John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, The Train, Grand Prix, French Connection II, Black Sunday, Ronin, he won four Emmy Awards—three consecutive—in the 1990s for directing the television movies Against the Wall, The Burning Season and George Wallace, the last of which received a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film. Frankenheimer's 30 feature films and over 50 plays for television were notable for their influence on contemporary thought, he became a pioneer of the "modern-day political thriller", having begun his career at the peak of the Cold War. He was technically accomplished from his days in live television, he developed a "tremendous propensity for exploring political situations" which would ensnare his characters. Movie critic Leonard Maltin writes that "in his time... Frankenheimer worked with the top writers and actors in a series of films that dealt with issues that were just on top of the moment—things that were facing us all."

Frankenheimer was born in Queens, New York City, the son of Helen Mary and Walter Martin Frankenheimer, a stockbroker. Frankenheimer once speculated, his father was of German Jewish descent, his mother was Irish Catholic, Frankenheimer was raised in his mother's religion. He became interested in movies at an early age. In 1947, he graduated from La Salle Military Academy in Long Island, New York. In 1951, he graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, where he had studied English, he developed an interest in acting as a career while in college but began thinking about directing when he was in the Air Force. This led him to join a film squadron based in Burbank, where he shot his first documentary, he began studying film theory by reading books about other famous directors, such as Sergei Eisenstein along with how-to books about the craft of film making. Frankenheimer began his directing career in live television at CBS. Throughout the 1950s he directed over 140 episodes of shows like Playhouse 90, Climax!, Danger, including The Comedian, written by Rod Serling and starring Mickey Rooney as a ragingly vicious television comedian.

Frankenheimer's first theatrical film was The Young Stranger, starring James MacArthur as the rebellious teenage son of a powerful Hollywood movie producer. He directed the production, based on a Climax! episode, "Deal a Blow", which he directed when he was 26. Frankenheimer returned to television during the late 1950s, moving to film permanently in 1961 with The Young Savages, in which he worked for the first time with Burt Lancaster in a story of a young boy murdered by a New York gang, his departure from television is considered to signal the end of the Golden Age of Television. Roger Ebert considered Frankenheimer to have had a special gift as a filmmaker and to have been a "master craftsman", he stated that Frankenheimer made some of the "most distinctive films of his time" and that he was " one of the most gifted directors of drama on television". Production of Birdman of Alcatraz began under director Charles Crichton. Burt Lancaster, producing, as well as starring, asked Frankenheimer to take over the film.

As Frankenheimer describes in Charles Champlin's interview book, he advised Lancaster that the script was too long, but was told he had to shoot all, written. The first cut of the film was four-and-a-half hours long, the length Frankenheimer had predicted. Moreover, the film was constructed. Frankenheimer said the film would have to be rewritten and reshot. Lancaster was committed to star in Judgment at Nuremberg, so he made that film while Frankenheimer prepared the reshoots; the finished film, released in 1962, was a huge success and was nominated for four Oscars, including one for Lancaster's performance. Frankenheimer was next hired by producer John Houseman to direct All Fall Down, a family drama starring Eva Marie Saint and Warren Beatty. Due to production difficulties with Birdman of Alcatraz, All Fall Down was released first. Frankenheimer followed this with The Manchurian Candidate. Frankenheimer and producer George Axelrod bought Richard Condon's 1959 novel after it had been turned down by many Hollywood studios.

After Frank Sinatra committed to the film, they secured backing from United Artists. The story of a Korean War veteran, brainwashed by the Communist Chinese to assassinate a candidate for President, co-starred Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, James Gregory, John McGiver, Angela Lansbury. Frankenheimer had to fight to cast Lansbury who had worked with him on All Fall Down and was only three years older than Harvey, who would play her son in the film. Sinatra's preference had been for Lucille Ball; the film was nominated for two Oscars, including one for Lansbury. The film was unseen, either theatrically or on broadcast, for many years. Urban legend has it that the film was pulled from circulation due to the similarity of its plot to the death of President Kennedy the following year, but Frankenheimer states in the Champlin book that it was pulled because of a legal battle

Plant Genetic Systems, since 2002 part of Bayer CropScience, is a biotech company located in Ghent, Belgium. The focus of its activities is the genetic engineering of plants; the company is best known for its work in the development of insect-resistant transgenic plants. Its origin goes back to the work of Marc Van Montagu and Jeff Schell at the University of Ghent who were among the first to assemble a practical system for genetic engineering of plants, they developed a vector system for transferring foreign genes into the plant genome, by using the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. They found a way to make plant cells resistant to the antibiotic kanamycin by transferring a bacterial neomycin phosphotransferase gene into the plant genome. PGS was the first company to develop genetically engineered plants with insect tolerance by expressing genes encoding for insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis; the company was founded in 1982 by Marc Van Montagu and Jeff Schell who worked at the University of Ghent, Belgium.

In 1996 the company was acquired by AgrEvo. In 2000, Aventis CropScience was formed through a merger of Rhône-Poulenc Agro. In 2002, Bayer CropScience is formed through Bayer's acquisition of the plant biotech branch Aventis CropScience. CropDesign Flanders Interuniversity Institute of Biotechnology FlandersBio Marc Zabeau Hofte H, de Greve H, Seurinck J, Jansens S, Mahillon J, Ampe C, Vandekerckhove J, Vanderbruggen H, van Montagu M, Zabeau M, et al. Structural and functional analysis of a cloned delta endotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis berliner 1715, Eur. J. Biochem. 1986 December 1. Leemans J, Ti to Tomato, Tomato to Market: A decade of plant biotechnology, Bio/Technology, vol. 11, March 1993. Vaeck, M. A. Reynaerts, H. Hofte, S. Jansens, M. De Beuckeleer, C. Dean, M. Zabeau, M. Van Montagu & J. Leemans. 1987, Transgenic plants protected from insect attack, Nature 328: 33-37. Institute of Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries

Robert J. Smith II is an American Democratic Party politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly representing the 4th Legislative District from 2000-2006, he was the Assistant Majority Whip from 2002 until he left office in 2006. Smith did not seek reelection in 2005, his seat was filled by fellow Democrat Paul Moriarty. Smith served in the Assembly on the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, Senior Issues Committee, the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, the Law and Public Safety Committee and served on the Intergovernmental Relations Commission. Smith has served as Municipal Prosecutor for Elk, Monroe, National Park, Washington Township and West Deptford. Smith served on the Gloucester County Board of Chosen Freeholders from 1998-2000. Smith graduated with a B. A. in 1989 from Rutgers University in Political Science and was awarded a J. D. in 1993 from the Widener University School of Law. Each of the forty districts in the New Jersey Legislature has one representative in the New Jersey Senate and two members in the New Jersey General Assembly.

The other representatives from the 4th Legislative District for the 2004-2006 session were: Assemblyman David R. Mayer, Senator Fred H. Madden Robert J. Smith's Legislative Web Site, New Jersey Legislature, Internet Archive copy as of December 17, 2004 New Jersey Voter Information Web Site for 2003