Science And Technology

Washington. In the volumes of statistics on Japanese-American relations, there's a little-noted set of numbers that foreshadow more difficulties for this country than even the doomsayers are predicting: In ever greater numbers, Japanese scientists, engineers and other specialists are visiting the United States to participate in research, while relatively few Americans are going to Japan for that purpose.Why does it matter? Because the intricacies of science and technology are best mastered through person-to-person contact.

Responding to a need for more workers trained in the sciences, three Maryland community colleges are banding together to tap what they consider overlooked resources - women, minorities and people with disabilities. Officials of Howard Community, Anne Arundel Community and Montgomery colleges are sharing their best initiatives, looking for grants and preparing to increase their involvement in public schools so more of these students attend college interested in math, science and technology.

America's most valuable economic asset, its sharp competitive edge in science and technology, is getting dull. While things are fine today, the key to our future prosperity is at risk. The United States is simply not matching the priority other nations are giving to educating their youth in science and technology and supporting basic research. If we don't move quickly to reinvigorate our science and technology enterprise, we'll fall too far behind and let our leadership slip away. For Maryland, the stakes are especially high.

The last thing most people expect to find in their mailbox is a letter from their mutual fund company telling them that their star fund may be a little too good to be true.But that's exactly what about 100,000 owners of T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.'s Science and Technology fund found in their mailboxes last week, as Price moved to head off the customer-relations problems it fears could come when a force older and more powerful than a Pentium chip finds its way into the technology-stock market.

Alicia Lee plans to do something no one in her immediate family has done. The 17-year-old senior at Woodlawn High School will attend the Johns Hopkins University beginning this fall, and if all goes well, she'll become the first person in her family to earn a bachelor's degree. Lee and many other county students got help with the college application process from Building STEPS Science Technology Education Partnerships, a nonprofit program that helps high-achieving high school students from low socioeconomic backgrounds by guiding them through the application process and providing activities that expose students to college, science, math and technology.

Maryland teen-agers now have a new reason to spend all their free time in front of the computer: a chance to win a college scholarship.Under an ambitious program approved yesterday by the General Assembly, the state will pay $3,000 a year to B-average students who study science, engineering and computer fields at Maryland colleges and go to work for local companies.Gov. Parris N. Glendening sought the science and technology scholarships as a way to cultivate a qualified work force to keep high-tech firms from leaving Maryland in search of employees.

In a step toward awarding every B student $3,000 a year for college, Gov. Parris Glendening's budget kicks off Maryland's Hope scholarship program, making grants available to those majoring in business management, public affairs and the health professions. The Hope program, announced last year, will enlarge upon the current science and technology and teacher education scholarships that fund about 1,400 students -- Maryland residents who graduate from high school with a B average and maintain that grade level in college.

BRAGGING IS unseemly, but in this case New Jersey asked for it. Fighting the Pentagon's latest base-closing proposals - one of which would shift about 2,200 high-tech jobs from New Jersey's Fort Monmouth to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County - officials in the Garden State have asserted that the military won't find enough highly trained workers in Maryland. With all due respect to New Jersey - which, after all, has its strengths - those are ludicrous grounds on which to argue against the move to Aberdeen.

Roger McNamee, the 35-year-old overseer of one of T. Rowe Price Associates' most successful mutual funds, has left the firm to start his own company in California.The announcement of McNamee's leaving was made to Price employees this week and shareholders will soon be notified by mail, said Steve Norwitz, the firm's spokesman.McNamee oversaw the $163 million Science and Technology Fund, which was ranked as one of the country's best sector funds.Charles "Chip" Morris, 28, who helped McNamee operate the fund, will now become the fund president, Norwitz said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the clearest indication yet of the Clinton administration's willingness to offer broader public access to government information, the National Science Foundation is financing a project that will make corporate filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission available free via a computer network.The decision to support the project, which will provide access to the SEC's on-line data base of financial data from America's public corporations, is a shift away from the federal information policies under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.