John Austin is the newly appointed executive director of the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan.

Tom Cech announced he will return to the University of Colorado at Boulder next year to pursue laboratory research and teaching after eight years as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Lori Broyles was appointed coordinator of the Women's Business Center in Oklahoma City.

Several key proposals championed by Gov. Kathleen Seblius to prepare the state for an innovation-based economy were adopted by the legislature in the approved fiscal year 2009 budget signed into law by the governor earlier this month.
 

Dr. Michel Bitritto was named director of the new business incubator being run by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.

Dr. Peter Reczek was appointed executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology.

Don Siegel, president of the Technology Transfer Society, will be dean of the School of Business at the University of Albany, SUNY, beginning in fall 2008.

Offering customized workspace such as wet laboratories and specialized research equipment is one of the many benefits provided by technology-focused incubators. Access to university research, business mentoring and administrative support services often accompany the reduced rent facilities with the goal of growing technology companies into successful, self-sustaining enterprises. Following are select announcements of recently launched incubators and partnerships from across the nation. 
 

Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

According to National Science Foundation (NSF) data released two weeks ago, companies spent in aggregate $247.7 billion on R&D expenditures performed in the U.S. in 2006. Leading the nation was California, with $58.4 billion in industrial R&D, followed by Michigan ($16.5 billion), Massachusetts ($15.6 billion), New Jersey ($14.6 billion), and Texas ($13.3 billion).
 

Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at: http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Technology-focused incubators are an important component to fostering entrepreneurial development in a region by nurturing businesses in the earliest stages of development and helping them grow into larger companies that employ high-wage workers and bring new technologies to the market. The following select announcements provide an overview of new incubators from across the nation, illustrating the vital role of entrepreneurial development in growing high-tech regional economies.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius delivered her State of the State Address last week proposing new initiatives and continued funding for several TBED programs emphasizing education and innovation as key to the state’s future economy.

Complete descriptions of the position openings described below are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Peter Gold was appointed associate provost for economic initiatives at Rutgers-Camden.

New Jersey and Virginia were the only two states to choose governors in November 2005, with both states having open races. Below is a description of each governor-elect's position on TBED.

Examining the components that would most likely be attributed directly to Acting Gov. Richard Codey's proposed $380 million Stem Cell Research Initiative, a Rutgers University study finds that, potentially, the state stands to benefit from an estimated $1.4 billion in new economic activity, approximately 20,000 new jobs, and $71.9 million in new state revenue over the next 20 years.

Angela Kreps is the first president of the year-old Kansas Bioscience Organization.

The Kansas City region is obtaining funding for high-tech research in the life sciences, but entrepreneurship is stifled because of fragmented efforts to improve the innovation environment and the region’s lack of an overall strategy for its various stakeholders. This finding and others were identified in Completing the Puzzle: Creating a High-Tech and Life Sciences Economy in Kansas City, a recent report prepared for the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

The Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp. promoted Kevin Carr to the position of chief operations officer.

Sandy Johnson was promoted to CEO of the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center.

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.

Joni Cobb is the first president of KTEC Pipeline, Kansas's new technology entrepreneurship fellowship program.