happy to apply my knowledge on these issues for policy-making in Russia.