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Patrick Tam started this week as the new executive director of SIRTI, the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute. Tam comes to SIRTI from a Seattle-based international technology transfer company.

Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who so far have completed our annual readers' survey. A record number of responses!

This week's Senate Appropriations Committee markup of the FY 2003 appropriations for the Department of Commerce includes $185.4 million is for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and $106.6 million for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will hold a meeting July 31 to get public input for the design and implementation of the new Agricultural Innovation Center Demonstration Program.

A massive state budget deficit, partisan squabbles, and a longstanding need to restructure the state's tax code almost derailed Indiana's largest commitment toward building a technology-based economy.

The National Governors' Association (NGA) released three guides at its annual meeting last week that are designed to help governors  to develop technology-based economic development strategies to improve states' global competitiveness.

Minnesota's technology sector remains a diverse, well developed and stable anchor to the state's economy, according to a new report released by Minnesota Technology, Inc. (MTI), Minnesota's tech-based economic development organization.

A new report released by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund and the Benton Foundation concludes that continued federal leadership is essential to increasing technology access, given the significant gaps that remain along economic, racial and geographic lines.

The Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee of the Wyoming state legislature heard testimony last week encouraging the creation of two new initiatives to expand Wyoming's technology-based economic development efforts: a seed capital program and a technology incubator.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is establishing three new research institutes that are designed to help strengthen the mathematical sciences as the backbone for U.S. scientific and engineering research. The three centers are expected to receive $24 million over five years. A fourth $9 million award renews for six years the operation of an existing mathematical center that integrates education with research.

Kentucky Governor Paul E. Patton is the new chairman of the National Governors' Association. Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne was named vice chairman. Patton has identified education as his highest priority while serving the one-year term as chairman.

Kentucky Governor Paul E. Patton is the new chairman of the National Governors' Association. Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne was named vice chairman. Patton has identified education as his highest priority while serving the one-year term as chairman.

Angie Dvorak is leaving her position as CEO of the Mississippi Technology Alliance to become vice president of research for the University of Southern Mississippi. The University saw a 25 percent increase in research funds last fiscal year, climbing to a record $62.6 million.

Joe Raguso has left the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency to become vice president for strategic and corporate partnerships for SRI International. Raguso served the agency as Deputy Secretary for the Division of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Keith Servis has left his position as director of programs at the New York Office of Science, Technology, and the Advancement of Research to return to the New York Department of Health.

Thomas Still has been selected at the new president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. Still, currently associate editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, will fill the vacancy created by Larry Kline's departure this past spring.

Robert Templin, Jr., has been named the new president of Northern Virginia Community College, effective August 17. Templin, currently a senior fellow at the Morino Institute, was a previous president of Virginia' Center for Innovative Technology.

Nearly every university and community seeks to cultivate a niche in new technologies ­ nurturing venture capital, technology transfer and knowledge networks. Many policies have focused on biotechnology as the kernel of future economic development. Meanwhile, budding nanotechnology has started to show its first blooms in the commercial sector.

To encourage investment in high tech companies, the Hawaii Senate recently passed Senate Bill 1695, authorizing $120 million for the State Private Investment Fund (SPIF) and Senate Bill 1696 to allow fiduciaries to make equity investments.

Arizona must begin viewing medical and educational institutions as a major economic driver of the state economy in order to become a leader in the biosciences industry, according to a new report from the Arizona Board of Regents.

While some regional assessments attempt to benchmark economic indicators of smaller regions to those of notable accomplishment such as Silicon Valley or Research Triangle Park, a new study from the Center for Regional Strategies at Virginia Tech compares regions with similar economic and demographic characteristics, a potentially more useful model for other metro areas.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: Fall 2002, a collection of 54 statistical tables presenting the distribution of graduate students in science and engineering (S&E) across population segments, fields of science or engineering, and by college and state. Overall long-term trends for S&E graduate students from 1975 to 2002 and short-term trends from 1995 to 2002 by detailed fields are presented as well.

Jerry Lonergan, president of Kansas, Inc., is resigning effective April 1. A bill to dissolve the state's policy and planning organization passed the Kansas Senate last week.

Last week, Governor Don Siegelman signed Executive Order Number 71, which establishes the Alabama Research Alliance, a partnership among Alabama’s research universities, the business community and state government. The mission of the research alliance is to foster economic development in Alabama by investing in existing and new research initiatives at Alabama’s research universities.

The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) is facilitating the expansion of VentureLab at the state’s research universities. Piloted at the Georgia Institute of Technology, VentureLab is a strategy for enhancing and accelerating the process of spinning new technology-based enterprises out of university research.