Dr. Ates is a professor with a particular interest in innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and socio-technical transformation. Dr. Ates obtained graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Vienna University of Economics and a Ph.D. degree (Doktor der Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften) from the Vienna University of Technology in 2011. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 2016-2017 and National Taiwan University (2020). Along with teaching and research activities, he has been involved in international research projects of  UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization), EU Cost Action, and EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) as an investigator and country expert.