Young innovators and ethnic patenting

Technology Review published its annual “Young Innovators under 35” list. JB Straubel, who designs electric cars for Tesla Motors, ranks at the top, while Aimée Rose was named “Humanitarian of the Year” for her work on developing and commercializing explosives detection devices. Also on the list: Andrew Ng who develops household robots, Hossam Haick who created an electric nose that “sniffs out” cancer, and Michelle Chang who genetically engineers microbes to produce fuel and medical drugs.

Of related interest: Two studies on immigrant patenting. Harvard Business School’s William Kerr study “The Agglomeration of US Ethnic Inventors” (PDF) found a substantial increase in Indian and Chinese inventors. Between 1975 and 2004, the share of Chinese inventors rose from 2% to 8%, and the share of Indian inventors increased from 2% to 4%. The study also revealed that ethnic patenting is concentrated in major metropolitan areas such as San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Between 1995 and 2004 the share of patents by ethnic inventors in these cities was 19%, 10% and 8%, respectively.

And, “How Much Does Immigration Boost Innovation?” by Jennifer Hunt and Marjolaine Gauthier-Loiselle shows “that immigrants patent at double the native rate, and that this is entirely accounted for by their disproportionately holding degrees in science and engineering. These data imply that a one percentage point rise in the share of immigrant college graduates in the population increases patents per capita by 6%.”