It’s great to be a part of the New Jersey Technology Council, and to be invited to contribute to the NJTC Blog.
New Jersey gets way more than its share of being the butt of jokes, but it’s pretty clear the reason is pure jealousy over our spectrum of landscapes, and our technical innovation!
Not even googling for obscure items such as the electric train, patent leather or saltwater taffy, most technology buffs can cite an impressive role call of New Jersey inventions including the light bulb, phonograph, FM radio, movies, color television, video tape, transistors, LCDs and, well, off the top of my head, anyway: pork roll! Like the Lower Trenton Bridge, which reads “Trenton Makes The World Takes”, New Jersey can be said to have contributed more to transform the pre-industrical world into the global village it became in the 20th century than any other place on earth.
Pharmaceuticals may not come to mind when thinking about inventions, but it’s not surprising that NJ accounts for a sizeable portion of US drug innovation. In 2002, for example, a full third of the drugs and bio products approved by the FDA were from New Jersey firms.
I fully expect some day to walk into a theater that allows me to be immersed in a moving scene from a real location miles away (could be a Superbowl, a performance, or a watering hole in the Serengeti) with 360-degree binocular vision and binaural audio, patented by a lifelong NJ resident I met in my first job. People I’ve met in the NJTC itself have brought some of the most mission-relevant business continuity strategies to the table that I’ve heard or read about from any source.
Not bad for a place some like to quip should be paved over to create a super-highway between New York and Washington D.C., eh?
New Jersey Technology Council
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