SSTI Digest

The number of doctorates awarded in the U.S. within science and engineering (S&E) fields reached an all-time high in 2005, according to a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) issue brief. After the previous high of 27,273 S&E doctorates awarded in 1998, the number decreased for four years until 2002, and has steadily increased the past three years to the 2005 number of 27,974 Ph.D. graduates.

 

NSF’s Division of Science Resources Statistics reports that several groups, including women and non-U.S. citizens, also received a record number of S&E doctorates in 2005. In fact, from 2001 to 2005, S&E doctorates awarded to non-citizens increased by 25 percent, which accounted for almost all of the recent growth in the number of total doctorates awarded. The issue brief indicates there is little evidence of a decline of non-citizen S&E doctorate attainment since the terrorist attacks in September 2001.

 

One out of four public, venture-backed companies started since 1990 were founded by entrepreneurs who immigrated to the U.S. before starting their company, according to a recent study commissioned by the National Venture Capital Association. Immigrant-founded companies are even more common within high-tech industries, where 40 percent of all new publicly traded firms in the past 16 years have had immigrant founders, including widely-acclaimed IT success stories like Google, Yahoo! and eBay. The aggregate market capitalization of new immigrant-founded tech companies since 1990 exceeds $500 billion.

 

Describing the impact of universities can be a vexing issue for both the higher education and TBED communities. Two recent reports, one by the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education (ARCHE) and the other by the Iowa Board of Regents, utilize different approaches to help communicate the importance of higher education institutions to a local economy.

 

The ARCHE report combines economic development statistics derived from input-output analysis with the personal stories of seven individuals who in some form are heavily influenced by the presence of the 49 degree-granting, accredited higher education institutions located in the Atlanta region. The report emphasizes the economic and social impact that the region’s universities have on hundreds of thousands of individuals and the state of Georgia. Some of the economic impacts of the region’s universities include:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s recently released 2005 educational attainment figures, 27.7 percent of adults age 25 years and older had received a bachelor's degree or higher; this is up from 26.7 percent in 2002. Across the states, the District of Columbia had the highest percentage of people 25 years and older with at least a bachelor’s degree (47 percent), followed by Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey.

 

SSTI has prepared a table presenting the 2002 and 2005 educational attainment percentages and rankings for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. When comparing the 2002 and 2005 reports, Idaho showed the largest percent increase in college graduates (23.9 percent) as well as a significant gain in rank, moving up 20 positions to 26th in 2005. Other states rounding off the top five for rank increases over the four-year period are: North Carolina (nine positions), Oklahoma (eight positions), Alaska (seven positions) and Hawaii (seven positions).

Complete descriptions of the position openings described below are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.



Griffin Analytical Technologies, LLC, a producer of premium chemical detection systems, is seeking a research specialist. Griffin serves U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security applications, environmental health and safety monitoring, and research and teaching laboratories. The research specialist will assist the science team with R&D efforts related to Griffin's products and will be responsible for exploring new applications for Griffin's technology. A Master of Science degree is preferred; however, a Bachelor of Science degree accompanied by five or more years of experience will be considered. Applicants also should have two or more years of applicable experience in mass spectrometer operation and development.

The U.S. has stimulated export-led growth around the world while continuing to attract the largest share of foreign direct investment, according to a new Council on Competitiveness report, Competitiveness Index: Where America Stands. The total stock of foreign direct investment in the U.S. is now $1.6 trillion, about twice that of the next largest recipient and more than six times as much as China. Between 1986 and 2004, the U.S. received more annual flows of foreign direct investment than any other country in the world.



However, this expansion has been funded primarily through rapidly increasing foreign debt, coupled with high consumption and a return to federal budget deficits, the report cautions. Such imbalances should raise warning flags for the future of American competitiveness and global economic stability, which the study discusses in depth.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson recently announced a series of budget requests for the 2007 legislature intended to increase access to public universities and to support research and investment in emerging technologies. Together, the requests call for more than $120 million in state investment in higher education quality and affordability, supercomputing and stem cell research, and new energy initiatives.



Higher Education

Much of this funding would provide scholarships for students through the state's College Affordability Fund. The fund was created last year to support traditional and nontraditional college students, with up to $1,000 per semester in need-based funding. Gov. Richardson recommends the state invest $50 million, on top of the initial $49 million invested last year, to expand the program. The governor also is proposing a state tax credit equal to 25 percent of the federal Hope and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits to assist with tuition and fees.

The Economic Development Board of Bahrain and Kuwait Finance House have begun planning a $1 billion (US) Science and Technology Park in Bahrain. The park will be modeled on the Sophia Antipolis Technology Park in France, which is the largest of its kind in Europe and the second-largest technology park in the world, according to the European Commission’s PAXIS innovation program. The Kuwait Finance House has appointed Philippe Mariani, former director of the French park to oversee the new project.

 

Bahrain Science and Technology Park has already announced several partnerships with Middle Eastern and European universities to attract research in clean technology, renewable energy, environmental technology, IT, and communications. The two million square meter campus will host small, medium and large companies in these and other emerging industries.

 

Since the creation of its Centers of Excellence (COE) program 20 years ago, the state of Utah has invested in aggregate $49.4 million, resulting in the development of 185 spin-off companies throughout the years, according to a recent review of the COE program, authored by the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah.



The COE program, established by the state legislature in 1986 with an initial budget of $3.4 million.  provides funds to university-based research centers that are chosen on the basis of technical merit, the potential for job creation, and a secured level of matching funds from private and federal sources. Each center annually receives $100,000 to $200,000. Currently, there are 66 spin-off companies created from these centers which are still active, employing between 1,500 and 1,800 people.

The Michigan Innovation Equipment Depot has distributed its first round of life science research equipment to start-ups around the state. The Depot program, developed by Pfizer, Ann Arbor SPARK, MichBio and Michigan's SmartZones, redistributes previously used life science laboratory equipment to new Michigan companies. More than $655,000 and 131 items were awarded in the inaugural round to 18 applicants. The value of this equipment ranged from $25 to $125,000 -- an average of $4,404 per item.



The program is designed to accelerate life science commercialization by reducing the overhead equipment costs of new startups. In order to participate, companies must apply through their local SmartZone representatives and demonstrate a critical need for the equipment, as well as a positive economic impact for the state.

The National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science have announced a five-year, $30 million award to the Open Science Grid Consortium. The Grid is a computing environment used to share and analyze massive sets of data by harnessing the processing power for distributed computing resources from of than 50 international sites. Fifteen institutions, including 11 U.S. universities and four federal laboratories, participate in the Consortium, which will use the federal funds to make the Grid's computing power available to scientists and researchers across the country.



Since 2005, when the Grid came online, the system has had a significant impact in bioinformatics, computer science, nanotechnology, nuclear science and particle physics. The Grid has proved particularly beneficial to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which is home to the project's lead investigators. The Wisconsin team has leveraged an additional $1.2 million in federal dollars to administer the program and has made the system's computing power easily available to local scientists.

USDA Rural Development recently awarded 103 Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grants to provide improved educational and medical services to rural residents in 38 states. The DLT grants, totaling more than $25.8 million, are designed to connect communities to medical services and educational opportunities they would not otherwise have, according to Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr.



Of the 103 DLT grants awarded, 57 will provide enhanced medical services and 46 will fund projects to improve access to educational opportunities. The DLT program was created to bring electronic educational resources to rural schools and improve health care delivery in rural America. Since its inception, the DLT program has funded 534 projects in 44 states and four U.S. territories totaling $171 million. The recipients of the 103 DLT grants can be found at http://www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/index.htm