Dr. Marlise Horvath Schneider successfully defends her PhD

Dr. Marlise Horvath Schneider successfully defended her dissertation entitled “From Rust Belts to Silicon Heartlands: Microchip Futures and Innovation’s Others in New York, Ohio, and Flanders” on December 4^th 2026 at the Technical University of Munich. She was awarded Summa Cum Laude by her committee consisting of her primary supervisor Prof. Dr. Sebastian Pfotenhauer, Prof. Dr. Sheila Jasanoff, and Prof. Dr. Danielle Wood. The defense was chaired by Prof. Dr. Ruth Müller. 

This dissertation discussed the value of innovation for rescuing so-called ‘left behind regions’. Schneider explored how these regions, previously abandoned by traditional manufacturing, are being actively reimagined with the semiconductor industry. Taking one specific policy, Marlise explored how the US CHIPS Act promoted the creation of microchip hubs through innovation policy to uplift left-behind regions, replacing narratives of the Rust Belt with the Silicon Heartland. Through four years of ethnographic fieldwork on three case studies, Marlise observed regional transformation efforts through semiconductor Research and Development and manufacturing  in Upstate New York, Central Ohio, and Flanders. Using a co-productionist approach, she examined how microchip policies produce innovation's others by envisioning homogenized regional futures misaligned with local identities and values. Her ultimate conclusion was that innovation must be more culturally and regionally sensitive to effectively invoke positive regional change. A member of the Innovation, Society and Public Policy Team since 2021, Marlise will continue her work on semiconductor innovation policy and regional transformation as a Postdoctoral Researcher. Alongside this, she is working as a coordinator for TransforM, a TUM Cluster of Excellence, on the Real-Time Response team.