Cue the pumpkin spice: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, and not just any Friday but the last Friday of August – a sure sign that the sun is setting on the Summer of 2022 and fall is on final approach.
Season to taste: You gotta meme it.
Before we order the firewood, decorate for Halloween and start raking leaves, there’s still a few more weeks of summer – not to mention one more workday in this latest workweek, with a well-earned weekend to follow.
Slam dunk: It’s Aug. 26 out there, and before we dive in, a quick plug for BrandSlam, our free, interactive brand-building event taking the stage Oct. 6 at LaunchPad Huntington.
Along with our friends at Stony Brook University Economic Development and Huntington-based communications cornerstone Brandtelling (the brilliant producer and most recent sponsor of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast), we’re super-excited to present this networking-rich audience-participation extravaganza, overflowing with from-the-hip creativity, adult beverages and lots of laughs.
It’s master-level marketing meets “Shark Tank” meets “Who’s Line Is It Anyway,” with all kinds of inventiveness on display. Sponsorship opportunities are available, pre-registration is required and an “AfterSlam” is already in the works – here’s everything you need to know.
They’ve got our vote: Back here on Aug. 26, we pause to honor Women’s Equality Day, observed annually to mark the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed American women the right to vote.
Speaking of gender progress, today is also National Webmistress Day, which celebrates female website engineers and promotes schoolgirls’ STEM education.
Have a blast: Exploding onto the scene today are artillery cannons, which – according to legend – were first used in battle on Aug. 26, 1346, in the Battle of Crécy, an early skirmish of the Hundred Years War.
According to other legends, marauding Spanish Moors fired battle cannons years earlier.
Just our type: Also making its mark was the first practical typewriter, patented on this date in 1843 by Connecticut inventor Charles Thurber.
Just their tykes: The St. Louis School Board authorized the first U.S. public kindergarten on Aug. 26, 1873, following the lead of an American woman who observed early-education settings abroad.
Water works: Westinghouse’s circa-1895 Niagara Falls hydroelectric generators.
Energy waves: The power of change was also on display in Upstate New York 127 years ago today, when Westinghouse Electric flipped the switch on the first Niagara Falls hydroelectric generators.
Measured response: And change came to the British Motor Corp. on this date in 1959, when it debuted its smaller, more efficient Mini.
The compact cars were designed in response to fuel shortages caused by Egypt’s lightning rod 1956 nationalization of the British-French Suez Canal Company.
Are you there, Agnes? It’s me, God: Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (1910-1997) – who heard God’s call at age 12 and went on to become Saint Teresa of Calcutta, or simply Mother Teresa – would be 112 years old today.
Come blow your horn: Masterful Marsalis.
Also born on Aug. 26 were American inventor and manufacturer Stephen McCormick (1784-1875), who crafted the cast-iron plow; American aeronautical engineer Jerome Hunsaker (1886-1984), who helped build the first U.S. wind tunnel; Polish American medical researcher Albert Sabin (1906-1993), key to eradicating polio; American journalist, editor and executive Ben Bradlee (1921-2014), who set the Washington Post’s aggressive and exacting standards; and American politician Geraldine Ferraro (1935-2011), the New York congresswoman who was the first woman vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket.
All that jazz: And take a bow, Branford Marsalis! The American saxophonist, composer and jazz-ensemble maestro – a three-time Grammy-winner and former “Tonight Show” bandleader, among other amazing accomplishments – turns 62 today.
Give the gifted musician your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips strike up the band and your calendar events always name our tune.
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
Graduate level: Teaching teachers is the crux of a new partnership between SUNY Old Westbury and the American Museum of Natural History.
Marking a first for Long Island and the entire SUNY system, the college is now a partner institution of the New York City-based museum’s Seminars on Science program, which offers graduate-level credits via courses covering evolution, climate change, astronomy and a host of other scientific topics, all designed specifically for educators. The online seminars will now be open to students enrolled in SUNY Old Westbury’s Master of Arts in Teaching program (biology and chemistry concentrations) and Old Westbury learners seeking the content for certifications and other professional-development reasons.
The famous museum’s six-week Seminars in Science graduate courses have engaged more than 10,000 global educators over the last two decades, providing cutting-edge research opportunities, useful scientific refreshers and valuable classroom resources. “This partnership adds to the variety of courses we are making available to professional educators and graduate students as they seek to continue to enhance their skills,” noted Diana Sukhram, dean of SUNY Old Westbury’s School of Education.
Gold standard: Feinstein Institutes scientist Betty Diamond is a research-grant magnet.
Diamond level: Another year, another seven-figure grant for researcher extraordinaire Betty Diamond.
The standout scientist, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Northwell Health’s Manhasset-based Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, has earned a $3 million Global Team Science Award from the New York City-based nonprofit Lupus Research Alliance. The oft-awarded, Harvard-educated molecular medicine pioneer – a relentless investigator of lupus, which is estimated to affect upwards of 200,000 Americans (mostly women) – will lead an international team on a new lupus remission mission.
Specifically, the team – including three other Feinstein Institutes researchers and investigators from California, Mexico and London – will study diverse patients in drug-free remission from Systemic lupus erythematosus, the most common form of the devastating immune-system disease. “It is critical to understand what is going on at a molecular level in patients who fall into this category,” noted Diamond, who was elected in May to the National Academy of Sciences. “Through the generous support of the Lupus Research Alliance, we hope to develop new tools in assessing remission, identifying new signs of lupus flare-ups and novel potential drug targets.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Brand new: An Oceanside-based entrepreneur with a feel for the outdoors has rebranded his startup fashion line – and doubled down on its Long Island flavor.
On the air (and space): Cradle of Aviation Museum President Andrew Parton beams aboard Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast to discuss starships, marketing mastery and the museum’s nonstop flight toward world-class status.
ICYMI
After tagging COVID, an innovative Stony Brook biotech is now targeting monkeypox.
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 Texas: Irving-based convenience king 7-Eleven Inc. flips the switch on the 7Collection, an online shop curated with 7-Eleven-inspired merch.
From Florida: Sunrise-based professional-certification pioneer CertiProf expands its program portfolio with a new Certified Trainer Program.
From New York City: Video-learning platform Echo360 partners with California-based, AI-powered captioning service Rev to supercharge speech-to-text tools.
ON THE MOVE
Joseph Leston
+ Joseph Leston has been appointed deputy chief marketing officer of New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health. He most recently served as the health system’s vice president of marketing services.
+ Thurston O’Neal has been promoted to assistant vice president of prevention and community engagement at Garden City-based FCA. O’Neal, who will continue to co-chair the organization’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council, was most recently director of the FCA’s Hempstead Prevention Coalition.
+ Erica Schifano has been hired as assistant vice president for family support at Garden City-based FCA. The LCSW was most recently supervisor of Northwell Health’s Adult Health Home Program.
+ Joseph Manopella has been named president of Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre. He was previously executive director of Northwell Health’s Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital in Manhattan.
+ Liesl Jones has been appointed Suffolk County Community College’s vice president of academic affairs. She previously held the same position at Baltimore City Community College.
+ Melville-based Island Harvest Food Bank has elected two new members to its Board of Directors: Debbie Salas-Lopez, Northwell Health’s senior vice president for community and population Health, and Kishore Kuncham, superintendent of Freeport Public Schools.
+ David Lyons, interim president and chief operating officer of PSEG Long Island in Uniondale, has been elected to Deer Park-based United Way of Long Island’s Board of Directors.
Like this newsletter? Innovate Long Island newsletter, website and podcast sponsorships are a prime opportunity to reach the inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and executives you need to know (just ask Farrell Fritz). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD
Let’s get physical: Staying active is key to living longer and healthier.
Risky: Water scarcity now threatens artificial life.
Riskier: COVID-19 budgets may be shrinking too fast.
Riskiest: How to reduce your chances of dying too young.
Risk management: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Farrell Fritz, where they take no chances with clients’ corporate success. Check them out.
