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The Debrief January 13, 2020

Debrief: Abiding Kevin Law, as LI collides with destiny

  Hard to believe, but it’s been five long years since Innovate LI last Debriefed Kevin Law, who’s now logged a full decade as President and CEO of the Long Island Association. As 2020 dawns, the primary influencer and leading architect of regional socioeconomics is enjoying another “Top Performer” effort by the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council (the council, which Law co-chairs with Hofstra University President Stuart Rabinowitz, snagged $87.9 million in Albany’s ninth-annual…

Newsletters January 10, 2020

No. 465: In which Pathways emerge, Qunnect connects, Hoplite hops to it and BNL accelerates, big time

  Like magic: Blink and you might have missed it, dear readers, as the first full workweek of 2020 nears its end and we approach an unusually warm winter weekend. That voodoo that you do: It’s Friday, Jan. 10, on Planet Earth, and to our many readers in Benin – the tiny West African nation known best as the birthplace of voodoo – a spirit-pleasing Fête du Vodoun. Here in the States, no voodoo dolls…

Startups January 8, 2020

After successful seed, Qunnect set for ludicrous speed

By GREGORY ZELLER // Marking another quantum leap for cybersecure long-distance communications, a high-tech Stony Brook University spinoff has completed a key financing round. Qunnect LLC, a 2017 startup launched by a Stony Brook PhD and the head of the university’s Quantum Information Technology Group, has closed its $800,000 seed round, an oversubscribed financing cycle backed by the Accelerate NY Seed Fund, French venture-capital fund Quantonation – the first VC fund dedicated to quantum technologies…

News October 31, 2019

Whole body, whole world in CSHL’s new Demerec lab

By GREGORY ZELLER // A world-class scientific institution has gotten worldlier, and classier, with a $75 million upgrade focused squarely on cancer research. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory this week cut the ribbon on its Center for Therapeutics Research, located inside a significantly renovated Demerec Laboratory Building, which is ready to rock following a two-year retuning. The transformation of the Demerec building, opened in 1953 and named for Croatian-American geneticist Milislav Demerec, into a state-of-the-art therapeutics-research…

Opinion October 3, 2019

Hard hats and soft spots: Remembering Ken Morrelly

By RAY DONNELLY // Ten years ago Oct. 1, the region lost a strong, powerful voice in economic development, when C. Kenneth Morrelly passed away suddenly. He died on the cusp of realizing a project he’d been devoted to for many years, the Homeland Security Research Center. The project was a centerpiece of his time as CEO and president of LIFT, the Long Island Forum for Technology. October 1, 2009, was a red-letter day for the region’s…

Economic Development October 2, 2019

In 2019 plan, LIREDC ‘doubles down’ on what works

By GREGORY ZELLER // From the If It Ain’t Broke file comes the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, which covers proven ground in its annual progress report/wish list to the Empire State Development Corp. Meeting ESD’s yearly Oct. 1 submission deadline, the LIREDC slapped a new title on its 2019 report (“Long Island: Breaking Down Barriers”) but filled it with a familiar mix of success stories and future ambitions, largely focused on the Island’s…

Workforce September 24, 2019

Island set to shine as clean-energy employment soars

By GREGORY ZELLER // Good news for research-rich, offshore-open Long Island: New York’s clean-energy economy is growing at more than double the rate of the overall state economy. So says the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which on Tuesday announced an 8.9 percent growth in statewide clean energy-related employment since 2016 – exceeding 158,000 employees in 2019, according to NYSERDA, and still climbing. These and other impressive numbers await in the state’s…

Education September 12, 2019

Million-dollar grant opens FSC to less-privileged minds

By GREGORY ZELLER // A million-dollar gift from the National Science Foundation will help a classroom’s worth of science- and math-focused Long Island high schoolers enroll at Farmingdale State College. All told, 32 students from six regional high schools will enjoy four-year, $20,000 scholarships, thanks to a $1 million S-STEM grant, the largest ever issued to Farmingdale State by the NSF. Targeting academically talented, low-income students, the S-STEM awards – for Scholarships in Science, Technology,…

Newsletters September 6, 2019

No. 435: Kicking off, sinking vs. swimming and justice for all (fraud victims, that is)

  End run: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, and the last leg of this busy late-summer workweek. It’s Sept. 6 out there, and if you had the Mayflower departing Plymouth, England, and setting a course for history on this date in 1620, well done! A half-crown and two shillings for you; please contact our Awards Department for more information. Are you ready for some football? It’s Unification Day in Bulgaria and Armed Forces Day in…

Newsletters August 7, 2019

No. 427: Mean streets, herbal treats and fiscal feats – plus, supermarkets for robots

  Warmest greetings: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we slog through a sticky summertime stretch of socioeconomic innovation. It’s Aug. 7 out there, and we’re at the steamy center of Summer 2019 – the mathematical midpoint between the June 21 summer solstice and the Sept. 23 autumnal equinox. Party on, Côte d’Ivoire: To our readers along the Ivory Coast, a joyous Independence Day. Here in the States, Aug. 7 is National Lighthouse Day, celebrating…

Sustainability July 31, 2019

NYIT at the center of food/energy/water nexus, again

By GREGORY ZELLER // The food/energy/water nexus will center once again on the New York Institute of Technology, courtesy of another chunky federal grant. Principal investigator Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NYIT’s College of Engineering and Computing Sciences, will use a $747,000 National Science Foundation grant to establish a “research coordination network” focused on food, energy and water – the trifurcated nerve center of sustainable urban development. Through…

Biotech July 25, 2019

With pilot run ending, top marks for LI Bioscience Hub

By GREGORY ZELLER // The Long Island Bioscience Hub is making the grade, according to a report card prepared by independent evaluators. Since launching in 2015, the LIBH – a National Institutes of Health effort uniting Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institute for Medical Research – has trained hundreds of innovators, helped fund dozens of technology-development projects and assisted the formation of numerous startup companies and…

Economic Development July 24, 2019

New era, same mission as golden LIBDC plans ahead

By GREGORY ZELLER // Invention, and reinvention. They are the manifestation of creativity and the heart of innovation. True today, on a Long Island staking a claim as a leading biosciences hub; true a half-century ago, when a unique combination of potato farms and cutting-edge aerospace defined an otherwise sparse suburbia. The current leadership of the Long Island Business Development Council, which turns 50 this year, is a reinvention of sorts – a forward-thinking team…

Space July 1, 2019

SBU space man returns for stellar SSERVI sequel

By GREGORY ZELLER // A blockbuster summer sequel will see Stony Brook University soar into space, once again. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has selected eight research teams to collaborate through the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, a national thinktank featuring dozens of scientific disciplines, all focused on the final frontier and human space exploration. Among them: Timothy Glotch, a professor in SBU’s Department of Geosciences, and his team of more than 60…

Newsletters June 5, 2019

No. 411: In which Voder speaks, the Apple II arrives, iTunes departs – and the Avengers assemble!

  Half full: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we reach the midpoint of another exciting week of socioeconomic innovation. Before we dive in, a warm welcome to new newsletter subscribers Michael, Kathleen, Josh, Frank, Tim, Wayne, Elizabeth, Warren, Eddie, Cliff, Noel, Micaela, Paige and Gary. Let us be the first to wish you a healthy and safe World Day Against Speciesism. Ecologically logical: That must mean it’s June 5 out there, and most of…