Posted on Apr 1, 2005

Following an extensive screening process, Union College trustees have engaged Academic Search Consultation Service, of Washington, DC, to assist the presidential search process, search chair Frank Messa announced on March 31.

Academic Search is the premiere organization in the United States serving the chief executive officer and chief academic officer search needs of American higher education. With over a quarter century of service, and well over 600 former clients, the experience and expertise of Academic Search are unequalled.  (www.academic-search.org)

Utilizing an executive search model fashioned specifically for higher education, Academic Search provides an extensive array of coordinated search services for client institutions.  The firm will begin work immediately to craft a compelling position description and begin the candidate outreach process.

Persons wishing to pass suggestions and nominations to the search committee are encouraged to do so via the search site on the Union College web www.unionsearch.org

Dr. Barbara E. Taylor is a senior consultant with the Academic Search Consultation Service in Washington, D.C. Before joining Academic Search, she served for 12 years as Director and then Vice President for Programs and Research at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. Before and since joining Academic Search, she has served as a consultant to more than 100 colleges, universities, and other non-profit organizations in executive search as well as governing board development, board-president and board-faculty relations, strategic planning, and assessing institutional condition.

Posted on Apr 1, 2005

SuperPower Inc., Union College, and Schenectady County Community College have secured a $5 million matching grant to train a future work force SuperPower says it needs as it ramps up production of its superconducting cables.

SuperPower CEO Philip Pellegrino announced the news Thursday during a breakfast of business leaders at Union College.

“I love New York,” he sang as he came to the podium, “especially today.”

He said he was sick and tired of seeing jobs leave New York. The project is designed to train workers for specific jobs. SCCC will train workers in manufacturing the superconducting wires used for transmitting electricity. Union College, located in Schenectady, will build a clean lab and help create the equipment needed for conducting quality control on the wires.

SuperPower, based in Schenectady, expects to grow from 50 people to 150 by 2010.

“We have no time to waste to make this happen,” Pellegrino said.

Outgoing Union College President Roger Hull said he expects the collaboration among Union, SCCC and SuperPower “will be the first of many collaborations.”

Sen. Hugh Farley (R-Amsterdam) secured the funds as part of the budget under the State University of New York capital funds for community colleges.

“I think it's a very exciting, promising idea which just needs a catalyst to get it going,” Farley said of SuperPower's product. “Time is somewhat of the essence here. I think this is a very exciting project. Unless we support it and nurture it will go someplace else.”

Posted on Apr 1, 2005

SCHENECTADY — The state Legislature has pledged $5 million to help Union College and Schenectady County Community College train the workers who could build Schenectady-based SuperPower Inc.'s next generation of superconducting wire.

The grant, announced at an entrepreneurs' breakfast at Union College Thursday, will fund laboratories and other facilities, the design and purchase of new quality-control equipment, and development of curricula around manufacturing the high-temperature superconducting wire.

The technology shows promise for delivering almost resistance-free transmission of electrical power, which could help alleviate shortages. The wire, which can carry much higher currents than traditional copper or aluminum technologies, also has applications in generators, transformers and motors.

The partnership could help SuperPower triple staffing in the coming five years, to 150 people.

“This initiative is the 21st century equivalent of Thomas Edison's original investment in Schenectady,” said Sen. Hugh T. Farley, R-Niskayuna, who helped secure the money in the budget. “Not only will the world's first production (of) second-generation high-temperature superconducting wire be manufactured in Schenectady, but the people who know how to design and build this leading-edge product will learn their skills in Schenectady.”

The money is included in the Legislature's version of the budget, passed Thursday to meet the deadline for the first on-time budget in 20 years.

The partners said preliminary discussions with Gov. George Pataki's office indicated the money was safe.

“They certainly recognized this as a great collaboration and a great concept. But we understand that in the budget negotiation process, there are no guarantees,” said William Schwarz, director of corporate and government relations at Union College.

Superconductors, when cooled to very low temperatures, can conduct electricity with almost no loss from resistance, which means more power can be delivered from existing plants. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that about 7 percent of the energy currently generated is lost in transmission and distribution.

The colleges will help SuperPower design and implement quality-control systems for the manufacturing process. And through course work and internships, they are expected to turn out the scientists, engineers and technicians that SuperPower will need if it successfully commercializes the technology.

SuperPower is in the midst of a four-year project to install a high-temperature superconducting line as a test in Albany.

SuperPower President Philip Pellegrino said the partners have been in talks about the program for about a year.

He said the program would allow SuperPower to hire from within the region.

“It's locally growing a high-tech work force, rather than — as we and many of our colleges in Tech Valley have found — of having to go out and recruit these people from around the world. Why not train these people right here?” Pellegrino said.

SuperPower, formed in 2000, is a subsidiary of Latham-based Intermagnetics General Corp., which makes superconducting magnets for magnetic resonance imaging machines and patient monitoring systems.

Posted on Apr 1, 2005

The new state budget contains a $5 million package of good news Thursday for a collaboration among energy technology company SuperPower Inc., Union College and Schenectady County Community College.

The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Hugh T. Farley, R-Schenectady, will fund a plan by the colleges to train students in specialized technology as well as provide sophisticated equipment at SuperPower's 450 Duane Ave. headquarters.

“The $5 million infusion of capital . . . will be the first of many collaborations between the community college and Union,” college President Roger H. Hull told a breakfast gathering of area business people at the college Thursday morning.

Under the three-year grant, SuperPower will receive $2.3 million to procure quality control equipment and other tools for its second-generation high-temperature superconducting wire.

Union College will get $1.7 million for laboratory space and a clean room to test equipment to coordinate with SuperPower's research. Students will also study related technology and pursue intern programs, Union spokesman William Schwarz said.

Schenectady County Community College will get $1 million to upgrade its facilities, obtain testing equipment, and for technology curriculum development.

The three partners must also come up with $1.25 million over three years to match the grant. Most of that will be for staff services, labor and materials, Schwarz said.

“SCCC will be providing training and courses necessary for this very specialized workforce,” said SCCC spokeswoman Heather Meaney.

Depending on when the funding arrives, the community college's Math, Science and Technology Department will work to develop new courses in its electri- cal technology two-year degree program over the spring and summer, Meaney said.

Teaching is tentatively expected to begin next fall, with about 20 students the first year. That is expected to grow to about 35 to 40 students the following year, she said.

Farley, who compared the initiative to Thomas Edison's investment in Schenectady that resulted in the General Electric Co., was enthusiastic about the connections to local colleges.

“The exciting part is that the community college is going to be training these people,” Farley said.

The Senate-only grant is part of the State University capital fund, according to Farley's staff.

“I love New York!,” Super-Power President Philip J. Pellegrino said during the breakfast meeting at Union, which was cosponsored by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce.

Saying he is “sick of hearing about high-tech jobs going offshore,” Pellegrino said the collaboration will help industry make jobs “right here and help [students] to get jobs to make products.”

“It's about workforce development and new technology,” he said.

The grant will pay for electron microscopes and related equipment for SuperPower's development of a more efficient electricity transmission wire.

The company is currently involved in a $26 million federally supported demonstration project aimed at improving the electric power grid in the state.

SuperPower plans to install nearly one-quarter mile of a new type of transmission wire on the Niagara Mohawk system in the Albany area.

The wire uses ceramic materials instead of copper to better conduct electricity and help prevent power outages like the one in August 2003 that cut power to 50 million people in several states.

State funding for actual tools and equipment is a first for SuperPower, Pellegrino said.

Funding has historically come from SuperPower's parent company, Latham-based Intermagnetics General Corp. IGC has so far invested $65 million in the high temperature superconducting wire development, officials said.

According to the partners, the collaboration will also help retain 50 jobs established at Super-Power since 2000 and more than triple its workforce by 2010.

SuperPower hopes to commercialize its superconducting wire by next year, Pellegrino said. The wire, looking like a flat tape about 1 /2-inch wide, is designed to drastically decrease the resistance to electricity and allow current to flow more cheaply and efficiently.

The SuperPower grant program follows a $1.825 million grant earlier this month from the U.S. Department of Education to improve technology education at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.

Kelly Lovell, president of the Albany-based Center for Economic Growth, called the push toward collaborations between schools and industry “very important stuff.”

An advocate of the Tech Valley concept of attracting technology industries to eastern New York, Lovell was pleased that the SuperPower grant “is pulling in the energy industry” to widen the scope of the region's attraction to business. 

Posted on Apr 1, 2005

Through April 3
Wikoff Student Gallery, third floor, Nott Memorial
“Seeing in a New Light – A Spectrum of Artistic Nudes,” photographs by Jessica Gildersleeve '07

Extended through May 1
Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial
“Walter Hatke: Recent Work”

Through spring term
Humanities Gallery
“Silk Spaces” by Arlene Baker. Opening reception on Wednesday, April 6, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.