Denis Simon is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and Senior Lecturer in the Asian Pacific Studies Institute at Duke University. He is a recognized expert on international science and technology affairs.  He has more than four decades of experience studying innovation, S&T policy, and talent in China. Most recently, he served as director of corporate partnerships at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Kenan–Flagler Business School. He also has served as professor of practice for China business and technology at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Executive Vice Chancellor of Duke Kunshan University in China (2015–20). He was a founding member of the Experts Group of the U.S.–China Innovation Dialogue organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and China’s Ministry of Science & Technology (2008–17).  In addition, he served as a special adviser on several cross–border innovation projects, including at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office regarding intellectual property rights issues in China. He also has served as senior adviser on China and global affairs at several U.S. universities. From 2023–24 he served as a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences regarding its study on global talent and U.S. interests, including China’s evolving role.  From 1995–2000 he was general manager of Andersen Consulting in Beijing (now Accenture) and was founding president of Monitor Group China (2001–02). He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and his B.A. from the State University of New York.  

In 2006 he received the China National Friendship Award from then-Premier Wen Jiabao in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.  He also is a founding organizer and a principal coordinator of the U.S.–China Dialogue on Higher Education.