florida.HIGH.TECH florida.HIGH.TECH 2015 | Page 62

An important achievement said USF President Dr. Judy Genshaft was the “We have the scale and the scope of creation of an incubator for students on her campus. “That is so important what we want to accomplish,” said because so many of the discoveries are made when you are willing to take Dr. Fuchs. “We’re number three in lots of risk and you’re willing to really dream big. That’s really a very exciting part of what we do to help develop the whole enterprise of discovery and commercialization.” population as a state and we deserve to be number three in the tech sector. When other states think of us, I want them She said commercialization is so important to the academic to think that Florida and our universities enterprise and its role in economic development that it has been need to be the model for the nation.” added to the list of things by which faculty can achieve growth and promotion. “I want to applaud The Corridor because I think it has been a remarkable invention and discovery itself, and it has been so valuable not only to each of the universities, but to private industry and all of our communities… and at 30 years I see great things.” Reinforcing Jennings’ focus on workforce, Dr. Hitt said, “I think in the future we’re going to see an exaggeration of a trend that’s already started. And that is that rather than a workforce following jobs, companies now are following workforce. New UF President Kent Fuchs came to Gainesville from Cornell You see it really strongly in a lot of high University in New York where he led establishment of a technology tech economies.” campus in Manhattan 200+ miles from the main campus in partnership with city government. “I’m real pleased to be the newcomer on the block and to benefit from the work that Gov. Jennings and others here have done, and to be a partner with all of you who are focused on economic development.” He pointed to The Corridor’s Matching Grants Research Program as something that “leverages what we are already doing, creates a tie to an application and a company, and gives students a focus to the application of what they are studying. 60 s p ec ia l se c tio n Reminding the FEDC of the old bromide of the rising tide that lifts all boats, he said, “Folks, if we can work together on this project we can be that rising tide.”