U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Sandy Baruah and President Jackson taking questions during the forum on innovation and economic development. Photo by Rensselaer/Kris Qua

As a follow-up to President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address, Rensselaer hosted a roundtable discussion on innovation and economic development Feb. 3 at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson joined the Honorable Sandy Baruah, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, to discuss President Bush’s competitiveness agenda with Capital Region business, academic, and community leaders.

In advance of the forum, Assistant Secretary Baruah toured a research lab in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, to learn about innovations in health research. He also viewed displays on examples of energy research at Rensselaer, including LEDs and fuel cells. In addition, he saw demonstrations of activities designed to excite the next generation of scientists and engineers, including Rensselaer’s Molecularium™ and the Center for Initiatives in Pre-College Education’s (CIPCE) work with area teachers and students to promote the use of robotics in the classroom.

Secretary Baruah outlined the administration’s new “American Competitiveness Initiative,” which is designed to stimulate American innovation by funding basic research and educational programs. President Jackson stressed that Congress and the administration need to move quickly to enact a comprehensive, fully funded national innovation agenda. She believes the components of such an agenda must include: support for basic research across a broad disciplinary front, investment in enhanced K-12 science and mathematics education, and direct funding for students pursuing degrees in science and engineering at the undergraduate and graduate level.

“President Bush’s ‘American Competitiveness Initiative,’ outlined in the State of the Union address, along with recent bipartisan congressional initiatives provides critical momentum for a new emphasis on innovation,” President Jackson said. “Leaders in every sector — business, academic, government — have called for a renewed national focus on the United States’ capacity to innovate. Now the administration and the Congress must link the policy proposals to the budget, ensuring real investment in the components of an innovation agenda that are so critical to our nation’s economic and national security.”

Calling for a renewed national focus on science and technology, in a Jan. 25, 2006 open letter to President George W. Bush, President Jackson urged President Bush to use the State of the Union to outline a national agenda to “spark a legacy of innovation.” Jackson has long warned of what she calls the “Quiet Crisis” in America — the threat to our nation’s capacity to innovate due to the looming shortage in the nation’s science and technology workforce. The shortfall results from a record number of retirements on the horizon, and not enough engineering, science and mathematics students in the pipeline to replace them.

Over the last five years, President Jackson has urged a national conversation to generate the will for a national policy to address the “Quiet Crisis.”  She has been involved in developing the National Academies’ report “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” and the Council on Competitiveness’s National Innovation Initiative, in addition to working with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and others to advance a national innovation agenda.

For a copy President Jackson’s Jan. 25, 2006 letter to President Bush, go to: http://www.rpi.edu/web/Campus.News/inthenews/Oped.pdf

Published February 6, 2006