Robin Cowan is Professor of the Economics of Technical Change at the  University of Maastricht.  He began his official affiliation with the UNU Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) in 1996 as a Professorial Fellow. He studied at Queen’s University in Canada and at Stanford University where he received a Ph.D. in  economics and an M.A. in philosophy.  Robin Cowan was Assistant Professor of  Economics at the University of Western Ontario until 1998.  His current  research has includes several topics: the changing economics of knowledge;  social networks and innovation; network structure and network performance;  dynamics of consumption and social status; interacting agents models.  In  the past he has done consulting research for the OECD on the economics of  standards, the European Commission on innovation policy, and the National  Renewable Energy Laboratory on technological lock-in and renewable energy  technologies. In 2004 he won one of 15 prestigious Chaires d’Excellence of the Ministry of research and Education in France. Robin Cowan is also an adjunct professor at the Economics Department at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.