Bill Mahoney is the new president of the South Carolina Research Authority.

Guin Robinson is the new director of the newly created Talladega office of the Alabama Technology Network.

Phillip Singerman resigned as executive director of the Maryland Technology Development Corp.. Renee Winsky will serve as interim executive director until a permanent replacement is named.

Georgia Tech announced that Dr. Jeffrey Skolnick will join its faculty this spring as the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Computational Systems Biology.

The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development appointed Benjamin Wu as the assistant secretary for the Capital Region and senior advisor for technology policy.

Only 13 days left to register early for SSTI's 9th Annual Conference!

Save $100 by Registering Before Sept. 20, 2005.

With the passage of the state's biennial budget, North Carolina's small businesses are now eligible for follow-on support from the state for research projects funded under the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

Two initiatives aimed at closing the digital divide, particularly among low-income Americans, were announced earlier this month.

The bottom line for all regional economic development initiatives should be improving the quality of life for the area's residents. A new report from the Census Bureau — revealing the increased percentage of the U.S. population living in poverty and median household income remaining flat again, after two years of decline — provides a not-too-subtle reminder for the technology-based economic development (TBED) field.

Ban on Outside Consulting with Industry Remains in Force

Many of the readers are new to the Digest since last year's conference, so we're getting questions about how SSTI's upcoming 9th annual conference, to be held in Atlanta on Oct. 19-21, differs from other events.

The easiest way to answer that is to let the conference speak for itself — through the comments we received from past participants:

Following the 1998 Master Tobacco Settlement Agreement, states across the country set out to dedicate significant amounts of funding from their share of the settlement to support research and other TBED programs.

On Monday, Sept. 26, 2005, the Economic Development Administration will host a one-hour telecast, to discuss the final report of the Strengthening America’s Communities Advisory Committee.

For more information on the positions below, visit SSTI's online Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

With the proper utilization of existing resources, the development of key new programs, strong leadership within state government and coordinated efforts among all programs and stakeholders, Kentucky has the opportunity to become a world leader in specific niches of the life sciences industry, says a report from the Governor's Life Sciences Consortium.

Cluster theories for explaining geographically distinct areas of economic activity have guided state and local economic development policy to varying degrees for the past 25 years. Encouraging cluster growth will be hot in one state’s strategies to encourage growth while cooling or completely absent from its neighbors.

When it comes to managing a portfolio of programs, do you know what really works to ensure they will have the most impact for building a tech-based economy? "Maximizing Impact: Evaluating Science and Technology Programs," one of four full-day pre-conference workshops to be held at SSTI's 9th Annual conference on Oct. 19-21, 2005, strives to answer the question.

There is increasing speculation that China's surge in the global economy is unsustainable, in part, because of its debt (see the Aug. 22, 2005 issue of Business Week). Closer to home, others point out, with the addition of the recent record U.S. budget deficits, America’s national debt will be too burdensome on generations X and Y and whatever letter comes next.

Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne named Idaho National Lab Director John Grossenbacher as the new chairman of the Governor's Science & Technology Advisory Council.

Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne named Idaho National Lab Director John Grossenbacher as the new chairman of the Governor's Science & Technology Advisory Council.

Chandler Howard, co-president of Bank of America, is leaving to become president and CEO of Connecticut Innovations.

Peter McPherson, president emeritus of Michigan State University, is the next president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

If the innovation powerhouse that represents the U.S. economy for the past century were a cinder block foundation of a house, then China and India would present two of the more significant cracks. These two great nations may grab the headlines, but the improved innovation and research capacities of any country provide new challenges for continued U.S. domination of the world's economy. As this week's article on the Czech Republic and Singapore reveals, these are just two more blocks in the U.S.

A comprehensive survey of 12,000 departments within 591 institutions of higher education in the U.S. reveals that, in 2003, graduate student enrollment in S&E programs increased by 4 percent over the previous year and 9 percent over the past decade. Foreign student enrollment, however, decreased 8 percent in 2003 after falling 6 percent the year before.

While the U.S. commitment to science is threatened by flattening federal R&D investments, two more countries demonstrate their shared belief that the way to economic prosperity is through science and innovation.