By Joseph P. Cabadas
March 7, 2011
Michigan’s businesses and industries are built and grow on a strong foundation of legendary inventors, scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs.
Their names are many, including Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, John Sheehan who helped synthesize natural penicillin, Daniel Gerber who created canned baby food, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and William K. Kellogg who created ready-to-eat cereal, General Motors inventor and engineer Charles “Boss” Kettering, plus George S. Davis and Hervey C. Parke who founded Parke-Davis.
Some are household names, some are only remembered by historians, and some were college educated while others weren’t (though in Ford’s case, he built schools and colleges) — but their products changed the world.
That spirit of inventiveness, of pushing the boundaries of science, technology and even in the digital world lives on in Michigan. To honor those who are building the foundations for the state’s future,
Corp! Magazine inaugurated the Business of Science and Technology Awards in 2010 and this year has expanded it to include those whose Internet/software products are altering the way business is done.
Michigan has its reputation as a center of heavy manufacturing, but for decades it had a diversified economy. At the Corp! Magazine awards breakfast held Feb. 22 at the Michigan State University Management Education Center in Troy, the 25 “DiSciTech Honorees” for 2011 represent the new jobs of the future – including showing that manufacturing is not a thing of the past – and that the state is well-equipped to prosper in the new economy powered by science and technology.
The Science and Technology Award winners are: Aastrom Biosciences Inc., Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Advanced Energy Group, Angott Medical Products LLC, ApoLife Inc., Central Michigan University, Citadel Defense Technologies, Clean Emission Fluids Inc., Danotek Motion Technologies, Delphinus Medical Technologies, Dynamic Computer Corp., FANUC Robotics America Corp., HTI Heat Transfer International, Institute for Geospatial Research and Education, MitoStem, Plex Systems, and Twisthink.
The Digital winners are: Comsoft Business Solutions Inc., Ingenex Digital Marketing, iwerk, MIST Innovations, Parnunu, Plante & Moran, Scate Technologies, and Workfolio LLC.