Bart Gordon gaining 'Big Mo'

Twenty-four years after his election to Congress in 1984, U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon's (D-6) momentum is building. The Tennessean reports that President-Elect Barack Obama recently told Gordon, "I'm a science guy," signalling support for Gordon in his role as chair of the increasingly influential House Science and Technology Committee. The Tennessean's story this morning indicates Gordon's first priority, along with all other Members, will be supporting U.S. economic reconstruction. But, there's gathering evidence that Gordon's emphasis on AmericaCOMPETES legislation and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education will quickly gain deep traction. The story's here.

Bart Gordon retains Science leadership

It should be good news for Middle Tennessee and the nation that U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-6), at left, was on Nov. 20 re-elected as chairman of the U.S. House Science and Technology Committee, which he has chaired the past two years. The committee earlier this year observed its 50th Anniversary, but has perhaps never been more important to the nation than during the present crisis. Gordon said in a statement after his reelection, in part, "...there is much more work to be done, especially in light of our country’s current economic problems. The major challenges facing our country -- a foundering economy, a changing climate, a growing need for clean energy we produce at home -- will be solved by science, technology, and American innovation. It’s more important than ever that we are looking at how we can grow new sectors of the U.S. economy and ensure our long-term competitiveness.” His committee members will be announced in January 2009. Among other initiatives, Rep. Gordon's challenge three years ago resulted in the creation of the Mind2Marketplace initiative. Gordon, 59, is a lifelong resident of Murfreesboro, a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University (1971) and the UT College of Law (1973).

Rep. Gordon on Energy bill benefits

U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Murfreesboro) tells the DNJ of the economic benefits that will flow locally from the Energy bill he recently endorsed. Gordon chairs the House Science Committee. Other Bart Gordon reports here.

Bart Gordon announces Sci-Tech priorities

U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon of Murfreesboro, who chairs the House Science and Technology Committee, has been forced to idle several years, during the Bush Administration. Now, with his latest pronouncement on his committee's priorities, he seems poised to sprint off the blocks, to secure funding for his America COMPETES program and other initiatives. Read the DNJ story here and the congressman's release here. Our related story is here.

Alexander and Gordon keep pressure on White House

In ways both subtle and dramatic, Rep. Bart Gordon and Sen. Lamar Alexander are maintaining pressure to fund the nation's knowledge agenda: On May 8, Alexander addressed scientists gathered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and called for a "new Manhattan Project" that would advance technologies to reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil. Then, yesterday in Texarkana Gordon led his House Science Committee's field hearing at a K-12 school with a curriculum centered on science, technology, engineering and math. On these and other occasions, both men have pressed for funding of America COMPETES, which President Bush pointedly criticized, even as he signed the bill into law, citing fears of pork-barrel spending embedded in it. Funding for America COMPETES may not improve until after the next Inauguration, according to observers. For the full story, please click here.

Mid-TN coalition leverages UT-Oak Ridge technology commercialization

Nashvillians might take note that Tom Rogers (right), the long-time president of Oak Ridge-based Tech2020, is joining the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Partnership Directorate as director of industrial and economic partnerships. Middle Tennessee will be more than a blip on Rogers' radar. Because Rogers' move has been a loosely guarded secret, no one knew about it during yesterday's Vanderbilt-hosted meeting of the Mind2Marketplace technology-commercialization consortium. However, M2M Chair Andrea Loughry (left) told us this morning that tomorrow she'll meet at Oak Ridge with Rogers and his new boss, Tom Ballard, to discuss collaboration. Loughry knows how to leverage UT ties: She's not only a UT alumna, she is also Gov. Phil Bredesen's vice chair of the UT Board of Trustees. And, she's a staunch Rutherford County Chamber booster and the semi-retired co-owner of a Murfreesboro insurance firm. The MTSU- and Rutherford County-centered M2M movement was spurred by a challenge issued nearly three years ago by U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon (at right) Gordon is now chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology. In 2005, he urged leaders in his Sixth District to help accelerate movement of local universities' intellectual property to market. Gordon's constituents are hoping, no doubt, he'll be a catalyst in driving government funding and other resources toward Tennessee, much as Rep. Zach Wamp (3rd Dist.) has done. Employing sector-specific targeting as a stratagem, M2M hopes to establish Middle Tennessee as a leader in such fields as aerospace (leveraging Tullahoma-based UT Space Institute and Arnold Engineering Development Center); biotechnology (capitalizing on MTSU programs, as well as on Franklin-based BioMimetic Therapeutics and the Cool Springs Life Sciences Center); and, distribution-logistics. The lack of an ORNL-scale innovation generator is no constraint, Loughry said this morning. She sees M2M connecting and nourishing "ideas and the persons who create them," wherever they may be. Toward such ends, M2M is also pursuing partnerships with Vanderbilt, UT-Chattanooga, Tennessee State University, tech institutions in Memphis and Huntsville, and numerous others.

NASA looks to Gordon's Science Committee for help

The Daily News Journal (Gannett) reports that NASA, inevitably, is looking to Murfreesboro Democrat U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, who chairs the House science committee, for help in getting funds needed to sustain NASA's interplanetary ambitions.

Fresh impetus: 'M2M' gets juice from Gordon, Wamp

Mind2Marketplace, an advocate for technology transfer, commercialization and tech-driven economic development, got some fresh momentum yesterday, during an event at MTSU. The loose coalition not only got a vote of confidence from Congressmen Bart Gordon (at left) and Zach Wamp and the Tennessee Valley Corridor group, but also announced it'll finally get some dedicated staff, or half of one. M2M also handed-out their working draft of a 3-year workplan that, even in its current incomplete form, would challenge three fulltimers, much less the single half-timer who'll soon be given license to build M2M into the kind of formal membership organization that could attract more funding, more effective initiatives and, yes, a better definition of what it means to take a Mind to Marketplace. It's a good sign, but M2M's not out of the woods, yet. Read about it here.

TN Valley Summit in Boro

The Tennessee Valley Corridor Fall Summit is underway in Murfreesboro today. U.S. Reps. Bart Gordon (left) and Zach Wamp are among featured speakers, addressing energy and the economy, workforce development, innovation and entrepreneurship. The agenda's here.

Newswrap Jan. 26

An AP story out today says Gov. Bredesen still wants repeal of the F&E tax exemption now enjoyed by family-owned non-corporate entities (FONCE), despite bipartisan opposition to a change, KNS, here (our earlier related story here). ...Memphis-area's masterIT sells IT-as-a-Utility preventive maintenance, CA, Jan. 26. ...U.S. stimulus spending for electronic medical records, smarter electrical grids and rural broadband could get $37 billion in the Obama stim package, but some observers fear IT industry's skills shortage could create bottlenecks, a prospect one executive discounts. New York Times, Jan. 25. ...Closer to home, Telemedicine expands in East TN, TFP, Jan. 22. ...A portable EHR is offered by Maryville-based Critical Access Inc., in the JCP. ...U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon says the stimulus package may include money for MTSU's $135 million new science building, TSN, Jan. 23. ...MTSU economist David Penn says creating new durable jobs will require renewed emphasis on workforce education, DNJ, Jan. 25. ...Tech2020 will convene on Wednesday to hear from Y-12 National Security Complex about doing tech-transfer partnerships. KNS, Jan. 25. ...We love our new VW plant, but Business Facilities says it was the deal second-best to Rolls-Royce's announcement in Virginia. ...ORNL's Kraken supercomputer cranks up, KNS, Jan. 23. ...East Ridge is the second city to take Chattanooga-based EPB's video service, rather than a cable competitor's, Chattanoogan.com. ...'Noogans want stimulus money for their proposed maglev rail link to Georgia, KNS, Jan. 24.

ORNL director on Fusion

Oak Ridge NL Director Thom Mason told Chairman Bart Gordon's House Science Committee yesterday about ORNL's role in the international effort to achieve energy production through nuclear fusion, and effort underway since at least the Fifties. Here's Frank Munger's KNS column. Here's the international ITER team's site. Here's a backgrounder on fusion.

The Noog Uber Alles

The news of Volkswagen's selection of Tennessee for assembly of its new midsize vehicle is stunning, possibly epochal -- even though Middle Tennessee's economic benefit, if any, may be years away. Locally, in nearby Montgomery County, Clarksville Industrial Development Board Executive Director Mike Evans was diplomatic this morning when contacted by VNC. His megasite was barely in-the-running against Chattanooga, Alabama and Michigan. Still, while declining any comment on efforts Clarksville might have made with regard to VW, Evans offered congratulations to the state and Chattanooga, and said the news demonstrates the "validity of the TVA megasite [certification] program." He also stressed that "regionalism" is the proper context in which to view Chattanooga's win. Indeed, some reports suggest that in addition to the 2,000 jobs created in Chattanooga, another 10,000 could be spawned in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. The win announced yesterday should also provide fresh impetus -- as though it needed any -- to the Tennessee Valley Corridor initiative, which seeks to improve jobs, skills and quality of life in the zone from Knoxville-Oak Ridge...through Tullhoma, Murfreesboro and Chattanooga, to Huntsville. The TVC effort includes, by the way, most East Tennessee members of Congress, but currently excludes U.S. Reps. Bart Gordon of Murfreesboro, who chairs the House science committee. Periodically, there has been talk within TVC of correcting what some see as an "oversight," a gap that in some ways leaves Nashville standing outside the TVC tent. As previously reported here, Rutherford County leaders have during the past two years sought to hitch that county's prospects more closely to the corridor. Earlier, related item here.

Wamp delivers

U.S. Rep. Zack Wamp (D-3) delivered on his promise to U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-6) to bring a major high-tech economic development event to Mid-Tennessee. Our story is here.

In wartime, Nashville sci-tech's fate lies inside Beltway

If you didn't catch Ken Galloway's update on patchwork Federal funding for science and technology when it was originally published in The Tennessean, it's now available here on the dean's website at the School of Engineering at Vanderbilt University. In saying that the congressional delegation 'gets it', Dean Galloway (at left) may be right. As reported by VNC earlier, U.S. Representatives Bart Gordon and Zach Wamp, as well as Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker have been taking important steps to keep the spotlight on War-delayed funding for America COMPETES, basic research, Science Technology Engineering & Math (STEM) education and other vital interests, much as Rep. Jim Cooper has long championed dealing aggressively with our calamitous federal budget situation. What still seems missing, however, is a cohesive pro-science and technology alliance at the heart of Metro Nashville/Davidson County. But, maybe there's more going on behind the scenes than we know. Hope so.

Tech advocates Wamp, Haslam eyeing Governorship

Chattanoogan.com reports Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp (L-R, respectively) will run next year to succeed Gov. Phil Bredesen, and that former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will be taking a pass. As reported by VNC, Wamp has been the motive force of the Tennessee Valley Corridor initiative and a supporter of U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon-inspired Mind2Marketplace. Haslam was recently appointed to the board of the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation. [Update: Frist made official Jan. 4th his plans to remained focused on his roles at Cressey & Co., Vanderbilt University and elsewhere, rather than run for Tennessee governor.]