November 4-6, 2009
PSM: Advancing the Nation's
Competitiveness and Innovation Agenda
Professional Science Master's Sixth Biennial Meeting
Hosted by the Council of Graduate Schools 

PSM Biennial Meeting
November 4-6, 2009
Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill
Washington, DC 

The PSM Biennial Meeting, celebrating its sixth conference, is one of the largest events featuring the Professional Science Master’s (PSM) degree. This meeting brings together members of the PSM community including program directors, deans, students, alumni, and members of press, offering key networking and partnering opportunities. In addition, this meeting provides insights and inspiration on developing programs and opportunities for future success and sustainability.

Much of the U.S. economic growth over the last half century has been the result of technological innovation. Looking ahead, America’s prosperity and security in the 21st century depend upon innovation, scientific discovery, and the creation of knowledge. In order to be competitive in the 21st century global economy, the U.S. needs to produce a cadre of well-rounded science professionals with deep knowledge of their subjects but also with the business skills needed to communicate effectively, manage projects, and solve problems. Graduates contribute to a highly skilled, nimble, and entrepreneurial workforce that can enhance our capacity to innovate, discover new products and solutions, and take those products to commercial reality.

Many PSM programs have been or are being developed in response to the forces affecting higher education institutions including U.S. competitiveness, globalization, increased accountability to the state for public institutions, increased competition for students, and demographic changes in the composition of graduate students. This Biennial Meeting will address the PSM initiative’s response to these forces and the means for sustaining programs for future growth.

Preliminary topics for this year’s meeting will include a selection of plenaries focusing on the latest and most essential issues regarding the PSM degree, poster presentations, and a commissioned paper series on the following topics; financial models for program sustainability, including student financing; recruiting students and marketing the PSM program; and ethics in the PSM curriculum.

About Washington, DC

*Information excerpted from Destination DC: www.washington.org.

General Information
Officially founded on July 16, 1790, Washington, DC is unique among American cities because it was established by the Constitution of the United States to serve as the nation’s capital. From the beginning it has been embroiled in political maneuvering, sectional conflicts, issues of race, national identity, compromise and, of course, power.

History
The choice of Washington’s site along the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers resulted from a compromise between Alexander Hamilton and northern states who wanted the new Federal government to assume Revolutionary War debts and Thomas Jefferson and southern states who wanted the capital placed in a location friendly to slave-holding agricultural interests.

George Washington, the first president and namesake of the city, chose the site and appointed three commissioners to help prepare for the arrival of the new government in 1800. In 1800 the federal government consisted of 131 employees. Pierre Charles L’Enfant designed the city as a bold new capital with sweeping boulevards and ceremonial spaces reminiscent of Paris of his native France. Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught African-American mathematical genius, provided the astronomical calculations for surveying and laying out the city. The full development of Washington as a monumental city, however, did not come until a hundred years later when the McMillan Commission updated its plan to establish the National Mall and monuments that most visitors to Washington now know.

Washington, DC, was envisioned by its founders as a commercial center as well as the seat of government. The location on the Potomac River was chosen, in part, because it already included two existing port towns of Georgetown, Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia which served as regional shipping centers for tobacco and wheat. When Alexandria returned to Virginia in 1846, residents argued that inclusion within the Federal District of Columbia hurt business and the city of Washington would never need that much room to grow.

Washington is also a cosmopolitan city. While it has always had foreign delegations from the countries of the world it also boasts an increasingly diverse ethnic population. A growing Latino population represents every Central and South American country with a particularly large community of Salvadorans. A large Ethiopian population has resulted from the political turmoil there. New ethnic groups have brought new restaurants, as well as new residents. While DC lost residents to surrounding suburbs in the 1990s, new housing and urban revitalization is now attracting people back to the city for a downtown renaissance of housing, offices, entertainment and nightlife.

As the capital of the world’s most powerful democracy, it is ironic that residents of Washington lack full self government and limited self government was only restored in 1974 after nearly 100 years with an appointed commissioner system. Representation in Congress is limited to a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives and a shadow Senator. 1964 was the first Presidential election in which Washington residents were able to vote.

After 217 years as the nation’s capital, Washington is a place brimming with a unique history of its own. It has developed as a complex and layered city with multiple personalities. As home to the federal government, it has attracted a diverse mix of government workers, members of Congress from every state, foreign emissaries, lobbyists, petitioners and protestors. While elected and appointed officials come and go giving the city its reputation as a transient community, many of the city’s residents have called Washington home for multiple generations. Their stories give Washington its distinctive character as both a national and local city.

For more information about Washington, DC, please visit Destination DC: www.washington.org.

The Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill on New Jersey Avenue is located amongst the most recognizable landmarks of Washington, DC. Located just two blocks from Historic Union Station and three blocks from the U.S. Capitol Building, and recently remodeled in 2009, the Capitol Hill hotel provides visitors with newly designed rooms with truly privileged views of Washington DC and the U.S. Capitol.