Derrick is interested in the capacity of innovation systems to balance seemingly competing goals and values such as safety, security and technological progress. As a researcher, Derrick has worked on issues involving nano-scale neural interface technologies, federal funding for nano-scale science and engineering, public value mapping of U.S. science and innovation policy. As an undergraduate, Derrick worked as an intern for Professors David Guston and Clark Miller at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society, during which time he co-authored/co-created the Nano-Governance Wiki. From 2006 to 2008, Derrick served as the president of the ASU chapter of The Triple Helix, an international undergraduate student organization that promotes undergraduate scholarship of transdisciplinary science and technology policy issues. Derrick hopes to begin his doctorate after completing his master's degree in May 2010.