SSTI Digest

During the past few weeks, the Department of the Navy, National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Commerce have announced the availability of 22 inventions for license. Descriptions and contact information for each invention/patent are presented on the accompanying SSTI webpage

While the Presidential election remains up in the air, the eleven state gubernatorial and 5,918 state legislative races produced more definitive results. Here is a brief summary.



Governors

Overall, Democratic candidates won eight governorships, a net gain of one. Republicans took three. Incumbents held their positions in Indiana (Frank O’Bannon - D), New Hampshire (Jeanne Shaheen - D), Utah (Michael Leavitt -R), Vermont (Howard Dean - D), and Washington (Gary Locke - D).

New Democratic governors include Ruth Ann Minner in Delaware, Bob Holden in Missouri, Mike Easley in North Carolina, and Bob Wise, who upset Governor Cecil Underwood in West Virginia. The two new Republican governors are Judy Martz in Montana and John Hoeven in North Dakota.

Several ballot initiatives that affect technology-based economic development were approved by voters around the country on Tuesday, including:

The National Science Foundation has released the final version of State Science and Engineering Profiles and R&D Patterns: 1997-98 (Early Release Tables were made available in May). The special report includes several statistical tables of value to states developing Innovation Indices, S&T Report Cards, or other comparative studies.

The report provides easy 30 statistics for each state as well as the distribution of federal R&D obligations by department and performer in each state. Of special note in the 30 page overview is Table 4 which presents the state distribution of R&D expenditures by sector and source of funds for the odd years between 1987-1997. Trends in R&D activity within each state are easily identified. Table 3 presents R&D intensity within each state for 1997. Intensity is measured by R&D as a percentage of Gross State Product (GSP).

The majority of an anonymous gift of $26.5 million to the University of Southern California (USC) will be used to increase the representation of women in the hard sciences and engineering faculty and encourage middle school girls to choose a science pathway in education. Money also will be used to create new faculty positions in the sciences, upgrade laboratories, increase scholarship aid for undergraduates, create new fellowships for graduates and fund child care.

The USC program favors a long-term approach to redressing the gender imbalance in the sciences and engineering faculty. USC will use most of the $20 million of the gift apportioned to the issue as an endowment, applying its investment income toward hiring women faculty and providing enduring support for faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students. A networking group composed of USC’s female scientists has advised the university on the establishment of the program, called WISE, for Women in Science and Engineering.

Dr. Angeline Dvorak has been named as the first full-time president of Mississippi Technology, Inc. She will also serve as chief executive office of the Institute for Technology Development.

The Maine Science & Technology Foundation has appointed Dr. Kerri-Ann Jones as statewide director of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

SSTI is sad to report the October death of Gloria Timmer, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). Ms. Timmer was very helpful to SSTI on several projects in her capacity at NASBO and previously as the Kansas state budget director.

Dr. Angeline Dvorak has been named as the first full-time president of Mississippi Technology, Inc. She will also serve as chief executive office of the Institute for Technology Development.