John Grasso, director of strategic development and distance education for the Institute for Software Research, has been honored with the Suzhou Science and Technology Prize. It is presented by the government of Suzhou, a fast-growing city west of Shanghai in the People's Republic of China.

The award recognizes Grasso for his work since 2004 advising the city's software industry on the use of internationally recognized methods of training and organizational process improvement created by Carnegie Mellon and its Software Engineering Institute. In 2006 and 2007, Grasso brought to Suzhou the SEPG® Conference, SEI's venue for industry to share ideas and experience in software quality improvement. The 2007 conference, a joint initiative of ISR and the Suzhou government, had more than 400 participants.