Kenneth L. Simons researches the dynamics of industrial organization and technological change. His work has probed the causes of industry shakeouts, testing between alternative theories and exploring issues including sources of advantage to surviving firms and the role of technological innovation. He also explores the frequency and nature of disruptive technological change, impacts of new information technologies, energy technology evolution, benchmarking needs for environmentally beneficial technologies, process innovation driving the experience curve's cost reductions, commercialization decisions of independent inventors, and effects of corporate acquisitions on firm productivity. He is Director of the Fashion Innovation Center, a multi-institution effort led by RPI to nurture a New York State sustainable fashion industry. The core focus is to advance natural textile products including bast fibers (notably hemp) and wool, and new-technology sustainable fibers and materials, so that they are manufactured in New York State from raw materials to final fashion products. The FIC innovates sustainable fashion technologies, accelerates sustainable fashion business innovations, engages through meetings and FIC activities, nurtures to spread knowledge and target supply chain gaps, and markets New York State's sustainable fashion industry. Primary collaborators are Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (lead organization), SUNY Morrisville, Hudson Valley Textile Project, Field to Fiber, Made X Hudson, and the Fashion Institute of Technology. He is Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Rensselaer. The School has departments of Economics, Science and Technology Studies, Cognitive Studies, Communication and Media, and Arts, plus a program in Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences. He is pleased to work with so many great faculty and PhD students and to have the chance to help spur research across these essential disciplines. It is a particular pleasure to champion the role of these disciplines in the US's oldest technological university, celebrating its 200th year in 2024. The School has world-class leaders in diverse fields, with artists and composers and filmmakers who don't just write about the crafts but exhibit worldwide—just the PhD students exhibit regularly in prestigious venues like the Venice Biennale and get their films into top festivals; with game designers both explaining games' use and development and making breakthroughs from new boardgames and video games to new medical treatments; with communications experts researching disinformation on the internet and writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction; with cognitive scientists leading in areas from motor control and driving to language models to the psychology of reinforcement learning; with science and technology studies researchers moving ahead community solution methods to lead-poisoned soils, advancing understanding of how the US opioid epidemic is being handled, and exploring social issues from waste handling and mining to the explosion of rap music; and with economists studying US national health care policy, discrimination against LGBTQ persons, fisheries, and patent-versus-secrecy tradeoffs in international trade. Simons has received funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, New York State through Empire State Development, the Economic and Social Research Council, and other organizations. This aid has in part supported his ongoing efforts to develop expansive novel data on industry evolution and technological change. His micro-detailed (some would say "nanoeconomic") analyses of industry and technology dynamics probe evolving firm decision making and industry outcomes, using global patent and innovation data. Simons has organized numerous conferences related to industrial organization and technological change. He has served as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Industrial Organization, editorial board member of the Journal of Technology Marketing, and Chairman of the Network of Industrial Economists. His work is primarily empirical but also includes theoretical industrial organization, simulation, and computational methods.