Edward Barth is a Senior Industry Fellow with the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, America’s first “Tech Tank” working at the intersection of advanced technology and diplomacy. As an Industry Fellow, he provides insights into technological issues of importance to American and allied foreign policy and the ways in which technology can be used to advance freedom, security and prosperity. He is also a Strategic Business Development Executive within IBM Research. In this role he is creating innovation-based partnerships between IBM and industry, government and academia in areas such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors and nanotech, cloud and edge computing, and quantum computing. Dr. Barth also sits on the Hudson Institute’s Hamilton Commission on Securing America’s National Security Innovation Base.  

Dr. Barth is trained as a metallurgist and materials scientist with degrees from Columbia University and the University of Texas and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University.  His doctoral dissertation and surrounding research dealt with the structural properties of advance compounds, alloys and composite materials to reduce dependence on foreign-sourced components of nickel-based superalloys in aerospace and similar strategic applications. His career in semiconductors, nanotechnology and other high-tech fields spans more than 25 years.  He holds six US patents and has published over twenty-five peer reviewed scientific articles.    

Tech Diplomacy is so critical for our time as it sits at the crossroads of emerging technologies, secure and trustworthy international trade, resiliency of enterprises and their supply chains, and the way that the US can promote free and democratic principles around the world. The Krach Institute brings together resources and expertise to make sense out of these complex and intertwined issues.