NET RESULTS:A little institution with a large reputation is enjoying its lead over well-known university rivals
Forget Stanford, forget Harvard. The number one university in the world right now is... Cal Tech.
At least, that's the view of the UK magazine Times Higher Education,which produced its annual ratings last week. It caused a bit of dismissive sniffing here in the region surrounding Silicon Valley's educational jewel, Leland Stanford Jr University.
I am sure they were similarly pursed-lipped in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the home of Harvard, as the tiny, far lesser known CalTech – California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in southern California – pipped its famed rivals to first place.
Stanford and Harvard hold joint second, while the University of California, Berkeley jogs in behind at 10th place.
In a statement, the magazine noted the differences in rankings of the very top universities were “minuscule”. CalTech scored 94.8 points compared to the other two’s 93.9.
But CalTech was quick to capitalise on its new ranking and now its website homepage spells CalTech with the number one replacing the “l”. Little CalTech – where famed physicists Richard Feynman lectured and Murray Gell-Man conducted research – does have a big reputation in science and technology circles and will no doubt relish its year ranked as the very best of the best.
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Meanwhile over on the venture capital front, this might be a very good time to be a European technology or biotechnology start-up looking for venture capital.
In a survey reported last week, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) noted that close to 40 per cent of the 150 venture firms that took part in the survey had said that they had decreased their investment in life sciences over the past three years and expected to continue to hold back on such investment for the next three years.
The main issue is tight regulatory control in the US, contributing to what is already a very long time line for the development of new products (and hence, payback on investment). Only 13 per cent of companies said they would be investing in US companies.
By contrast, venture firms here indicated that they would put more money into European and Asian companies in both technology and biotechnology – about a third said they would put money into Europe, while 44 per cent indicated they would invest in Asian companies.
Out here in Silicon Valley, that depressing news – on top of NVCA statistics that indicated initial public offerings are at their lowest level in seven quarters – was a downbeat start to a week that also shocked with the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
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The public outpouring over that sad event remains extraordinary. It isn’t that such grim news was totally unexpected. Gaunt pictures of Jobs had circulated around the time that he resigned as chief executive last August and his skeletal appearance at his last public Apple event appearance earlier in the summer spoke more than words that something was very wrong with his health.
But just as the death of a close friend or relative shocks, regardless of the length of time they have been ill, Jobs’s death shook so many precisely because people felt a much closer connection to this man for a huge variety of reasons than they do to other public and tech industry figures.
By the start of this week, the tributes and talk were omnipresent but slowing, or at least, shifting to other considerations. Such as, making sure that you had your order in for the new 4S iPhone – the one announced only a day before Jobs’s death, and which people had been considering a bit of a disappointment in the commentary that came 24 hours after its launch.
However, people quickly realised it hadn’t been the time for a huge product launch and almost certainly the launch was kept deliberately low key. There was a lot of quiet talk here that it must have been extremely difficult for new Apple chief executive Tim Cook to get up and launch the new phone when only too aware of how close to death Jobs was.
No doubt spurred by the intense focus on all things Apple over the following days, and the desire of many people to feel connected in some vaguely tangible way to the Apple founder, advance orders for the iPhone 4S skyrocketed to more than a million less than a week after the product was announced.
Likewise, advance orders for the upcoming biography of Jobs boomed on Amazon in the days following his death, shooting to number one in sales on the site even as publisher Simon and Schuster announced it would pull forward the publication date by several weeks to the end of this month. Meanwhile, it was announced that Sony Pictures had bought the film rights.
It’s easy to assume the book’s timing was accidental (if lucrative), but actually, author Walter Isaacson says he conducted final interviews only a few weeks ago with a pain-racked but sharp and mentally clear Jobs, and Jobs clearly viewed the biography as a final chance to explain his own story, especially, he said, to his children.
The Valley has already begun to shift focus and move on. But it still feels just that bit emptier this week, knowing a giant has logged out for the last time.
