La distinción fue realizada por el Prof. Richard Nelson, -quien forma parte del Directorio Científico de la red-, en honor al aporte den nuestro académico en el campo de la innovación y desarrollo.

En la novena edición de la Conferencia Internacional Globelics, la principal red sobre el estudio de la problemática de la innovación en los países de menor desarrollo relativo, realizada en Buenos Aires - Argentina, se realizó un homenaje a la labor y participación de nuestro académico Prof. Jorge Katz quien con sus aportes en la investigación en el marco de la innovación y desarrollo, han dado pauta para la labor que realizan organizaciones como Globelics.

En la ocasión el Prof. Richard Nelson de Columbia University y parte del directorio de Globelics, destacó el trabajo que el Prof. Katz ha realizado a lo largo de su labor profesional, mencionando su dedicación por formar una comunidad de estudiosos del desarrollo, particularmente en América Latina, pero también más ampliamente, que entiende que la promoción y orientación de su investigación y las políticas en consecuencia. "El trabajo del prof. Katz sirvió de base para Globelics", mencionó en su discurso el académico de la red.

A continuación transcribimos el discurso original del Prof. Nelson homenajeando a nuestro académico:

"Over the last decade one of my most enjoyable and instructive occasions each year has been provided by the meetings of Globelics. I am an economist by original training, and so is Jorge Katz, and many of the others here. One of the great things about Globelics meetings is that they provide me with some assurance that not all of my brothers and sisters in economics are stuck in an intellectual structure that at best is mostly useless for analyzing the important economic phenomena and problems that one sees around us, and often is worse than useless in that the policy perspective it engenders can be positively harmful.

Standard economics provides a particularly inappropriate frame for studying economic development, both because of what it neglects, and because of the policy positions it advocates. The standard formulation just does not recognize that economic development involves in an essential way learning, capabilities building, and innovation. And the policy perspective it engenders is focused almost exclusively on a narrow view of how to get the relevant markets up and running right, and is blind to fact that modern economies involve much more than simply firms and markets.

For many young economists (and other scholars) interested in development, the Globelics meetings provide both a haven from the main line, and a wonderful occasion for fruitful intellectual interaction with others of a like mind. The challenge for Globelics is to preserve this role.

I am sure Jorge Katz agrees with me in all of this. Indeed, Jorge was present at the beginning, or maybe even before the beginning. I remember first meeting Jorge about 40 years ago. At that time he already was arguing that economic development had to be understood as a process involving learning, capabilities building, and innovation. He already was engaged in trying to build a community of development scholars, particularly in Latin America but also more widely, that understood that and oriented their research and policy advocacy accordingly. It was hard sledding. I know that often he despaired of ever getting a sizeable group of his fellow economists to understand what to him was clear as day, at least after you did a little bit of empirical research on what was going on in industrial development. I am sure that for Jorge, the emergence of Globelics has been a relief and a joy, albeit one that took a long long time in coming.

For us at Globelics, it is important to recognize that our basic conceptions, while clearly right headed, are not new and novel ones. Jorge, and a few other scholars like Sanjaya Lall, were there a long time before Globelics was formed. Indeed, Jorge"s work, and the work of a few kindred souls, provided the basis for Globelics. While it took a long time for a Globelics to finally form, today we build on the foundations Jorge laid down many years ago. Please join me in giving thanks to him".