| The city of Phoenix, Arizona, is becoming the headquarters for the International Genomics Consortium. Phoenix wants to become a bio-technology hub. The community colleges see this as an opportunity to educate a bio-tech workforce. |
On Friday, 11 October 2002, I attended the 2002 Bioindustry Workforce Summit hosted by Estrella Mountain Community College. It was a good event with speakers from the Arizona Department of Commerce; the City of Phoenix; the Genomics Project; the Bio-Link National Center; professors from Austin Community College, Pasadena City College, American River College, and Mesa Community College; and various speakers from the Maricopa County Community Colleges (including Fred Gaskin, Chancellor).The future of bio-technology is exciting and it may cause our world to undergo dramatic change over the next couple of decades. Multiple times I heard speakers say that "bio-tech is going to be much larger than IT (Informational Technology)." I don't understand these sentiments because bio-tech cannot happen without IT. To a large extent, bio-tech is all about computing.
The Arizona Department of Commerce wants the state to have strong Bioscience programs because of the potential economic benefits: new firms, new jobs, higher income, economic diversity and economic stability. They see Bioscience being a "focal point for technology convergence" -- imaging, electronics, information processing, materials and artificial intelligence.
The City of Phoenix is commited to Bio-tech for the following reasons: fastest growing economic and fiscal sector of the US industry, diversified economy, high wage jobs, platform for better health, and new commerical opportunities. The City of Phoenix is the physical location for the IGC/TGen facility.
[Observations] There may have been a couple hundred people in attendance and I noticed that many of them were nicely dressed. I scanned the room and noticed that I was the only one wearing a t-shirt. [I was glad it was clean.] About 30 faculty members were in attendance and I was the only one from a computer program.
Hyperlinks
International Genomics Consortium
National Bio-Link Center
Mesa Community College (Mesa, Arizona)
American River College (Sacramento, California)
Austin Community College (Austin, Texas)
Pasadena CIty College (Pasadena, California)
Author: G.D.Thurman
[gdt@deru.com]
Created: 14 Oct 2002