Zack Kertcher is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. Combining the intellectual traditions of science and technology studies with organizational theory, his work explores new avenues in the innovation process. Zack’s specific interest is the entrepreneurial process of transferring innovation to diverse user communities beyond those initially intended.

He is the co-Principal Investigator of an international collaborative project that is funded by the European Commission to study innovation dynamics in 19 organizational networks across the US and Europe. Zack is the recipient of various awards, including the Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Fellowship.

A native of Israel, Zack obtained his undergraduate degree from Tel Aviv University and an M.A. with Honors from the Committee of International Relations at the University of Chicago. Before his academic career, he worked for Coca Cola, Digital Equipments and Compaq, where he consulted and ran projects for clients in diverse industries. His last position, before joining the University of Chicago, was to serve as the chief information security advisor for the Israeli Police and to design a national information technology infrastructure. During his graduate studies he consulted for the National Opinion Research Center on a number of projects concerning innovation and social networks.