New Jersey pays to keep the brightest here

They come from New Jersey’s best research universities. Their promising work may tame Alzheimer’s disease or reduce greenhouse gases. And the state desperately wants to keep them here.

They are the nine recipients of the New Jersey Technology Fellowship, a brand new type of grant that pays freshly minted scientists $50,000 apiece to stay in the Garden State and spend a year working in private industry.

"We think the fellowship program will have two important benefits for the state’s economy," said Donald Drakeman, who chairs the N.J. Commission on Science and Technology, which awards the fellowships. "First, it will encourage our best and brightest young minds to stay here rather than finding work in some other state. Second, it will build ties between business and academia, which will help both be more effective."

By ANDREW D. SMITH

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