Tuesday, June 5, 1990

Alaska should grab opportunity.

A new opportunity has opened up for Alaska’s governor and state senate to help advance Alaska’s research priorities.

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) has been selected by the Japanese to be the North American secretariat for a $1 billion joint international manufacturing research and development program. The SME will hold meetings next October in Washington, D.C., to discuss issues of research priorities, intellectual property rights, and the international standardization of technology.

Will our governor and state senate allow Alaska to be represented at the conference?

Will Alaska’s clearly identifiable research priorities of electromagnetic continuous casting for capital goods production and electromagnetic plasma processing for the smelting of minerals have a chance of receiving international funding.

These research priorities pass all of the physics equations of the American system and are targeted specifically for Alaska. Without these technologies, Alaska will not have the ability to produce the physical products necessary to build our infrastructure while increasing our productivity.

Alaska must be represented at the conference. Our governor and state senate must assert their leadership by acting on this new opportunity.

Charles E. Duncan