[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 26, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     DR. ALAN SCHRIESHEIM RETIRES FROM ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. HARRIS W. FAWELL

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 26, 1996

  Mr. FAWELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend Dr. Alan 
Schriescheim, director and chief executive officer of Argonne National 
Laboratory. Our Nation's first national laboratory, Argonne was founded 
in 1946, and celebrates its 50th anniversary of service to our Nation 
this year.
  Under Dr. Schriesheim's leadership, Argonne has grown to become a 
world-renowned research center with more than 200 major projects in 
progress. Argonne today employs more than 4,000 people on its main 
1,700-acre site about 25 miles southwest of Chicago, and at Argonne-
West in Idaho. Managed by the University of Chicago for the U.S. 
Department of Energy, Argonne is one of the nine multi-program national 
laboratories, the only one in the Midwest. This national asset is a 
focus of collaborative research, teaming the best and brightest from 
America's universities, corporations, and Federal laboratories in both 
short-term and long-term programs designed to ensure a better life for 
our children and their children into the 21st century.
  Alan began his career with Argonne in 1983 after long and 
distinguished service at Exxon Research, thus becoming the first 
director of a nonweapons national laboratory to be recruited from 
industry. As a result of his management talent and strong commitment to 
develop and initiate strategic programs, the laboratory expanded 
rapidly, becoming the home of the Advanced Photon Source, a $1 billion 
research facility formally dedicated last month that will probe the 
biological and material properties of matter with far greater precision 
than ever before.
  Other Argonne programs initiated during Alan's tenure span the full 
range of science--from developing biological microchips and sequencing 
the human genome in a cooperative program with the Englehardt Institute 
of Molecular Biology in Moscow, to establishing a virtual-reality 
advanced parallel-processing computer center. He also led Argonne in 
building the largest superconductivity program in America's national 
laboratory system, forming working relationships with more than 50 
corporations and universities. The project led to the creation of an 
independent corporation, Illinois Superconductor Corp., which raised 
$14 million in its initial stock offering.
  While developing new programs, Alan ensured Argonne remained a world-
class center of nuclear engineering, including its design and 
development of the Integral Fast Reactor, an inherently safe power 
station that emits no air pollution, produces little waste, consumes 
waste from other nuclear plants, and shuts itself down if anything goes 
wrong.
  Alan's deep dedication to motivating young Americans to consider 
careers in science is nowhere better evidenced than by his 
collaboration with television science journalist Bill Kurtis in 
initiating the Science Explorers Program, which exposes thousands of 
teachers and students to science and math through study guides for 
Kurtis' PBS science program, ``The New Explorers.''
  Alan holds a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic University 
in New York, a Ph.D. in chemistry from Pennsylvania State University, 
and several honorary degrees. He is the author or coauthor of numerous 
scientific articles, holds 22 U.S. patents, and is a member of the 
board and fellow of the American Association for the advancement of 
Science and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He chaired 
the National Academy of Engineering Study of Foreign participation in 
U.S. Research and Development, and is a member of the National Research 
Council's panel on dual-use technologies in the former Soviet Union and 
other academic and Government panels.
  In his capacity as chief executive of one of America's preeminent 
research centers, Alan has appeared many times before committees of the 
House to offer us his guidance and counsel on important national issues 
bearing on science and technology. As such, he has helped shape the 
scientific foundation on which this Nation will enter the 21st century.
  Mr. Speaker, Alan's management style, philosophy, intelligence, and 
leadership are paying huge dividends today and will continue to do so 
for years to come. After many years of distinguished and superior 
service to the Argonne National Laboratory and the Nation, I wish Alan 
all the accolades he so rightfully deserves. May his years of 
retirement bring all the best to Alan, his wife Beatrice, their two 
children, and their five grandchildren.

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