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Raising capital is tougher than ever, but analysts voice optimism for scientist-business people with viable products In mid-1989, George Rathmann decided to leave his post as chairman of Amgen Inc. of Thousand Oaks, Calif., a biotechnology company he cofounded in 1980, to embark on another biotech venture. He joined Bob Nowinski (founder of Genetic Systems Corp. in Seattle) and Chris Henney (founder of Immunex Corp. also of Seattle) to form ICOS Corp., which was incorporated in late 1989. The

The agency's plans to fund up to 80 facilities at universities now seem doomed by harsh criticism and funding shortages In Texas, the so-called third coast of biotechnology, a new statewide association of biotechnology companies hopes to put local investors in touch with scientist entrepreneurs. Its California counterpart successfully lobbied last year against a bill restricting animal testing. A Pennsylvania association is in the process of developing a high school curriculum on biotechnology

Leon Lederman wants U S to double academic science budget, but critics say his appeal is simplistic and ignores fiscal realitiess WASHINGTON -- Nobel laureate Leon Lederman's call for a doubling of federal spending on academic research was greeted with considerable skepticism last month at a meeting of science policymakers. And that's not his only problem Even some of his colleagues acknowledge that what Lederman calls a present-day crisis is, in fad, a more subtle phenomenon that won't be vis

Far Seeing, Yet Short Sighted Bush Honors 66 Top Managers Gender Gap In Manned Space Travel NSF Told To Create New Directorate Cheaper By The Dozen? ( Thanks to a special $75 million appropriation from Congress, the National Science Foundation is moving ahead quickly with an updated replacement for its radio telescope in Green Bank, W. Va., which collapsed in November 1988. Last month NSF awarded a $55 million construction contract to Radiation Systems Inc. of Sterling, Va., for a state

These organizations help startups get assembled and launched by easing the pressures that can cause early failures Jason Lieu, an applied mathematician, had big plans for a computer system he had designed to model telecommunications and computer networks. So he quit a high-level job as a technical director at ITT Inc. in New York in 1984 and went into business for himself. The first few years were tough. Hardly anyone wanted to buy his invention. Luckily for him, Lieu had located his company

Total of new awards for individual investigators, long seen as a barometer of the agency's welfare, is object of controversy ASHINGTON--Numbers are the lifeblood of science, a way to quantify the search for truth. But a number can also make a political statement. In fact, the current bitter debate within the biomedical community over the National Institutes of Health's commitment to research proposed by individual investigators can be summed up in a single number: 6,000. As a rallying cry, th

Analysts warn that good marketing and sound financing are as key to survival for new ventures as top-notch science ST. LOUIS--After 20 years of vigorous scientific growth, neuroscience has vacated the biotechnology umbrella to emerge as a promising industry of its own. With an annual United States market of $4.4 billion in sales, neuropharmaceuticals is one area of biotechnology in which investors are always looking for a great deal. About two dozen startups are pursuing new technologies for d

They acknowledge a laxness in following and monitoring research safety guidelines, which could pose a serious risk to some investigators Last spring, when eight students at the University of Pennsylvania's veterinary school went to the school's rural New Bolton Center to castrate some lambs, they considered it to be business as usual. Likewise for the parents and teachers of a nearby preschool class that visited and petted the sheep. What neither group knew was that just a month before, Jorge

Michael T. White, former general manager of Brunswick Biotechnetics in San Diego, has joined the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, as an associate to the industrial liaison officer. The new position was created to facilitate the management and protection of the intellectual properties of the Scripps Research Institute. White received a Ph.D. in botanical sciences and genetics in 1971 from the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds an MBA in marketing, earned in 1980, als

(The Scientist, Vol:5, #2, pg. 20, January 21, 1991) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) ---------- Eli Lilly Helps Women Chemists Travel Women undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral chemists who wish to present their research results at meetings can apply for travel grants provided by Eli Lilly & co. and administered by the American Chemical Society's Women Chemists Committee. Money is intended for travel to, registration at, and accommodations for scientific meetings within the continental

Starting salaries for new geology graduates, especially those entering environmental fields or the domestic oil and gas industries, are rising, according to a recently compiled survey by the Alexandria, Va.-based American Geological Institute. AGI's latest annual survey of starting salaries for inexperienced graduates, released this month, projected that geologists with master's and doctoral degrees beginning work in 1990 would reap the highest increases over the starting salaries paid to their

In its 173rd annual business meeting last month, the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) honored four scientists for their contributions to science and society. Vitali Goldanski, director of the Semonyov Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow, received the $2,000 NYAS Award for his work in chemical physics, nuclear physics, and chemistry and biophysics. The award also recognized Goldanski, the chairman of the Soviet Pugwash Group, for "his contributions to disa