William Mass is an associate professor in the Regional Economic and Social Development Department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Professor Mass, trained in economics and public health, conducts interdisciplinary research on transitions in economic leadership among firms and industries and studies public policies that influence the impacts of economic development on regions, human health and the environment.

His core research concentrates on case studies of the social determinants and impacts of technology transfer, development and diffusion within and across the U.S., Europe and Asia. His current industrial development research concentrates on case studies of the pace and pattern of the formation of new high technology firms in the U.S., particularly in the telecommunication and software sectors. His work also includes studies of the history of occupational health regulation and the current technology, business, and public policies that promote renewable energy generation and utilization.

Professor Mass has published a series of case studies that describe transitions in technology leadership, using the example of textile machinery producers in the U.S., Britain, Japan, and China over the past century. He is currently researching Sulzer Textil, a Swiss-Italian firm. His research has won both the Newcomen Essay Prize for the best article in Business and Economic History (1997) and a Newcomen Article Prize for a case study of industrial research in the United States in Business History Review (1990). He was the 1992-93 Newcomen Fellow at the Harvard Business School, a research faculty position. He was elected member of the Board of Trustees of the Business History Conference 1998-2001. He currently serves on the editorial board of Journal of Industrial History.

Professor Mass has provided leadership in establishing and supporting Massachusetts business assistance and performance recognition programs. He was chair of the Steering Committee and principal investigator securing the grant that established the Merrimack Valley Manufacturing Partnership (MVMP), one of the five regional industrial modernization programs within Massachusetts, and served on the MVMP Board of Directors, 1994-1999. He has served on the Board of Directors (1996-2004), Executive Committee (1998-2004), and currently on the Advisory Board of MassExcellence, which administers the state Performance Excellence award program.

Professor Mass has been at the University of Massachusetts Lowell since 1989. He previously taught in the economics departments at the University of Massachusetts Boston (Lecturer, 1982-84), University of Connecticut at Hartford (Assistant Professor, 1986-1989), Tufts University (Visiting Professor, 1989-90), and as a visiting lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health (1987-92). He was a National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health (1984-85). In 1994-1995 he was interim dean of graduate programs, College of Management, at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.