I am pleased to join you at the Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology Conference to talk about some of the exciting research sponsored by the Office of Science at the Department of Energy. I would like to thank the University of Texas Pan-American, President Cardenas and Representative Hinojosa for organizing this conference and for their efforts to expand the opportunities in science and technology for Hispanic students. This is vitally important; the future of our economy and our national security rest on having a workforce that can keep us at the forefront of science and technology. This means that we must take advantage of the strengths of our Hispanic community and reach out to ensure that every one has the best chance to develop your talents in science, engineering and mathematics.
Today, I will discuss some of the opportunities available as part of our student intern and faculty research programs. These provide unique opportunities to work with world class scientists and contribute to the extraordinary capabilities of the Department of Energy’s national laboratories.
First, who are we? The Department of Energy is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the U.S., accounting for approximately 40 percent of all federal funds in this area over the past decade. We are the largest government supporter of mathematics and computing research, and the fifth biggest government supporter of research in both the life sciences and environmental sciences.
I am proud to serve both Secretary Abraham and President Bush as the Director of the Office of Science. Science could have no better friend that Secretary Abraham who clearly recognizes the critical importance of basic scientific research. The Administration’s strong commitment to science is evidenced by impressive increases devoted to Federal research and development (R&D) budgets. With the President’s FY 2005 budget request, total R&D investment during this Administration’s first term will have increased 44 percent, to a record $132 billion in FY 2005, as compared to $91 billion in FY 2001. President Bush’s FY 2005 budget request commits 13.5 percent of total discretionary outlays to R&D – the highest level in 37 years.
What I would like to discuss with you today is how that support for science is helping to maintain and enhance America’s lead in research and development and your opportunities. The best way I can do that is to show you the wonderful opportunities that await young scientists and engineers like all of you.
Part of our support is provided through the design, construction and operation of advanced large-scale research and development facilities such as accelerators, light sources and electron microscopes. Located primarily at our national laboratories, these facilities are shared with the global science community and contain technologies and instruments found nowhere else on earth to probe the very small to the very large. Some 18,000 researchers from universities, other agencies, private industry, and foreign nations use our facilities every year.
Let me highlight three of our current construction programs: the Linac Coherent Light Source at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California, the Spallation Neutron Source, located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the set of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers, located at Argonne National Lab, Brookhaven National Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Oak Ridge National Lab, and a consortium of Sandia and Los Alamos National Labs.
Taken together, this is a massive investment in large and complex facilities to allow us to understand how matter behaves in the ultra-fast world of chemical reactions and the ultra-small world of individual atoms and molecules.
The Linac Coherent Light Source at Stanford has just begun construction. It is an x-ray free electron laser. It will provide x-ray brightness 10 billion times greater than current light sources at very short wavelengths allowing researchers, for the first time, to create real-time pictures of chemical reactions at the atomic scale, and image large biological molecules, such as proteins, leading us to far greater understanding of how our bodies work – indeed, how virtually all materials are put together.
To give you some idea of how mind-boggling this is, let’s explore how fast and how small these reactions and images are…
The Spallation Neutron Source is the largest scientific construction project in the U.S., and will give us an unmatched source of highly penetrating neutron beams to study the structure of materials. When completed in 2006, it will be used by 1,000 to 2,000 engineers and scientists from universities, industries and federal laboratories.
Neutrons are wonderful tools to probe deeply into different materials without destroying them. Research with neutron beams not only leads to scientific advances, but also contributes to our economy. For example, chemical companies use neutrons in their quest to make better fibers, plastics, and catalysts; drug companies use neutrons to design drugs with higher potency and fewer side effects; and automobile manufacturers use the penetrating power of neutrons to understand how to cast and forge gears and brake discs in order to make cars run better and more safely.
And we are making investments in five facilities to study nanoscience – the science of very small things – again, at our national laboratories. These new facilities – Nanoscale Science Research Centers, or NSRCs – will provide state-of-the-art equipment for materials synthesis, processing, and fabrication at the nanoscale in the same location as facilities for characterization and analysis. NSRCs will build on the existing research and facility strengths of the host institutions in materials science and chemistry research and in x-ray and neutron scattering. This powerful combination of co-located fabrication and characterization tools will provide an invaluable resource for the Nation’s researchers. As an example, the Center for Nanophase Materials Science at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is collocated with the SNS, which will be, along with many other facilities at the laboratory, an integral part of its science program.
Nanoscience could lead to tremendous energy savings, vastly more efficient solar cells, engines the size of atoms working everywhere, including within our own bodies.
It is already making contributions in many areas. This one example was developed at Argonne National Laboratory and has been profoundly important in solving the central challenge to developing an artificial retina, which holds the promise of restoring sight to thousands suffering from retinal disorders.
With their unique facilities, it’s no wonder we often refer to the Department of Energy laboratories as national treasures. And the research conducted at our laboratories is helping to shape the future, your future. This is research that requires not only sophisticated facilities, but also long range planning, and, of course, the world’s most talented scientific minds: from universities, from industry, and from the laboratories themselves.
And we are trying to do something about maintaining a diverse supply of talented scientific minds. Conducting research to shape the future requires a continuing inflow of new scientists and fresh, innovative ideas to ensure that our research continues to break new ground. This is where the Office of Science has been leading the Department of Energy’s efforts.
We have two workforce development programs in the Office of Science that bring together the resources found at our national laboratories with students and faculty from colleges and universities. The first is the Faculty and Student Teams, or FaST Program, and the second is the Faculty Sabbatical Program.
Faculty and Student Teams Program (FaST)
Under the FaST program, faculty/student research teams participate in paid summer internships working with mentor scientists and premier research facilities at Department of Energy, Office of Science laboratories. This program is primarily designed for teams of faculty members and two or three undergraduate students from colleges and universities with limited prior research capabilities, as well as institutions serving women and minorities underrepresented in the fields of science, engineering, and technology.
Participating students and instructors receive a stipend and spend ten weeks in the summer at a DOE National Laboratory where:
· Teams are matched with world-renowned scientists who serve as mentors and or co- investigators;
· Teams are trained to use advanced scientific facilities and become involved as full-share partners in cutting edge research;
· Student members attend seminars and lectures on scientific inquiry and recent discoveries;
· Teams complete a research project which is formally documented in a paper or presentation;
· Faculty members develop professional expertise that is aimed at helping them establish long-term relationships with the National Laboratory leading to grant awards.
Applications from minority serving institutions receive preference.
Faculty Sabbatical Program
The second program, the Faculty Sabbatical Program, is aimed at providing sabbatical opportunities to faculty members from minority serving institutions and to facilitate the entry of their faculty into the research funding mainstream.
In FY 2005, the Faculty Sabbatical Fellowship will provide up to a full year of sabbatical research opportunities for faculty members from HSI institutions to enhance their research capabilities as well as the research capacity of their home institution. The program will provide support for up to a year of direct research with resident National Laboratory scientists on research projects specific to their areas of investigation and courses they teach. The Faculty Sabbatical activity is designed for each HSI faculty member to work with a National Laboratory on a well-funded focused research project of the faculty member's choice. This will not only develop the faculty members’ scientific expertise, but also develop their abilities and support their efforts to apply for and receive grants from U.S. granting agencies.
Each faculty member may receive half of their sabbatical support from their home institutions. The DOE may support the remaining 50% of salary of each faculty member’s sabbatical. This enables faculty to spend an academic year working on research projects of their interest unencumbered by monetary concerns. The final required outcome for each faculty member is to submit a grant proposal to a federal agency, centered at their respective HSI home.
The Faculty Sabbatical program includes the following features:
· Full sabbatical stay at a National Laboratory;
· Faculty work with the National Laboratory of their choice;
· Faculty are introduced to the advanced scientific facilities of our National Laboratories and become involved as full-share partners in cutting-edge research;
· Faculty members develop professional expertise that is aimed at establishing long-term relationships with the National Laboratory leading to grant awards;
· Faculty, with perhaps the help of the National Laboratory resident scientist, complete and submit a grant proposal to a federal agency;
· Salary support to nearly match that of a National Laboratory scientist.
Facilities for the Future of Science
I mentioned another requirement of research to shape the future --- long range planning. If we want our laboratories and research programs to remain the focal point of scientific discovery, we must plan for the future, your future.
And that is why last November, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced the Department of Energy’s 20-year plan for building the scientific research facilities of the future.
It is our plan to keep the United States at the scientific frontier.
Nothing of this scope has ever been attempted by our Department, or indeed by any other science agency in any government.
We are not only planning two decades out, but we are prioritizing our facility needs across all fields of science supported by the Department of Energy.
Through a rigorous and disciplined process, we have developed a list of 28 facilities. We believe this list outlines, to an important extent, the future of science in America – and indeed the world.
These facilities cover the critical areas where discoveries can transform our energy future, boost economic productivity, transform our understanding of biology, and provide revolutionary new tools to deal with disease.
They can make major and necessary contributions to national security – and give us the ability to understand matter at its most fundamental level. And they assure science students a future in a field of their choice.
I will not discus all 28 of our proposed facilities. I have already discussed one of them – the Linac Coherent Light Source; let me touch on two others of great importance to the Nation and the world.
· Fusion
First on our list is fusion. The prospect of a limitless source of clean energy for the world leads with our commitment to join the international fusion energy experiment known as ITER.
This is a Presidential priority with enormous potential. Successful negotiations among the international partners will lead to the first-ever fusion science experiment capable of producing a self-sustaining fusion reaction, leading to a demonstration power reactor, perhaps in as little as 35 years.
If we reach agreement, ITER will be our top facility.
· Scientific Computation
Next on the list is leadership in areas of supercomputing
We can create new computer architectures that can boost computing power by 100 times over current machines.
Such an achievement will give scientists the ability to simulate complex reactions as never before – and give industry the ability to virtually prototype everything from new aircraft engines, to super-efficient auto bodies, thus saving hundreds of millions of dollars.
Scientific computation will be the third leg of scientific discovery, along with experiment and theory.
Conclusion
Well, I hope I’ve given you a glimpse into the future of the Office of Science and your future, and motivated you to encourage your faculty and students participate in our workforce development programs.
I invite you to contribute something of your own to posterity, something than can never be taken from you. I invite you to become one of us.
For each of you, we have brought a CD containing two publications: Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook and the DOE Office of Science Strategic Plan.
The Office of Science is providing the tools to scientists to produce the next big discovery. To be sure, no one knows what field of science, or what potential new science machine will produce the next big discovery. But we can be certain of one thing. There will be a big discovery. A solitary genius, or a group of scientists from a half dozen fields working together will take some step, apply some test, seek some insight, that will inevitably lead beyond their expectations to a result as unexpected as it is wonderful.
I believe that our 20 year facilities plan, in combination with our workforce development programs, will allow that tradition to grow and prosper. It will provide the foundation for the next generation of scientists to work their wonders. I hope that many of you will become part of that generation and help to continue our remarkable journey towards discovery in science.
Thank you.
