[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 65 (Tuesday, May 23, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4292-S4294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     GEORGIA RESEARCH ALLIANCE HELPS CONVERT A VISION INTO REALITY

 Mr. CLELAND. Mr. President, ten years ago the business, government and 
academic leaders in the state of Georgia had a vision. Their vision was 
to cultivate and develop a robust technology-driven economy and to make

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Georgia's high-tech industry one of the best in the nation. I'm pleased 
to report that this vision is a reality today. Georgia is now the 
nation's leader in generating high-tech jobs and Atlanta is the 
undisputed high-tech capital of the Southeast! I'd like to pay tribute 
to the men and women of Georgia for their role in making these 
monumental achievements possible.
  One of the leading organizations that is responsible for advancing 
Georgia's high-tech economy is the Georgia Research Alliance. The 
Alliance's mission is to develop Georgia's high-tech economy by 
enabling the states's research universities to become powerful engines 
of economic growth. The Alliance has carried out its mission over the 
past ten years by strategically investing $240 million in State and 
Federal funding and $65 million in matching funds from private sector 
firms, like Bell South, Merial Corporation and Georgia Power. These 
investments are paying big dividends. First, Georgia has utilized over 
$600 million in Federal grants and contracts for building a premier 
high-tech research infrastructure through focused investments in the 
State's research universities, creating endowments for eminent 
scholars, building state-of-the-art research facilities and equipping 
the State's research laboratories. The Alliance has also been 
responsible for creating a high-tech, business friendly environment 
that has created new businesses from the research findings developed in 
the State's universities and enticed eminent scholars to relocate to 
Georgia.
  Another key achievement of the Alliance is growing high-tech jobs in 
the state. Since the Alliance began serving Georgia just ten years ago, 
the number of high-tech jobs in the state has more than doubled. These 
exceptional achievements have made Georgia the national leader in high-
tech job growth and allowed Georgia to gain worldwide recognition for 
its ability to craft a state-of-the-art technology-based economy.
  It is the efforts of many individuals, researchers and scholars, 
working with and for the Alliance, that have led to the successes this 
organization has attained. The Alliance has been responsible for 
attracting some of the best researchers and scholars in the world to 
help build Georgia's premier high-tech infrastructure. For example, Dr. 
Julia Hilliard, an Alliance Eminent Scholar in molecular biotechnology 
at Georgia State University, has come to Georgia with an interest in 
preventing the spread of herpes-B, which is one of the most feared 
occupational hazards in biomedical science. Dr. Rafi Ahmed at the Emory 
University School of Medicine is working to develop a vaccine that will 
permit the human immune system to respond with greater vigor when 
encountering a previously encountered pathogen. Included in this 
cutting-edge organization are world renowned researchers like Dr. Rao 
Tummala of the Georgia Institute of Technology, whose interests are the 
next generation electronic packaging, integral passive components, 
ultra high-density substrate technologies. These are only a few of the 
many dedicated researchers and scholars who are helping to shape 
Georgia's high-tech economy for the 21st century and are ensuring that 
Georgia becomes an even stronger world-class leader in high-tech 
development.
  There are many others who are working on notable projects, from 
agricultural biotechnology to water and air quality enhancements to 
technology-based learning, to e-commerce and wireless communication. 
All of the Eminent Scholars who have chosen Georgia to undertake their 
research do so for one reason--the strategic course Georgia has chosen 
to make its high-tech economy world class by the year 2010.
  The major drive in developing Georgia's technology economic sector 
has been the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars to establish 
new, leading-edge research programs, especially those involving 
collaboration between academic and industrial scientists and engineers. 
These investments have gone to developing research at Georgia's 
universities and have resulted in tremendous advances in technology 
related discoveries. These successes are continuing today by 
investments in people, laboratory construction and specialized 
instrumentation in support of collaborative research and development.
  This year the Alliance is expected to invest an additional $34 
million to continue the progress being made to develop Georgia's 
technology-based economy. This effort includes $29.5 million for 
laboratory construction in support of collaborative research and 
development conducted by eminent researchers. Another $3.75 million 
will be used to fund endowments that will be used to recruit five 
additional Eminent Scholars for Georgia. The remaining $750,000 will be 
spent to continue the Alliance's highly successful Technology 
Partnerships which encourage new relationships with industry and assist 
in the commercialization of university-based research.
  One of the highly promising projects that is being considered for 
future development is a project at the University of Georgia to add 
world-class and cutting edge animal genomics technology to Georgia's 
research and business sectors. For another project, it is envisioned 
that a team of collaborating Eminent Scholars from Albany State 
University and Georgia State University will be researching solutions 
on how to effectively deal with water scarcity problems. To help combat 
global infectious diseases, a collaborative team of respected scholars 
from Emory University, the Medical College of Georgia, University of 
Georgia, Georgia State and Geogia Tech will create a unique research 
program which will lead to the development and commercialization of new 
vaccines, diagnostics and drugs to prevent and treat infectious 
diseases that threaten the health of the world's population and 
livestock. This is only a sample of the extraordinary projects that are 
envisioned for this year. Just wait until next year. The advancements 
made by these projects will no doubt create even more exciting high-
tech initiatives in the future.
  The Alliance, through its hard work and dedicated people, has 
received worldwide recognition for its achievements and is prepared 
more than ever before to attract and retain some of the best 
researchers in the world. The Alliance has already been responsible for 
generating over 80,000 new jobs since 1990, and they are creating more 
jobs than ever through the formation of new technology-based companies. 
These companies are being formed almost daily in Georgia by converting 
research technology developed in university and industry laboratories 
into new commercial applications. One example is AviGenics, Inc., a 
development-stage company formed to commercialize the results of novel 
laboratory technologies in chicken transgenesis discovered at The 
University of Georgia. The company's avian transgenesis platform is 
being used to improve poultry agronomic traits and helping the 
pharmaceutical industry by producing high volumes of pharmaceutically-
important proteins in eggs. Another successful high-tech upstart is the 
Digital Furnace Corporation. Formed in mid-1998, Digital Furnace is a 
spin-off from the Broadband Telecommunications Center led by Georgia 
Research Alliance Eminent Scholar John Limb, who successfully developed 
broadband technology to interconnect and automate the entire home. 
These enterprises are benefitting directly from Georgia's investment in 
new, state-of-the-art laboratories that the Alliance helped to build.

  Even established major information technology companies are being 
attracted to Georgia by the presence of our strong science and 
technology programs and the state's commitment to growing the pool of 
eminent scholars. Today companies like Lucent Technologies are seeking 
to capitalize on Georgia's high-tech infrastructure. Recently, Lucent 
Technologies chose Atlanta to be home for its new Wireless Laboratory. 
The decision was based largely on its ability to work in close 
partnership with Georgia's great researchers and the Alliance's 
commitment to establish an eminent scholar chair and invest in a 
wireless systems laboratory at Georgia Tech. These investments are 
resulting in Georgia Tech's and Lucent's researchers working in 
partnership to further develop wireless communication capabilities. 
This partnership is also helping to bridge the gap between a company's 
problems and the expertise available at our research universities 
which, in

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turn, is resulting in high-tech job creation and retention for the 
state of Georgia.
  The work of the Alliance has only begun and they have great plans to 
build on their current successes by creating a stronger technology 
infrastructure in the State in the future. Their goal, as it has been 
in the past, is to make Georgia's technology economic sector one of the 
top five in the nation by the year 2010. The outstanding successes of 
the men and women of the Alliance have already proven that they are 
capable of achieving this goal. Based on the successes they have 
already achieved, I believe they will reach their goal sooner than 
expected. Ladies and gentleman of the Georgia Research Alliance, I am 
very grateful for your contributions and I am looking forward to your 
continued successes. Thank you very much for making Georgia a world 
class leader in technology development and for making Georgia's 
technology economy one of the best in the nation.

                          ____________________