Government & Policy Roundup

The Commerce Department is making nearly $400,000 available to set up an office in Beijing for China Standards & Conformity Assessment. The money will be matched at a 2:1 rate by a four-member consortium that includes the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Petroleum Institute, ASTM International, and CSA America. Once up and running, the office will prepare Chinese marketing material and a website, obtain market and standards information of strategic importance, network with government agencies and standards officials, and conduct training.

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has established a new cross-reference digest for nanotechnology-related materials. Relevant documents will be added to the new digest until the agency completes the development of a comprehensive nanotechnology cross-reference patent literature collection (Class 977). The new collection will then replace the digest.

EPA's Science Advisory Board has a new chairman: M. Granger Morgan, who chairs the engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University. Morgan was recently appointed to a two-year term by EPA Administrator Michael O. Leavitt. Leavitt also named Rogene Henderson of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute to chair the agency's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.