CCST Newsroom

California State University East Bay President Mohammad Quayoumi hosted the first in what will be a series of meetings exploring aspects of California’s innovation ‘ecosystem.’ The meeting on October 14, “A Call to Action: Advancing California’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Innovation Ecosystem,” brought together industry and education leaders to discuss reinventing K-12 education, […]

CCST’s Personalized Healthcare Information Technology (pHIT) Task Force has assembled a panel of clinical oncologists as part of its pilot study to develop a scalable prototype healthcare decision support system designed to integrate de-identified patient records with genetic/ genomic test results. This system will be built upon an expertly developed personalized clinical ontology for breast […]

This first jointly sponsored CCST and the California Space Authority (CSA) meeting created an opportunity to generate awareness of the burgeoning commercial aerospace industry resident in the Mojave under the auspices of the California Space Port. CSA is a member based enterprise association working closely with stakeholders to facilitate California’s competitiveness and space enterprise vitality […]

At the February and May 2010 meetings, changes, threats and opportunities in California’s innovation capacity were discussed. The February meeting initiated a dialog on the changing context of innovation in S&T. Excellence in science and engineering is not enough to be a world leader – we need to be more creative, and look to radical […]

At the request of the State Legislature the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) proposes to conduct a comprehensive assessment of California’s “science and technology (S&T) innovation ecosystem,” (specifically human capital, investment, and infrastructure), analyzing and reporting current global innovation systems, and recommending to the Legislature actions that should be taken to sustain the […]

California’s elementary school teachers feel much less confident in teaching science than reading or math, and there is both the need and the potential for significant improvement in elementary school teacher preparation, according to a new report by the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). Currently, 50% of California’s students score at or below […]

C.L. Max Nikias has been named the next president of the University of Southern California (USC). Nikias, a noted scholar internationally recognized for his research on integrated media systems, digital communications, and biomedicine, is a former member of the CCST Board of Directors and is a CCST Senior Fellow. “Max Nikias is an outstanding person […]

Often, CCST focuses on an issue over a period of years, such as that of personalized healthcare information technology. For outgoing Council member and new CCST Senior Fellow Alfonso Cárdenas, the progress has been encouraging. “I am very glad to have been working with CCST’s energetic and visionary council members towards major advances much needed […]

In a meeting on December 15th, the CalPERS Health Benefits Committee approved moving forward with a pilot program proposed by the Personalized Healthcare Information Technology (pHIT) Task Force convened by CCST and the California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency (BTH). The underlying purpose of the one year pilot study is to assist the state in […]

CCST Council member Alice Huang discussed science policy at the state and national level in an address to the Council in October. Having completed the second of two terms as a CCST Council member, she will assume the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in February 2010. She was designated […]

California has two ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The first, proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005 and codified in the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), requires that emissions in 2020 be no higher than emissions in 1990. The second, also proposed by the Governor, calls for California’s emissions in […]

The National Research Council Center for Education, National Academy of Engineering (NAE), CCST, and the California Teacher Advisory Council (Cal TAC) have hosted three symposia designed to inform and develop a California STEM Innovation Network (CSI-N), in order to more effectively coordinate and drive the issues of STEM education in the public agenda. The first […]

On May 27, 2009, the California Council on Science and Technology convened, on behalf of the State’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency (BT & H), the first formal meeting of a newly formed Personalized Health Information Technology Task Force (PHIT). This meeting was an outcome of several months of investigative work by a steering committee […]

The worsening of the financial crisis since September 2008 has made it more difficult to finance new clinical information systems (CIS) in the near term, but newly approved federal funding for healthcare information technology (HIT) has the potential to offset these challenges, according to a newly released report by researchers at the University of California, […]

CCST is pleased to announce the launch of a new fellowship opportunity for professional scientists and engineers to spend a year working in Sacramento with the California State Legislature. The California Science and Technology (S&T) Policy Fellowships provide a professional development opportunity that will enable members of the scientific community to contribute to scientific and […]

Rollin Richmond, president of Humboldt State University, has joined the CCST Board of Directors. The appointment follows a decision to expand representation from the California State University System on the Board. “We are very pleased with the working relationship that we continue to develop with the California State University,” said CCST Board Chair Karl Pister. […]

CCST is completing a study, Overview of California R&D Funding from 2005-2007, which provides a snapshot of R&D spending by the state government. The report provides a partial update to CCST’s 1999 analysis of California state R&D funding, carried out as a component of the “California Report on the Environment for Science and Technology” (CREST). The new study […]

The National Academies and CCST are working with the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation to hold a convocation on building and sustaining effective programs in elementary school science education. The convocation is scheduled to be held on April 29 and 30, 2009 at the Beckman Center in Irvine. “For science to assume fully its role […]

California is leading the nation in reinventing the State’s energy system in response to climate change concerns. However, the state faces significant challenges associated with meeting the emission reductions laid out by AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, while ensuring its economic vitality and secure energy supplies. “As the state makes critical choices […]

At the CCST Council meeting on October 8, experts brought the message that California urgently needs to plan its water future using every tool available. “Most of the recent attention on climate change has focused on mitigation and energy issues, and much less on what we must do to adapt,” said CCST Council Chair Charles […]

Professional Science Master’s (PSM) degree programs, a recently designed range of hybrid degrees intended to combine graduate science training with business skills, merit further support and expansion, according to a recent National Research Council (NRC) report by the Committee on Enhancing the Master’s Degree in the Natural Sciences. The report drew in part upon the […]