SSTI Digest

Donald Siegel has accepted a position as professor of entrepreneurship and associate dean with the University of California at Riverside's A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management.

[Editor’s Note: The following discussion regarding the research’s relevance to state and regional TBED policy is SSTI’s. It will not be found in the working paper, nor do we mean to suggest these conclusions were drawn by professors Zucker and Darby.] Like moths to a flame, tech firms over the past 24 years appear to have migrated toward star scientists and engineers, according to a new working paper from Lynne Zucker and Michael Darby. The latest findings by the two UCLA professors suggests the mere presence of star researchers is sufficient power to attract technology businesses to certain regions of the country – regardless of the discoveries made by these scientific superstars or their field of research. Movement of Star Scientists and Engineers and High-tech Firm Entry traced the careers of 1,838 stars between 1981-2004 (stars are defined based on patents and citations in the leading citation indices) to reveal the apparent extraordinary magnetism of the world’s top scientists and engineers as far as economic development is concerned. This would appear to be good news for…

As competition for leadership in stem cell research heats up across the nation, legal battles and the introduction of new legislation are becoming commonplace among many states. Following is a round-up of recent news on stem cell research legalities and legislation in several states. Legal Challenges in California, Illinois Last Friday, an Alameda County, Calif., Superior Court judge ruled the Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, or Proposition 71, to be constitutional in its entirety. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) decided to move forward with its first round of grants earlier this month, despite the legal challenges. CIRM announced 16 awards totaling $12.1 million to train the next generation of stem cell researchers using funding from the sale of $14 million in bond anticipation notes. According to a New York Times article, the challenge tied up the $3 billion in bonds approved by voters in 2004 (see the June 7, 2004 issue of the Digest), and officials instead sold $14 million in bond anticipation notes…

For the 12th consecutive year, the University of California tops all universities for the most patents for inventions, according to a list recently released by the U.S Patent and Trademark Office. The preliminary list reveals the top 13 U.S. universities receiving the most utility patents during calendar year 2005. All campuses are included in each school's total. While the University of California's 390 patents in 2005 earned it top honors again, the figure reflects an 8 percent decline from the institution's 424 total in 2004 and 11 percent less than 2003. The California Institute of Technology experienced an even greater drop in patent activity between 2004 and 2005, slipping 25 percent to third overall with 101 patents. Massachusetts Institute of Technology moved into second with 136, a 3 percent increase over 2004. [Editor's Note: The 2005 figures for U.C. and CalTech are the lowest for both schools since before 2001 (earliest year available), generating some interesting questions regarding possible causes (dot-com bubble, depth of the recession…

Regardless of their potentially arbitrary nature, the political lines separating jurisdictions can wreak havoc on a region's ability to support innovation. Whether it's a boundary between two communities, two states or two countries, these imaginary lines define real rules of commerce (e.g. by the taxes levied, property values, etc.) as well as intangible concerns and perceptions. In many places, intercommunity rivalries seem to almost spill over from the high school football fields and incapacitate the ability to achieve real change throughout a region. The spillovers of significant economic development investments often pay little attention to political boundaries. The ritual of states chasing large automotive plants is demonstrative. The latest example is provided by Kia with Georgia shelling out $160,000 per job (one-third of which are expected to go to Alabama residents because the plant will be located within five miles of the border.) Both states were competing for the plant; some analysts argue Alabama won since it ponied up nothing to get up to 800 jobs. A collaborative approach between the two…

Krisztina Holly was named executive director of the University of Southern California's Mark and Mary Stevens Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization.

To survive economically in an innovation-based economy, Fresno needs to foster the creativity of its people and attract others into the population, says a recent report from the Fresno Creative Economy Council. While encouraging creativity to spur innovation and economic growth has captured the attention of cities and regions across the continent, how to accomplish that goal is less clear for many. Civic leaders for the central California community of 460,000 believe they have charted an achievable course. The report to Mayor Alan Autry and the Fresno City Council looks at four spheres of change for transforming Fresno into a community that will retain, attract, develop, and support knowledge workers. These include mindset, smart growth, urban living, and quality of place. Within each sphere are strategic goals alongside several recommendations to be implemented by city leaders. Fresno either will become a part of the creative economy or will exist to provide cheap services to cities and regions that are thriving in the creative economy, the report states. Regions that merely provide services…

One of the biggest obstacles for products drawing on alternative energy is finding a market big enough to bring the cost down of their new technologies to attract the larger more risk-adverse population of consumers. Californians are stepping up to the challenge after committing to invest nearly $3 billion over the next 10 years to aid in the shift to cleaner power. The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is investing $2.9 billion in solar energy to help bring down the cost of electricity for consumers. The PUC approved the California Solar Initiative earlier this month by a vote of 3 to 1, reports the Los Angeles Times. The 10-year program is designed to help the state move toward a cleaner energy future through reliance on solar energy. According to PUC, the goal is increase the amount of installed solar capacity on rooftops in the state by 3,000 megawatts by 2017. The initiative includes an additional amount of up to 5 percent of the annual budget for potential research, development and demonstration activities with an emphasis on solar and solar-related technologies. Additional…

The University of California (UC) is demonstrating success in several key areas under a compact designed to facilitate timely graduation. Findings of the first annual report reveal the university is achieving success in degree production in high priority areas for the state, effective community college transfer, and transfer of research innovations to the marketplace, according to the UC press office. The university submitted its report last month in accordance to a compact made with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in May 2004. Under the compact, UC is to "continue its efforts to achieve improved student and institutional outcomes and place a high priority on providing needed classes so that students are able to graduate in four years or less." The report identifies performance measures during the academic year 2004-05. Some of the key findings include: One-third of bachelor's and master's degrees and nearly 60 percent of all doctoral degrees were awarded in mathematics, science and engineering. At the doctoral level, degrees awarded in these fields have grown 15 percent over the past four…

In the Dec. 19, 2005 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest, an editor's note highlighted the mega-investments several states are making to establish themselves as significant players in key research areas. New York's commitment to nanotechnology research in the Albany region, already in the hundreds of millions of dollars with the 2002 recruitment of Sematech North, was one of the examples mentioned. Also in the nanotechnology area, we could have included California's $100 million investment toward the $350 million initial cost to launch the California Nanosystems Institute at UCLA in 2001. The balance of the funding was secured through federal and industrial sources. In addition to the direct economic benefits received by injecting so much public money into a specific field in a concentrated geographic region, states like New York and California are banking on their seed dollars attracting additional industrial and federal funding, as well as creating spillover effects through company expansions, relocations to the area and new company creation. The Dec. 8…

On paper, the Jan. 4 FedEx Rose Bowl, which pits the Universities of Texas and Southern California against each other, will decide college football's national champion. On the same playing field therein will be teams from two states trying to tackle something of a slightly different nature - the need for a talented, educated and diverse workforce to support regional economies built on high-paying jobs. Los Angeles Receives Plan for Building Tech Talent, Businesses The City of Los Angeles must do more to bridge the gap between its high-tech, research-oriented assets and its low-skilled immigrant workforce if its economy is to grow into the global powerhouse city leaders envision, one recent study finds. The Los Angeles Economy Project states that the city remains polarized between high-end and low-end jobs and suffers from a labor force that is disproportionately unskilled. Two of the three sectors that defined the Los Angeles economy just two decades ago - manufacturing and financial services - have significantly declined, the report points out. In addition, the city’…

Kevin Holmes returned to his alma mater, Santa Clara University, to join the Leavey School of Business as executive director of its Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).