The native of Glasgow, Scotland moved from Alexandria, VA to take the Vice Provost for Research gig at Drexel University in September and is awash in a continued University City renaissance that most Philadelphians from even five years ago wouldn’t recognize.

The engineer-by-training spent 20 years at the venerable National Science Foundation and is here to push forward Drexel’s reputation as a serious research institution.

“The tipping point for that is going from the individual cottage industry notion of research with deep expertise to a place where we are bringing the researcher across a variety of other fields to create a sum greater than the parts that can attack bigger challenges,” Crawford tells Technically Philly , her accent aglow. “So it’s taking new technologies and bringing together the creative arts and engineering or whoever else and pull them in that sandbox to have the largest impact possible.”

Now living in Center City, Crawford says she brings from NSF “an understanding of the topic barriers in these large projects.”

Below, Crawford talks about why Drexel was the right choice, the coolest research happening at the university right now and more.

As always, edited for length and clarity.

Why leave NSF for Drexel?

I really believe this is a unique college with unique skills, and I’m interested by institutions stepping up to the next level. Drexel has gone through tremendous growth, both in revenue and new colleges and schools. I sensed here an opportunity to do something new. Instead of tweaking, I feel like the institution is at a tipping point. The strength is the small teams of investigation, research and activites, so now we’re ready and have enough core competency to move up to the multi-disciplinary and group efforts that create institutional impact… I want to be a part there.

What is the coolest thing you’re around at work?

A Drexel University team of engineers, scientists and biologists have developed a carbon nanotube-based device for probing single living cells without damaging them.

What will that do?

This technique will allow experts to identify diseases in their early stage and advance drug discovery. The research led by Dr. Yury Gogotsi, professor of materials science and engineering and director of the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, and Dr. Gary Friedman, professor of electrical engineering, uses the nanotube-based device, known as a cellular endoscope, to evaluate cells about a thousand times smaller than a human hair.

The cellular endoscope interrogates the intracellular environment of living cells, delivers fluorescent quantum dots and analyzes molecules inside a cell without the cell recognizing the needle’s presence. Drexel’s W. M. Keck Institute for Attofluidic Probes now manufactures the smallest endoscopes ever created, with endoscopes providing a potentially transformative technology for studying the fundamentals of single living cells and more broadly, for cell biology.

What problem does that solve?

Today, cell biologists usually destroy a large number of cells to extract cellular components and biological molecules needed for identifying diseases and analyzing effects of new drugs, or to achieve a better understanding of how the cell functions. Glass pipettes are widely used to inject material into cells. The pipettes cause too much damage to remain within the cell for a long time and are not designed to report information in the form of optical or electrical signals from within the cell. The Drexel research team had an idea for a minimally invasive cellular probe, the tip of which could remain within the cell for a long time while reporting important information in the form of optical and electrical signals and transferring tiny amounts of material to and from the cell. This probe is similar to an endoscope employed by doctors to perform minimally invasive operations inside human patients, only much smaller.

The Drexel team is funded by the Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team National Science Foundation grant and the W. M. Keck Foundation.

How are you finding University City?

First, I have visited most of the innovation hubs of the country — Boston, San Diego, Silicon Valley, the I-4 corridor in Florida — and I have been flabbergasted by Philadelphia, with just the number of institutions that are making research contributions. The connectedness in this region is amazing. Everyone seems to know everyone else. People find it compelling and never leave. It’s nothing like Washington D.C., a city of transients.

This is a region of people who come and they stay and they’re excited by so many institutions of higher education and so many teaching hospitals and vibrant pharma and investors and incubators . There is huge potential here, some of which is probably untapped. I have been amazed by the connectedness and networking.

The University City Science Corridor along Market Street, well, that is a huge asset for the region. One of the things we [at Drexel] were talking about was doing an asset mapping to connect people with like minded individuals and organizations. The faculty understand where we have competencies. That’s one of the important things we have to do regionally, have a better understanding of everything we currently already have. We have a huge number of possibilities here, like all the students and the growing propensity for staying in the region.

I’ve been very excited and somewhat surprised at the level of activity here.

How can we do better of getting the country or the world to recognize Philly’s community of research and innovation and knowledge?

It’s being involved in the right conversations and many of our regional partners are, but it’s getting involved there to establish national priorities. I think there’s opportunity to do more of that. If you look at the conversations in Washington around innovation and innovation policies — things that impact economic growth — we need to make sure that we’re sharing through hard work and show what we’ve learned and growth. We need to share that on a national level.

Is Philadelphia engaged in those conversations enough in city and state government, well, there should be clear champions for innovaiton in the city and the state. I don’t think it needs to be one champion, but we should know and look to them.

DEFINITE READS

• The Pittsburgh Business Journal reports that the Pennsylvania budget cuts mean less money for startups. H/T Philly Tech News
• The Green Skeptic and the Inquirer’s Mike Armstrong give their takes on Founders Factory from Philly Startup Leaders. See our review here.
• Dude from Philly Eco City wants to try a DIY car share and wants help.
• NJBIZ reports on a Camden startup focusing on cyber threats like flash mobs. H/T PTN

After the jump, CoTweet gets big name clients, Viddler video of Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose and more.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that President Obama has named University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann to chair a new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.
• Ad Ops online has news of a host of big corporate clients coming on board as paying clients to CoTweet, formerly of central Pennsylvania.
• Philadelphia Business Journal reporter John George reports on nine poster winners who participated in a competition at Biotech 2009, the annual biotechnology industry symposium.
• Geekadelphia reports on another webcomic set in Philadelphia.

GIVE A GLANCE

• An Irish newspaper reports on the recession-motivated expansion there of Exton-based software firm Bentley Systems. H/T PTN
• Geekadelphia shares photos from its third anniversary party at North Bowl.
• The Inquirer covers a Berwyn nonprofit that wants to certify the good deeds of businesses.
• Philadelphia Business Journal tracks the ugly stockholder fight around Malvern-based USA Technologies.

The company blog of Bethlehem-based Viddler shares video from the Web 2.0 Expo 2009, specifically a keynote conversation between Digg CEO & Revision3 chairman Jay Adelson and Digg founder Kevin Rose about the company’s strategy, the video of which can be seen below.

• Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: SEPTA to launch Google Transit bus routes this week, more redesign details

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn’t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

Around 6th place.

Despite Philadelphia ranking ninth in deals made and twelfth in total-invested in Q3, Pennsylvania ranks sixth in the nation when it comes to the percentage of jobs created through private equity investment.

The numbers were released Tuesday by the National Venture Capital Association as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The NVCA has been releasing a VC report every day, including the results of interviews with 500 CEOs and VCs.

So as we do every so often, allow us to peel apart the boring spreadsheets to surmise what this means for our fair city.

It should be noted that the report only uses the jobs posted on StartupHire.com, a job board for startups, as a sample. According the report, the site is tracking over 11,000 VC-created jobs at 2,500 companies.

The state is responsible for 3.36 percent of all VC-based job postings, despite only being responsible for 1.13 percent of the deals in Q3. Ahead of Pennsylvania were California (38.98 percent), Massachusetts (7.9 percent), New York (7 percent), Texas (6 percent) and Washington State (3.7percent).

While not the biggest of markets, it looks like the state and the region are well positioned for attracting startups outside of California. When separated by region, the Mid-Atlantic states rank second in total VC-created jobs ahead of New England and behind California. Of the Mid-Atlantic states, only New York boasts more jobs (750) than Pennsylvania.

By the way, according to the report, Wyoming has only one VC created job available.

JOBS BY INDUSTRY

In addition to a state-by-state breakdown of VC-created jobs, NVCA also released the VC jobs available by industry.

The numbers again confirm Philadelphia status as a second-tier market relying primarily on investment in the life science industry. Although the Philadelphia market only closed on two deals in the software and IT services industry in Q3, biotech and healthcare jobs, which often anchor the region’s venture capital investment, ranked highly.

Every Wednesday,�Shop Talk shows you what goes into a tech product, organization or business in the Philadelphia region. See others�here.

Sherrill Neff

Thanks to the city’s glut of local universities and pharmaceutical companies, Philadelphia is a wonderful environment for a biotech startup to begin and to exit.

However, with the lack of an IPO market and current economic conditions, statups often need hundreds of millions of dollars to see their idea from research product to sale to big pharma.

And that’s where Quaker BioVentures steps in.

Founded in 2003 by Ira Lubert, Brenda Gavin and Sherrill Neff, Quaker takes pride in keeping all of its investments local — and for good reason. Philadelphia benefits from being in the center of the perfect storm of plentiful university research combined with a large number of pharmaceutical companies having major local operations.

“It’s important we get to know the [big pharmaceutical companies] really well, that they are our friends socially and professionally,” says Neff. “It’s easier here than if we were sitting on the West coast trying to have that interaction.”

After raising $280 million in 2003 and an additional $420 in 2006, Quaker has invested in over 25 companies, most based in the tri-state area.

We talked to Founding Partner Sherrill Neff about why Quaker only invests locally, how the citiy’s biotech market has evolved and why he credits lion slaying as one of his hobbies.

As always, the conversation was edited for length and clarity.

What was Philly like in 2003, when you started Quaker, compared to now?

Ten years ago, it would have been difficult to catalyze a significant syndicate. Now, I feel that if we have a good company going, we have no problem catalyzing a large and robust syndicate.

What’s good about the region now, is that if we find a good enough opportunity, the community is tight enough and respected enough to draw money to these companies.

The one thing that companies need in our industry is access to capital. It typically comes from three places: VC funds, collaborations with larger companies or from the public market. This has been an environment where the public market is shut down. So pharma has put significant money at work through collaborations with venture [capital firms].

Because unlike “pure tech” companies, biotech requires very significant funding. We like to say that we are collaborative and cooperative with our peer venture capital firms, not competitive.

Why does Quaker only invest in biotech?

When we started, I had been recent president of a biotech company… I had been all around venture capital for years. The reason [Ira Lubert, Brenda Gavin and I] came together and the reason we think we have a great opportunity is because of the huge concentration of the medical sciences [in Philadelphia] and the relative lack of concentration of VC firms.

Almost all of the large pharma companies either have headquarters or major operations in the area. Without the IPO market, we have to sell these companies to the large pharma companies. It’s important we get to know the buyers really well, that they are our friends socially and professionally. It’s easy to see what they’re looking for. Easier than if we were sitting on the West coast trying to have that interaction.

The other factor is the huge concentration of university medical research here. We always felt that if we had enough VC firms we could have huge growth in the region.

In our last Q&A, our interview subject said she thought local pharma entrepreneurship was lagging. Do you share the same concern?

It’s something we have to watch closely and we’ve been a little bit concerned that in recent months there have not been more startup opportunities locally. These things go in cycles, certainly going back to the earliest days of the biotech industry there were a couple of companies that got started in the region that have become very important.

We are always focused on getting a new crop going all of the time. There are not that many funds in the Philly/New Jersey area that focus on the regional companies like we do.

Most of the venture capital has been focused in Boston and Silicon Valley. We saw that as a opportunity when we started. There are huge commitments of federal funds in this region – those funds back academic medical research. Some of that funding gets patented and some of that ends up being the basis for the new companies.

That’s the cycle that we follow.

What is your connection to the region?

I was a law student at the University of Michigan, I had grown up in the Baltimore area and I got a wonderful offer from [local law firm] Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. I did go, and I never looked back. I have been living in the area ever since. I love Philadelphia.

I take it you’re a Michigan Wolverines fan then?

On the college level, yes. I like to slay [Penn State] Nittany Lions whenever I get the chance.

Every Friday, Technically Philly brings you an interview with a leader or innovator in Philadelphia’s technology community. See others here.

In our last post about VC numbers, we told you, fair reader, that no region experienced growth like Philadelphia. Though to be clear, that growth was mostly because of three mega deals. We also told you that more detailed numbers were expected from PricewaterhouseCoopers on August 3rd.

Well, we would never leave you hanging.

We dove into the numbers and pulled out the important parts, such as which Philly firms were busiest this quarter, the Philadelphia companies receiving the most investment and what industry received the most attention.

Follow past the jump for your quarterly dose of our regions venture capital activity.

PHILLY VC MARKET = TOP HEAVY

As mentioned last week, the Phoenix Services deal for $50 million dramatically affects the numbers, as half of all money invested in the region went to the top three deals. For comparison, the top three deals in Silicon Valley were 15 percent of the total. Similarly to our region, the top three deals in San Diego, which had exactly the same number as Philly, were 56 percent of their total.

FIRST ROUND LEADS LOCAL VC’s

In terms of the amount of deals, First Round Capital is the area’s leader. Though this may be a bit unfair as First Round specializes in early-state and seed investing. It is difficult to assume what firms invested the most dollars, as many investments involve multiple firms and rarely are exact investments disclosed.

Keep in mind that PricewaterhousCoopers’ report tends to define “The Philadelphia Metro” area� slightly more liberally than we might at Technically Philly. So some Central New Jersey and Harrisburg firms are in the mix.

Philadelphia firms with most deals:

1. First Round Capital – 11
2. Domain Associates – 8
3. TL Ventures – 7
4. BFTP – 6
5. ProQuest Investments – 4
6. S.R. One – 3
7. Quaker BioVentures – 2
8. Edison Venture Fund – 2
9. Comcast Interactive Capital – 2
10. Cardinal Partners – 1
11. EnerTech Capital – 1
12. Element Partners – 1
13. New Jersey Economic Development Authority – 1
14. Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania – 1

BIOTECH LEADS THE WAY

Once again, biotechnology investments lead the way, accounting for 43 percent of all activity in the metro area. If your barometer for success is simply the number of deals, then software companies lead the way with seven.

Philadelphia companies receiving the most investment (not necessarily from Philly firms, all numbers in dollars)

1. Phoenix Services / Industrial – $50M
2. VaxInnate / Biotech – 30M
3. Avid Radiopharmaceuticals / Biotech – 28.5M
4. Trevena / Biotech – 11M
5. Sierra Education Finance Corporation / Finance – 10.5M
6. Sanovia / Software - 8.185M
7. Embrella Cardiovascular / Medical – 5.1M
8. Ophthotech Corporation / Medical – 4.72M
9. Tangent Energy Solutions / Industry – 2M
10. SevOne / Software – 2M
11. Finite Carbon Corporation / Industry – 2M
12. Collections Marketing Center / Software – 2M
13. Neotropix / Biotech – 1.4M
14. mVisum / Software – 1.25M
15. IntegriChain / Software – 1M
16. SPHN Holdings / Biotech – 783K
17. Agilence, Inc. / Electronics – 500K
18. Quiq / Software – 200K
19. RealWinWin / Finance – 150K
20. PivotPoint Software / Media and Entertainment – 150K
21. Life Management Advisor / Software – 100K
22. E-Duction, Inc / Finance – 271K

Philadelphia has rebounded nicely form only seeing thirteen deals in Q1 for $31 million. This quarter’s rebound of 22 deals for $162 million largely mirrors the rest of the country. Though it remains to be seen whether the upward trend will continue to Philly’s pre-recession numbers, which often saw 30-plus deals a quarter.

Every Wednesday, Shop Talk shows you what goes into a tech product, organization or business in the Philadelphia region. See others here.

In June, partner David King was named to the board of the University City Science Center and the company was profiled in the Wall Street Journal for shifting some of its resources from biotech to medical devices.

The good news continued yesterday when it was announced that Quaker was one of the Series A investors in Rapid Micro Biosystems, a company that makes technology to detect troublesome microbes that can slow down the drug-making process.

When Technically Philly asked for the exact share Quaker BioVentures invested, the company said it does not disclose amounts.

Rapid Micro’s viral detection technology has already been commercialized and the company hopes the additional investment will help it expand to new markets including Europe.

Quaker BioVentures partner Richard Kollender

When unwanted microbes sneak into vats where drugs are being made the effect can be disastrous for large drug companies who often have to shut down production and face supply shortages, according to xconomy. Drug-maker Genzyme may stand to lose $300 million in the wake of its plant shutdown over contaminated vats.

The Boston-based Rapid Micro Biosystems secured $18.6 million from three other investors along with Quaker, including California-based Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Boston-based TVM Capital and Boston-based VIMAC Milestone Medica Fund; leaving Quaker as the lone local representation in the funding round.

Quaker BioVentures partner Richard Kollender will join the board as part of the deal.

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

Our region’s life sciences sector ranked first in the “current impact” category, and second overall (to Boston, bah), in a biotechnology industry study conducted by the Milken Institute, according to a report by the Philadelphia Business Journal’s John George, a proud graduate from Temple University-Ambler. As we earlier suggested, this is really one of the more impactful, meaningful and substantiated stupid lists Philadelphia has been put in during recent years.

That news preceded the announcement of one of the year’s largest life sciences venture capital deals happening here. University City’s Avid Radiopharmaceuticals scored a $34.5 million financing, led by a San Francisco VC firm, but assisted by a couple of local boys, BioAdvance, also a Penn neighbor, and Safeguard Scientifics of Wayne, as also reported by George of PBJ.

California tries to ban violent video games for kids, a (sorta) regional Web site management company makes a big aquisition and a lot of messed up Craigslist stories you should read — in addition to our most trafficked post of the week — after the jump.

More:

• “The Wild Thing” Peter Key of the Philadelphia Business Journal reports that a collection of historic documents from the life of Commodore John Barry, the Revolutionary War hero who we say is father of the U.S. Navy and always dreamed of having a bridge near a Superfund site, is now available online at the Independence Seaport Museum or through Villanova University’s Falvey Memorial Library, which digitized it. Those documents from as early as 1723 mean that that Angelfire site you made as a kid and can’t take down is no longer the oldest thing on the Internet.
• The Sacramento Bee reports that California legislators are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold their request for a statewide ban of violent video game sales to minors. It’s seen as a landmark case, even if, as the Christian Science Monitor reports, California’s ban may be a legal long shot.
• The Inquirer’s Joe Distefano reports that HostMySite.com, a business Web site manager based in Denver but depending on a 229-person service center in Newark, Del., has bought Louisville-based rival Hosting.com. It’s said to create a $50 million sales company and have featured major investing from former Philly firm Wachovia Capital Partners. Can we please lower business taxes in this city so The ‘Stefano and I don’t have to reach so much on these?
• The Associated Press reports that seven people in New York State were charged in running a 24-hour prostitution ring through Craigslist. That follows the enormous news that, as the Advocate, and many, many others, reported, Craigslist filed suit against the South Carolina attorney general in order to thwart his filing criminal charges against the classifieds Web site for “abetting” prostitution. This is all part of a slew of bad press for the Internet staple, including obsessive tabloid and cable news coverage of a Boston murder following a Craigslist relationship and, as reported by TV station KMHO, more recent news about a Seattle man who found a woman on the site who agreed to be killed during sex.

• Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: Google CEO Eric Schmidt weighs in on Philly’s tech future

Every Friday morning we make sure you didn’t miss anything if you spent the week preparing for your Memorial Day weekend plans, with Friday Tech Links.

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the city’s cell phone ban is for real now. After passing City Council last week, it seemed doomed from statewide angst for a municipality creating a varying driving standard. It seems some state funding is still in danger because of the move.

More:

• ReadWriteWeb helps make the case that Valley Forge-based search engine startup Duck Duck Go could actually garner market share. Seriously.
• The Inquirer reports that alleged excessive force by police was captured on video (watch at bottom) and then spread using social media, mostly by the involved party — largely members of the Philadelphia-based punk rock band Valencia, depicted above. And, yes, it all went down on South Street. More from Phrequency.
• The Associated Press reports that a survey shows 60 percent of Twitter users don’t return after a month of joining. Its flood of new users could be outnumbered by those abandoning the service. It’s a lesson in what a lot of active Twitter users know; right now it’s fashionable, but when it isn’t anymore, those active users will remain as a tighter community of users. Done.
• The Business Journal reports that Genaera, one of our region’s oldest biotechnology companies founded in 1987, is halting business. The Plymouth Meeting-based firm will seek the board’s approval for disilution. In its three decades of operation it never, and this is true, got a product to market. Oh yeah?
• Daily News tech columnist Jonathan Takiff comes up with another doozy: tech-related Mother’s Day gifts. We can only hope he doesn’t feel good about writing that in his tech column.
• The Business Journal’s Peter Key on his new technology blog reports that Lockheed Martin says they will likely be able to retain its 12,000 employees in the region. The only reason we’re accepting that the Business Journal has a new tech blog is because I have played air guitar with Peter Key, and, no, I’m not joking.
• The Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez reports that PhillyCareShare is adding a $15 monthly subscription fee to stabilize its capital. The pioneering car-sharing company has cut its fleet by 100 to about 325 and is tightening its belt in the economy.
• The Inquirer’s City Hall bureau says propositions for increasing the city’s wage tax are dead for now. Yeah — I already showed my disinterest in any city tax hikes. Stu Bykofsky agrees, so it has to be true.
• Valeria Maltoni on Social Media Today writes about monetizing online video. Valeria, will you go talk to newspapers then?

Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: Friday Q&A: Chuck Sacco, CEO of PhindMe Mobile

Every Friday morning we make sure you didn’t miss anything if you spent the week recovering from BarCamp NewsInnovation, with Friday Tech Links.