BASIC Selects Winner of First BASIC Fellowship

The Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium (BASIC) announced on April 7, 2009 that the winner of its first $50,000 BASIC Fellowship is Ms. Tamara Carleton, a Doctoral Candidate in the School of Engineering at Stanford University.

Ms. Carleton’s winning proposal was in response to a competitive RFP issued by BASIC for the design of a Global Innovation Network. Dr. Robert J. T. Morris, Vice President, Services Research, IBM, and Chairman Emeritus of BASIC and the leader of the fellowship project stated, “Innovation networks are becoming noticeably more global and disaggregated. The objective of this BASIC Fellowship is to understand this change and how the Bay Area might be able to better participate in these changing networks. We are especially pleased that the proposal developed by Ms. Carleton surpasses our original objectives and will help drive action projects within BASIC.”

BASIC Chairman Regis Kelly, speaking on behalf of the BASIC Board, said “This is an exciting step for BASIC. Through this fellowship award to Tamara, we will be tapping into the innovative vision of one of the region’s future leaders in science and technology. She represents the first of what we hope will be a long line of BASIC Fellows charting new courses for increasing the region and the nation’s leadership in innovation.”

When contacted with news of her selection, Ms. Carleton said, “I feel incredibly honored to have been selected as the first BASIC Fellow by the top leaders in Bay Area research and technology. This project offers an extraordinary learning opportunity to investigate and define the future role of the region in globally networked innovation.”

Ms. Carleton describes her research agenda as being focused on industry innovation, combining work in technology, long-range strategy, and communication. Her doctoral thesis examines how technology innovators and entrepreneurs develop, advance, and communicate radical visions of technology. Her academic advisors for the BASIC project will be William Cockayne, Ph.D., CEO and founder of Change Research, Inc. and leader of the Stanford Center for Foresight and Innovation; and Professor Larry Leifer, Ph.D., director of the Center for Design Research in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University.

In addition to Robert Morris, other BASIC Board directors sponsoring the Fellowship are Mark F. Bregman Executive Vice President and CTO, Symantec Corporation; and John Kao, President, Kao and Company. The project sponsors and Regis B. Kelly, BASIC Chairman and Director of QB3, Arthur Bienenstock, Special Assistant to the President for Federal Research Policy, Stanford University, and R. Sean Randolph, President, Bay Area Council Economic Institute, will serve as mentors to Ms. Carleton throughout the project.

BASIC Board Director Dr. Arthur Bienenstock added a personal comment, “The selection of Ms. Carleton as BASIC’s first Fellow is of special significance to me. I’m proud that a Stanford grad student was selected. I’m pleased that BASIC is providing the opportunity for young people to lead important regional research projects based on their individual knowledge and training. And, as a long-time Stanford faculty member, I’m enthused to be directly involved in a project which is a win for a grad student, for BASIC, and for this university’s broader mission of advancing innovation through an industry-university collaborative action.”