SSTI Digest

Dennis Cheek is vice president of education with the Kauffman Foundation.

Dr. Donald Daniel is the new CEO of the University of Tennessee Space Institute.

William Harris is the new president and CEO of Science Foundation Arizona, a recently formed nonprofit organization.

Matt Kramer stepped down from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) to become vice president of sales and marketing with a Plymouth health care provider. Kramer served three years with DEED.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute named Nag Patibandla as director of the Center for Future Energy Systems, a New York State Center for Advanced Technology.

The State of Maryland has created a new Small Business Programs unit as part of the Governor's Office of Business Advocacy and Small Business Assistance.

Team NEO appointed Thomas Waltermire as CEO of the organization, a private sector-led economic development organization that helps to grow companies in Northeast Ohio.

Janice Whitehouse was named president of CyberMichigan, an institute within the nonprofit Altarum.

The University of Texas at El Paso hired Tony Woo as the assistant vice provost for research and technology transfer.

The first four installments of SSTI's look at how tech-based economic development (TBED) will play in the 2006 legislative priorities of the governors can be found in the Digest archives at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digest.htm Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, State-of-the-State Address, Mar. 27, 2006 "I also propose a $31 million investment to retain higher education faculty. ... We can plug the brain drain of displaced professors taking higher-paying jobs elsewhere.  Any loss of educators will be followed by a brain drain of students. ... "... Education feeds into workforce training. Preparing our citizens for good jobs is another important step on the ladder out of poverty. It is also a key step on our road to recovery. Training a quality workforce influences economic development by attracting new businesses and industries to the state. ... This is why I ask you to support a $15 million investment to expand and retrain our workforce. ... We can partner our businesses and industries with our colleges and training programs." Minnesota …

Numbers Remain Below 2003 Levels Graduate applications from international students increased 11 percent from 2005 to 2006, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) recently reported. This growth follows a two-year cumulative decline of 32 percent. There has been considerable concern since 9/11, the dot-com crash and the flourishing of globalization that the U.S. was losing its ability to rely on the emigration of future scientists and engineers from foreign nations for graduate programs in the U.S. The Science and Engineering Workforce: Realizing America’s Potential, the 2005 report by the National Science Board, reminded readers just how much the country had grown to count on foreign talent to drive innovation. “For all degree levels, the share of U.S. S&E occupations filled by scientists and engineers who were born abroad increased from 14 to 22 percent” between 1990 and 2000, the report states. For doctoral degrees, the increase was even greater, from 24 percent in 1990 to 38 percent 10 years later. Fears of an emerging crisis grew, beginning in 2003, as consecutive…

While many states will lay out strategic plans with quantifiable goals to measure success, South Dakota in 2003 was one of the first SSTI noticed to use a specific target for its gross state product (GSP) as one of the measures. According to the latest annual review, South Dakota officials feel they are making significant strides in its goal of adding $10 billion to its GSP by 2010. Using the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the 2005 progress report reveals the state's GSP increased by 21.9 percent between 2001-2004 and, from 2003-2004, the state experienced an increase of 7.6 percent, or $5.4 billion. Comparatively, South Dakota is among the top states to increase GSP over the 2003-2004 period. Only 13 other states saw higher increases. At the top was Nevada, with an increase of 11.8 percent, followed by Arizona at 9 percent and Arkansas at 8.5 percent. Michigan had the lowest increase, 3.5 percent. Additionally, South Dakota's employment growth was twice that of the nation in 2005, according to Jafar Karim, director of the Governor's Office of Economic…