Daily Business Report-March 16, 2014
The mission of the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering is to engage kids in science and engineering .
Festival Launched to Engage
Kids in Science and Engineering
The San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering — which got underway on Saturday, is six days of learning, interaction and behind-the-scenes opportunities for families to ignite the love for science, technology, engineering, and math. It all leads up to a day-long celebration at Petco Park on Saturday, March 21.
Expo Day is the festival’s signature event, featuring more than 130 local businesses, corporations, and organizations providing interactive, hands-on science, technology, engineering and math exhibits, and activities to budding K-12 science lovers. Events are free and open to the public.
The mission of the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering is to engage kids in science and engineering, expand the public’s understanding of the relevancy of science and engineering in everyday lives, illuminate why the United States must maintain its leadership role in science and technology, and work with parents and teachers to inspire today’s students to become tomorrow’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) innovators.
Click here for a schedule of this week’s activities.
Kyoto Prize Symposium
This year’s Kyoto Prize Symposium at San Diego State University on Wednesday features the Kyoto Prize Laureate in advanced technology, Dr. Robert Samuel Langer, founder of the field of tissue engineering and creator of revolutionary drug delivery system technologies. Langer’s technique applies biodegradable polymer technologies to construct scaffolds for cell growth, contributing to the regeneration of tissues and organs. The event runs from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Center and is fee and open to the public.
Langer will lecture on “Biomaterials and Biotechnology: From the discovery of the first angiogenesis inhibitors to the development of controlled drug delivery systems and the foundation of tissue engineering.”
“I am thrilled personally for myself, and I also am thrilled that my field, bioengineering, is being recognized,” Langer said.
Sponsored by the Inamori Foundation, the Kyoto Prize Symposium features lectures by esteemed scholars in three fields, including basic sciences, advanced technology and the arts and philosophy. One of SDSU’s signature events, the annual symposium honors these laureates who have had outstanding lifetime achievement.
At 43, Langer was the youngest person in history to be elected to all three American science academies: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. He is the most cited engineer in history; his research has been cited more than 170,000 times and his laboratory at MIT is the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world. He has written more than 1,300 articles and has more than 1,000 patents worldwide.
It is estimated his work has impacted at least 2 billion lives.
UC San Diego to Lead Major
Project on Immigration
UC San Diego will lead a new research collaboration at five University of California campuses will help policymakers, non-government organizations and the public to better understand the impacts of immigration on California and to plan more effectively for the state’s future. Funding is from the UC Office of the President.
Sociologist David FitzGerald, co-director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego, is principal investigator on the project. Called the California Immigration Research Initiative, the project will assess current policy practices and will also collect fresh data on how newcomers to California affect the state’s educational system, workforce, public health, political environment, culture and more.
“A quarter of us in California were born in another country, and millions more have at least one parent born outside the U.S. If we want to understand the challenges and opportunities California faces in the 21st century, we have to understand immigrants and their experiences,” FitzGerald said.
The multi-campus, interdisciplinary approach to studying immigration is supported by a $525,000 grant over four years from Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives at UC’s Office of the President. The campuses involved besides UC San Diego are UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Berkeley.
Proposed Homeless Shelter
For San Diego Could Open in July
A proposed year-round housing facility for the homeless intended to replace the city of San Diego’s temporary winter tent shelters could be open in July, the San Diego Housing Commission announced.
The city has been providing temporary shelters for the homeless during the year’s coldest and wettest months since 1986.
In October, the City Council directed the housing commission to come up with possible locations for a permanent shelter. The commission recommended that St. Vincent de Paul Village open a permanent interim housing program at the Paul Mirabile Center in the East Village that could assist as many as 2,835 people. The winter tents typically house about 800 people each year.
“The time is now to do the right thing for homeless San Diegans — no more tents,” commission President and CEO Richard Gentry said. “The San Diego City Council asked the San Diego Housing Commission to find a solution, and that’s what we have done.”
— City News Service
Personnel Announcements
Brian Frasch Joins Higgs Fletcher & Mack
Brian Frasch has joined Higgs Fletcher & Mack as its newest real estate attorney and partner. Frasch was a partner at Gordon & Rees LLP, where he represented commercial office, industrial and retail property owners in lease, purchase and sales agreement, brokerage commission, mechanic’s lien and condemnation litigation matters. He was responsible for forming the firm’s real estate group in 2000 and served as the national chair for 10 years.
Frasch he was voted by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) as “Professional Member of the Year” in 1990, 1991 and 1992, as well as “Associate Member of the Year” in 1995. During his career, Frasch served on BOMA’s San Diego board of directors for many years and was BOMA San Diego’s first General Counsel.
