Well, THAT was exciting: Not just another week, dear readers, but certainly one more workweek in the books, as we reach Friday and the precipice of a well-earned winter weekend.
It’s Jan. 22 out there – just three days into the Biden Administration, but now Amanda Gorman is a household name and already the world is feeling better.
Chili out: We put that $#!+ on everything.
See spot, run: And you probably will, on National Polka Dot Day.
Too tame? Spice things up with National Hot Sauce Day, also celebrated every Jan. 22.
Uncommon ground: Speaking of national issues and different tastes, today marks the 48th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision and the 37th anniversary of National Sanctity of Human Life Day.
To promote a new era of tolerance and cooperation, please keep it clean.
Industrial strength: Keynoted by then-Ohio Gov. William McKinley, business leaders from across the United States gathered in Cincinnati on Jan. 22, 1895, for the first-ever meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Mine your business: Unionizing underrepresented under-grounders.
Tunnel vision: Actually, it has diversified to include healthcare workers, truck drivers and a host of public employees – but when it was founded on this date in 1890, the United Mine Workers of America was a force for coal miners.
CIA you real soon: Combining various federal resources, President Harry Truman created a new National Intelligence Authority – forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency – on Jan. 22, 1946.
1984: And in a legendary 60-second Super Bowl commercial riffing on George Orwell, the world first met the Apple Macintosh 37 years ago today.
The Mac, which challenged a very IBM-ish Big Brother in its small-screen debut, was the first mouse-driven computer with a graphic user interface.
Bad Blair day: Oh, those teenage hormones.
Birth of a medium: Pioneering American movie director David Wark Griffith (1875-1948) – a former Confederate colonel from Kentucky who developed many basic filmmaking techniques (and tackled enormous societal issues) in groundbreakers like “The Birth of a Nation” and “The Struggle” – would be 146 years old today.
Also born on Jan. 22 were Hungarian mathematician Frigyes Riesz (1880-1956), who created functional analysis; Russian-American choreographer George Balanchine, who founded the New York City Ballet; English-American physicist Derek J. de Solla Price (1922-1983), who thought up scientometrics to measure the work of other scientists; and rafter-riding New York Islander Michael Dean Bossy (born 1957), a vital cog of the team’s 1980-1983 Stanley Cup dynasty.
Still turning heads: And take a bow, Linda Denise Blair! The American actress and activist – known best as possessed child Regan in “The Exorcist” and for her animal-rights activism – turns 62 today.
Give the first-time motion-picture maker, the one-time demon-child and the all-time Islander your best at editor@innovateli.com, where story tips and calendar events always find the back of the net.
About our sponsor: Farrell Fritz, a full-service law firm with 15 practice groups, advises startups on entity formation, founder and shareholder agreements, funding, executive compensation and benefits, licensing and technology transfer, mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions. The firm’s blog, New York Venture Hub, discusses legal and business issues facing entrepreneurs and investors.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Jonathan Cohen: To be continued.
Chief among them: The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research has reached within to find its new chief operating officer.
Jonathan Cohen, a longtime Northwell Health strategy and communications consultant who officially joined the health system two years ago as an internal communications specialist, has been named Feinstein Institutes COO. Cohen, who succeeds Northwell Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer David Battinelli as the Feinstein operations chief, will oversee administrative functions, special projects and the institutes’ comprehensive Research Support Services, all instrumental to the continued success of the R&D hub’s research community.
Feinstein Institutes President and CEO Kevin Tracey thanked Battinelli for “committing five years of operational effort to elevating research as a centralized function for all Northwell employees,” and predicted Cohen’s communications experience would pay off in his new role. “This promotion is a timely extension of the outstanding work he has been doing with Dr. Battinelli, the Northwell leadership team and me,” Tracey added.
Breaking news: This just in from Stony Brook University – effective immediately, SBU’s School of Journalism will be known as the School of Communication and Journalism.
More than a simple name change, the new designation reflects the school’s unique distinction as the only SUNY school greenlighted by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. It also “aligns more closely with the school’s expanding undergraduate and graduate-degree programs,” according to SBU, “and with the increased demand for professionals with backgrounds and experience in different communication-related disciplines.”
In short, “communication goes beyond journalism,” noted Fotis Sotiropoulos, interim university provost and dean of SBU’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the new moniker for the circa-2006 journalism school echoes that. “Stony Brook’s School of Communication and Journalism will offer new opportunities for our students to explore important fields in science communication, health communication and mass communication, in addition to journalism,” Sotiropoulos said Thursday.
TOP OF THE SITE
The French connection: President Biden’s immediate order to rejoin the Paris Agreement is great news for Long Island’s offshore wind ambitions.
Mother lobe: With the help of Long Island epilepsy patients, scientists have uncovered a trove of neurological data with wide-ranging implications.
Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus: Price-gouged prescription drugs during an international health crisis? Long Island’s one-and-only pandemic primer is on the case.
ICYMI
Governor Cuomo crosses a line; Re-Nuble crosses CEBIP’s finish line.
BEST OF THE WEST (AND SOMETIMES NORTH/SOUTH)
Innovate LI’s inbox overrunneth with inspirational innovations from all North American corners. This week’s brightest out-of-towners:
From New York City: App innovator PTA Meetings aims to improve parent/teacher communications one voice at a time.
From Colorado: Denver-based hospitality innovator Impulsify pumps up grab-and-go retailers with all-new, all-digital Hotel Retail Guide.
From Florida: Lake Mary-based QR/DRV reader Scanit socially distances with scanner that captures codes from 60 feet away.
ON THE MOVE
Paul Goldbart
+ Paul Goldbart has been appointed Stony Brook University’s executive vice president and provost, effective March 22. He is currently dean of the College of Natural Sciences, Robert E. Boyer Chair and Mary Ann Rankin Leadership Chair at the University of Texas at Austin.
+ Benjamin Demetriou has been promoted to president of Edgewood-based Lorraine Gregory Communications. He previously served as vice president of operations.
+ Four alumni have joined Adelphi University’s Board of Trustees: Suhit Gupta, chief information officer for New York-based General Atlantic; Steve Jones, president and COO of Arizona-based SkyView Networks; Curtis Minnis, retired managing director of global sales for FedEx; and Monika Mohacsi, senior project engineer for New York-based Jaros, Baum & Bolles.
+ David Cherman has been hired as a tax attorney at Melville-based Tenebaum Law. He previously served as an international tax attorney at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Colorado.
+ Ronkonkoma-based Campolo, Middleton & McCormick has added two partners: Donald Rassiger was promoted after serving as managing attorney in the firm’s Corporate Department; Yale Pollack, founder of Yale Pollack PC, has joined the firm as a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group.
+Amanda Gorozdi has been appointed treasurer of the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island Board of Directors. She is a senior associate of Melville-based Avison Young.
BELOW THE FOLD
Thar she blows: The Hermes 900, to the rescue.
Feline philosophy: What humans can learn from cats.
Canine conclusion: How dogs make us better people.
Save the whales: High-tech drones meet endangered Arctic pods.
Hear them roar: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate LI, including Farrell Fritz, where hundreds of professionals across a dozen-plus practice groups will go beast mode to protect your corporate interests. Check them out.
