The recipients of the 2000 National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest science and technology honors, were announced this week. The National Medal of Science, established by Congress in 1959 and administered by the National Science Foundation, honors individuals for contributions to the present state of knowledge across a variety of science frontiers.
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
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.
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).
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.
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
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.
With what’s shaping up to be the closest presidential election in the last 40 years and control of the U.S. House and Senate up in the air, little press attention has been focused on the other elections occurring throughout the country. Today’s issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest provides an overview of some of the other races affecting S&T. On Thursday we’ll report on the results.
Minnesota Technology Inc. (MTI), the leading technology-based economic development organization in the state of Minnesota, is seeking a Deputy Director to serve as the right hand to the CEO. This critical position will be responsible for the following:
In an economy driven increasingly by computer literacy and connectivity, leading the nation in the percentage of households not connected to the Internet is a distinction many in the South are working to eliminate. One South, Digitally Divided, the second annual TelecomSouth conference of the Southern Technology Council (STC), and its accompanying report Creating the CyberSouth are efforts in that direction.
After surpassing $1 billion in university-based R&D for the first time ever in FY 2000, and receiving a budget increase of $633 million for FY 2001, NASA has kicked off a major effort to further strengthen its relationship with universities and colleges.
With the goal of developing a common technology agenda among the region’s leaders, the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance (larta) has compiled its first regional innovation index benchmarking the area’s strengths and weaknesses in S&T. The Southern California Technology Innovation Index compares the five-county Los Angeles consolidated metropolitan statistical area with the California Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose), Austin, Texas, and Massachusetts.
This year’s Global Competitiveness Report 2000, released in September by the World Economic Forum, marks a significant departure from earlier editions by its level of sophistication in addressing the increasingly global nature of the economies of the Forum’s 59 member nations.
From a pool of more than 1200 applications, NASA has selected 111 projects across 30 states to receive funding through the Cross-Enterprise Technology Development (CETD) program. Designed to support one-to-three year research projects with high payoff technologies to revolutionize future space-flight systems, the $120 million CETD program is a primary method for identifying and developing revolutionary space technologies to stimulate new concepts for missions not yet conceived.
More Americans than ever have Internet access and own computers, but disparities remain in many areas, according to two new reports by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
As the digital economy matures and more regions around the country are prepared to offer the telecommunications infrastructure and skilled workforce required to compete for high-tech businesses, the implications for Silicon Valley were presented in a new report from Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network. Internet Cluster Analysis 2000, released last week, outlines several challenges facing the region.
While the Development Report Card of the States, issued annually by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CfED) usually generates a news story in most local papers, a quick scan of several articles reveals the science and technology-related components of the report card get mixed play. This year’s report, funded by the Economic Development Administration, is available on-line in its entirety and has a customizing feature for ease of comparison.
In an effort to improve the image of technology professionals and encourage teens to prepare for technical careers, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Technology Policy (OTP) has kicked off Get Tech, a national awareness campaign directed at America’s youth. The campaign is designed to inspire teens to prepare for the technology-driven jobs of tomorrow.
As mentioned in the last week's SSTI Weekly Digest, access to capital is a challenge for women-owned businesses. Springboard 2000, one nationwide initiative to overcome that obstacle, in less than one year, has assisted women entrepreneurs in science and technology businesses to raise more than $235 million in venture funding. The investments have been raised directly as a result of two forums held this year in Redwood City, California and Dulles, Virginia.
Last Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded 19 grants through the NIH Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program to biomedical research institutions located in states that had not fully participated in NIH funding in the past. Created in 1993, the IDeA Program is designed to enhance biomedical research capacity building among academic institutions and research institutions within the eligible 23 states and Puerto Rico.
During the past two weeks, the Milken Institute has issued two similar reports documenting the difficulties and successes minority- and women-owned business have accessing capital.
The Minority Business Challenge: Democratizing Capital for Emerging Domestic Markets presents new findings and several specific recommendations to sustain minority businesses growth. The findings include:
The National Science Foundation’s Division of Educational System Reform is funding cooperative agreements with 13 urban school districts: Birmingham, Chattanooga, Chicago, Fresno, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Newport News, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia to improve K-12 mathematics and technology education. The awards are aimed at districts that already have improvement programs in place.