People & Organizations
Rob Monsees left his position as Gov. Matt Blunt's deputy chief of staff-policy to become the executive director of the Missouri Technology Corporation.
Rob Monsees left his position as Gov. Matt Blunt's deputy chief of staff-policy to become the executive director of the Missouri Technology Corporation.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay's Paper Technology Transfer Center has changed its name to the Paper Industry Resource Center.
The Center for Applied Innovation, a Chicago-based think tank, appointed Michael Patin as its new executive director.
As July 1 approaches, the beginning of the 2008 fiscal year for most states, several state legislatures are still working to wrap up their appropriation bills. Maine and Tennessee are two of the most recent to close their books on next year’s budgets, and each has included increased funds to support TBED initiatives. Highlights for both states are provided below.
Maine
This afternoon, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell signed a $650 million package of tax incentives, loans and grants to spur the development and use of clean energy technologies within the state. The governor believes that the bill will help the state leverage as much as $3.5 billion in private investment and help the state build a stronger clean energy industry. Highlights from the Alternative Energy Investment Act include:
Gov. Jennifer Granholm today signed legislation creating Centers of Energy Excellence, a program designed to bring companies, academic institutions, and the state together to create jobs in alternative and advanced energy. The initiative, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, is part of an overall job creation and economic stimulus package proposed by the governor in her State of the State address earlier this year (see the Jan.
National Governors Association
Compiling award and proposal statistics by state for fiscal year 2007, SSTI finds the 10 states with the most awards in FY 2007 were California (1201), Massachusetts (731), Maryland (342), Virginia (322), New York (297), Texas (269), Colorado (254), Ohio (240), Pennsylvania (211) and Washington (160). Compared to the top states for FY06, Maryland moved into the third spot from sixth last year, pushing Virginia to fourth place. New York climbed from eighth place to fifth place, and Texas, Colorado and Ohio each fell from their position last year.
The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation recently announced that the U.S. had completed its contribution to the international Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Project on budget and ahead of schedule. By the end of the year, the LHC at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) laboratory near Geneva will generate its first particle collisions and research output. Total U.S. contribution to the project is about $531 million of the $5.89 billion cost of the project. Although the U.S.
Cynics will tell you politicians rarely let facts get in the way of their policy positions and one doesn’t have to look terribly hard to find anecdotal evidence to support that conclusion. One hopes – expects, even – in most cases, however, that elected officials have people more grounded in reality working for them in the trenches of the state or federal executive branch.
On Monday, President Bush signed the $161.8 billion supplemental appropriations bill for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, 2008. Though the appropriation primarily provides funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bill also includes almost $3.6 billion in non-war funding. Of this, $400 million was approved for U.S. science programs.
The annual convention for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) provides an opportunity each year for many attendees to announce new initiatives and reports in the field of life science research and bio-related TBED – sometimes blockbuster initiatives trying to create the most buzz during and after the event.
Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
Summer camps focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are typically designed to spark youth interest and introduce students to career options in these critical areas. However, a vital component of these programs is exposure to scientific challenges that many classroom settings cannot provide.
The six position opportunities described below were posted on the SSTI Job Corner over the last week. For more information, including complete details on responsibilities, qualifications and application deadlines (when available), visit http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
Trisha Batra was named executive director of Absolutely! Aberdeen, an economic development group serving the Aberdeen, S.D., area.
Dr. Alan Brown was named executive director of the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center, a newly formed economic development initiative.
Trisha Batra was named executive director of Absolutely! Aberdeen, an economic development group serving the Aberdeen, S.D., area.
Dr. Alan Brown was named executive director of the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center, a newly formed economic development initiative.
Barbara Fleisner is the new vice president of economic development for the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. She succeeds Paul Ehrfurth, who retired in June.
As part of plans to build a biotechnology campus in Kannapolis, N.C., Clyde Higgs has been hired to oversee a $100 million venture capital fund that will serve to attract biotech companies and other corporate tenants.
Paul Hiller has stepped down as CEO of the Riverside, Calif.-based Inland Empire Economic Partnership to be the executive director of the Boise Valley Economic Partnership.
GSP Consulting, a full-service government and consulting firm, has added Dr. Jerry Paytas to its newly established Economic Architecture practice as director of research.
Colorado State University and the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp. together have hired Martin Shields as a new regional economist.
Marie Wesselhoft was appointed interim director for the Arizona Center for Innovation, replacing Jim Fountain who is retiring this month.
WSA (formerly the Washington Software Alliance) announced that Kathy Wilcox will step down as the organization's president and CEO at the end of 2006. Wilcox intends to work with for-profit and nonprofit businesses as an advisor on operations, business development, board structuring and fundraising.