SSTI Digest

Greater Baltimore Technology Council executive director Penny Lewandowski is leaving at the end of May to join the Edward Lowe Foundation in Detroit. Assistant director Steve Kovak has been named her successor.

Dyan Brasington, former president of the Technology Council of Maryland, is the new director of economic and workforce development at Towson University.

Johns Hopkins University has named Jill Tarzian Sorenson to serve as associate provost and director of the Office of Licensing and Technology Development.

The nation's most significant source of funding for life science research, the National Institutes of Health, announced two sweeping changes last week that could dramatically alter biotechnology commercialization. The first policy change addresses known and potential conflicts of interest by NIH employees, while the second encourages all NIH-funded research to be released publicly within 12 months of final publication.

Julie Coons is the new president of the Technology Council of Maryland. Coons most recently served as executive vice president of PCIA -- the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

Secretary Aris Melisssaratos of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development recently announced two new appointments. Leslie Sipes-Pachol will serve in the position of executive director for the Maryland Economic Development Commission, and Paul Mauritz has been promoted to become Assistant Secretary for Technology Strategy and Business Development.

Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich has appointed Robert Brennan to succeed Hans Mayer as executive director of the Maryland Economic Development Corporation. Mayer retired after holding the position for 17 years.

A new agreement between the State of Maryland and the National Security Agency (NSA) is expected to lead to new technologies for both. The two formalized a partnership earlier this month, signing a memorandum of understanding at the Maryland State House.

The partnership joins NSA with Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED). Present for the signing were Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich, DBED Secretary Aris Melissaratos, and Michael Hayden and Dr. Eric Haseltine of NSA.

Hayden, who doubles as director of NSA and as a lieutenant general for the U.S. Air Force, said the agreement will enhance the agency's "transformation efforts to provide quality intelligence to the national leadership while promoting economic prosperity in Maryland."

A new report from the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), A Toolkit for Evaluating Public R&D Investment, provides useful information to anyone interested in evaluating publicly-sponsored research and development (R&D) programs. While the report focuses on more than 40 evaluations that have been performed for ATP, it offers one of the most comprehensive and understandable overviews of evaluation methods and applying those approaches.

In one section, the authors provide a general framework for evaluation, discussing evaluation fundamentals, including the objectives and steps of evaluation, and choosing various methods of evaluation. The advantages and disadvantages of a variety of approaches, including surveys, case studies, bibliometrics, historical tracing and expert judgment, are described.

William Tew has resigned as director of the Office of Licensing and Technology Development for Johns Hopkins University.

Three I's neatly sum up the 22 recommendations recently released by Maryland Governor Robert Erlich's Commission on Development of Advanced Technology Business — Investment, Innovation, and Image. The year-long study looked at the state's existing physical, financial and intellectual infrastructures to support the state's research and technology sectors, making specific recommendations in three groupings to foster continued growth.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) figures prominently in many of the recommendations, and, in partnership with the Department of Business and Economic Development, the research universities and the state's regional technology councils could play an even more significant role in the state's technology strategy if the plan is fully implemented.

Ann Quinn was recently named managing director of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Venture Capital Fund.