Georgia’s efforts to draw attention to itself as an emerging center for the development of biosciences during the 2008 Bio International Convention came to a peak with the announcement that the National Health Museum would be built near Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park.

Ken Stewart, Georgia’s commissioner for economic development, called the museum a “capstone” for the state’s effort to promote its bioscience sector, which is ranked 7th in the U.S. by accounting firm Ernst & Young.

“We promote ourselves as being at the crossroads of global health,” he told GlobalAtlanta during a phone interview from San Diego, Calif., where the conference was held June 17-20.

State officials underscored their case by pointing to Georgia-based institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CARE, the Arthritis Foundation and the American Cancer Foundation.

But there was no question that Georgia let all the promotional stops out as well for the conference that was attended by some 20,000 participants with more than 70 nations represented.

Next year, the 2009 BIO International Convention is to be held in Atlanta. Lest anyone forget, the state had a 3,300 square-foot pavilion occupied by 28 exhibitors from Georgia’s bioscience companies, research institutions and state agencies.

Georgia also hosted the opening night reception on the convention’s midway. “We had a lot of traffic and recognition of Georgia as a player,” Mr. Stewart said.

The crowning moment was the announcement that Atlanta would be the site for the health museum billed as a 21st century science-based attraction aimed at inspiring Americans to live healthier lives through knowledge and exhibits focused on life sciences.

The main competitor for the museum, according to Mr. Stewart, was Washington, which he called “a natural location” for a national museum.

But Atlanta asserted itself as “an international city of growing connectivity” and showed it had the potential to raise the money.

The museum is to be funded by personal, corporate, foundation and government contributors. The project reportedly already has raised $12 million to operate educational programs, building an online CyberMuseum and plan for the physical museum itself.

Mr. Stewart said that the Coca-Cola Co. has donated $1 million of seed funding. Other organizations committed to the project include Emory Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente Georgia, Northrop Grumman, the CDC Foundation, Children’s Health Care of Atlanta, Dr. David J. Allen and Associates, CardioMEMs and Frank and Joyce Hauser.

The chairman of the museum’s board is Louis W. Sullivan, former U.S. secretary of health and human services and president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine. The founding chairman is the former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who now serves as chairman emeritus.

Moishe Safdie, who designed the Jepson Center for the Arts in Savannah, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Mo., has been chosen as the architect for the museum.