|
State impresses Israeli observers
January 23, 2007
The Oklahoman
By Jim Stafford
The Oklahoma that a group of Israeli scientists and businessmen did not know was introduced to them Monday at the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park.
The two-hour orientation session was quite a revelation, said Alex Harel, managing director for Brilliant Biomedical Magnetic Solutions Ltd., an Israeli company working to commercialize magnetic technology for the medical industry.
“I think the biotech industry in Israel is not aware enough of the opportunities in Oklahoma,” Harel said. “I definitely didn’t know that Oklahoma was so advanced in biotech.”
Harel is one of five Israelis visiting Oklahoma this week as part of an Israel/Oklahoma Bioscience event sponsored by the state Commerce Department. The Israeli group participated in an orientation Monday morning at the Research Park Conference Center in which they heard from the state’s biotech industry and economic development leaders.
“I think what we heard today how the state government is supporting early stage companies is very impressive,” Harel said. “I think that is the way to go.”
The trip was organized by Shawna K. Turner, international trade manager for the Commerce Department, and Sherwin Pomerantz, director of the Commerce Department’s Eastern Mediterranean Office in Jerusalem.
Pomerantz promotes Oklahoma and several other states in the region on a contract basis. The Israeli delegation will travel to Indiana later this week to tour that state’s biotech industry, Pomerantz said.
“I don’t know if a particular company here from Israel will make a deal with one of the Oklahoma companies that he or she meets with,” Pomerantz said. “I don’t think that is the issue. The issue is to get people talking, and one of the companies he is meeting with says ‘you are not for me, but I know someone in Norman or someone in Ardmore who would be perfect for you.’ The networking and the exchange of information are terrific.”
After Monday’s orientation, delegation members met their Oklahoma research counterparts in networking sessions and toured research laboratories at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
The delegation will conclude the Oklahoma portion of the trip today with a visit to the Stephenson Research and Technology Center on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman.
“My objective in terms of getting the companies here, I want them to walk out of here tomorrow afternoon and say ‘wow.’ ” Pomerantz said. “Then they go back to Israel, and they say ‘wow’ and they start talking to each other. They say, ‘I was in Oklahoma last week, and you should see what I saw.’ Then someone else calls and asks, ‘how do I get to Oklahoma?’”
Pomerantz said Oklahoma doesn’t register with many people in the territory covered by the Eastern Mediterranean Office he represents. That impression changed quickly for the Israeli delegation, he said.
Among the Israeli group was Nissim Silanikove, with Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization.
Silanikove spent time at Langston University on a sabbatical a decade ago. The growth in Oklahoma’s biotech community in a decade was readily apparent, he said. “It is growing bigger and bigger all the time,” Silanikove said. “To look and see the differences in 10 years time is quite (a contrast).”
Among the speakers to the delegation Monday morning was Hershel Lamirand, executive director of the Oklahoma Health Center Foundation, which represents 32 organizations on the 325-acre health center campus. Lamirand called the Research Park the “single most important thing that has changed the character of this campus.”
The group was obviously impressed with the research park and the available lab space adjacent to the OU Health Sciences Center and OMRF, Pomerantz said. Tour delegate Harel did not disagree.
“These are first class facilities without the high cost associated with the east or west side of the country, which everybody knows about,” Harel said. “That is a very big advantage.”
Copyright 2006, The Oklahoma Publishing Company
---
For further inquiries contact Stephanie Callaway.
|
Copyright © 2000-2005 The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, All Rights Reserved | University of Oklahoma Disclaimers