Rainer Kattel

Rainer Kattel (born 20 March 1974) is an Estonian academic and science administrator; he is an expert on innovation and economics. He is Professor and Chair of Innovation Policy and Technology Governance at Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) and currently, for the academic year 2015-16, Visiting Professor at Columbia University's Earth Institute.

Kattel was born in Tartu, Estonia, and attended the University of Tartu and, for several years, the University of Marburg, Germany, on a DAAD scholarship. He obtained a BA in a specially-designed major, Political Philosophy, an MA in Classics, and a Ph.D. in Public Administration (as the BA under the supervision of Wolfgang Drechsler), all with the highest distinction, "summa cum laude" or equivalent. After some research positions at the University of Tartu, he was elected, in 2002, aged 28, to a full professorship and chair in Public Management and European Studies at TUT's Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance (as it is now called), which he subsequently headed for ten years, 2004-2014. In 2007, he was elected "Faculty Member of the Year".