[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 88 (Thursday, June 27, 2002)] [Senate] [Pages S6242-S6243] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] THE VANNEVAR BUSH AWARD FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TO ERICH BLOCHMr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise to bring to my colleagues' attention the fact that the National Science Board, NSB, has honored Erich Bloch as the 24th recipient of the Vannevar Bush Award for Science and Technology, its highest award for scientific achievement and statesmanship. Mr. Bloch's record of innovation and leadership in the advanced technology sector and the immense impact that his career has had on the field make him especially deserving of lofty praise. He received the award on May 7 in Washington, DC. Mr. Bloch is a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a distinguished fellow at the Council on Competitiveness, a former director of the National Science Foundation, and an outspoken supporter of fundamental research in leading innovation. He occupies a senior statesman status in science and engineering and has been a longtime supporter of science and mathematics education programs funded by the Federal government. Erich Bloch is a visionary innovator of enormous stature-- in both high technology for the private sector--and in the organization and objectives of science and engineering research,'' Eamon Kelly, National Science Board chair, stated in announcing the honor. ``He has been an exceptionally effective communicator of the benefits of public funding for science and technology, and a leader in establishing widely emulated mechanisms for productive partnerships in research and education across public, academic, and private sectors. Before moving to Washington to become the National Science Foundation's only director from industry, Mr. Bloch was a famed electrical engineer at IBM and was one of the key figures responsible for IBM's STRETCH Computer Systems Engineering Project and in the groundbreaking developments of the IBM Systems 360. Until the 1960s, every computer model was generally designed independently, and at times individual machines were custom modified for a particular customer. The advent of the IBM-360 family of computers changed this forever. All these machines had the same user instruction set, taking advantage of IBM's engineering leadership in powerful disk drive systems. On the smaller machines, many of the more complex instructions were done in microcode rather than in hardware. Mr. Bloch headed IBM's development of the solid logic technology program, which provided IBM with the microelectronics technology for the System/360. Mr. Bloch's leadership ability was one of the key reasons for the success of the System/360. His strategy was to work around organizational structures and, as technical problems were identified, to assign groups or individuals who offered the best proposals. Mr. Bloch was the first to develop an IBM product with a ferrite core memory--a significant achievement in the search for memory technology. Mr. Bloch's accomplishments on the system, and the developments that occurred as part of his management style, helped revolutionize the computer industry and led to his receiving the 1985 National Medal of Technology with his IBM colleagues, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. and Bob O. Evans. In his 6-year term as NSF director, Erich Bloch built national support for advances in high-performance computing and networking. Mr. Bloch's important leadership in transitioning NSFNET to a commercialized Internet helped create an immense economic and societal impact from the 1990s to today. Mr. Bloch supported NSF's take over of the Defense Department's ARPANET, creating the government-owned and managed NSFNET connected to five university-based supercomputer centers via a 56-Kbps backbone. NSFNET replaced ARPANET in 1990 and expanded to include a variety of regional networks that linked universities into the backbone network. The only other wide-area networks in existence, all government owned, supported only limited numbers of specialized contractors and researchers. Mr. Bloch supported key colleagues at NSF, like Steve Wolff, and they had the vision to see the power of networking in the academic and research communities, and in the process created a powerful user base, the first real customer base, that would not let the networking revolution stop. Just 10 years later, the Internet was ``owned'' by no one and managed by a wide variety of commercial and nonprofit organizations on a decentralized basis. NSFNET's backbone operated at 45 Mbps, which was raised to 155 Mbps after NSFNET was decommissioned. NSFNET was decommissioned in 1995 when there was enough commercial Internet service providers, web browsers, and search engines to sustain the networks, operations, and management--nearly 60,000 networks were connected to the backbone. Now, 61.4 percent of the U.S. population has online access according to the latest Nielsen Net Ratings. According to a report published by the policy division of non-profit corporation SRI International entitled ``The Role of NSF's Support of engineering in Enabling Technological Innovation,'' Erich Bloch played an important leadership role in three key decisions that spurred today's Internet. First, he influenced the NSF decision to make NSFNET an ``open'' network rather than one that served supercomputer researchers exclusively. NSF decided to make NSFNET a three-tiered, distributed network consisting of backbone, regional or mid-level networks, and local, initially campus-based, networks. Finally, NSF decided to make the Internet self-supporting, and a series of decisions Mr. Bloch backed concerning the implementation of the self-supporting Internet led to its burgeoning. DARPA in the '70's developed the prototype for the Internet, ARPANET. Assisted by Erich Bloch's leadership, NSF played a crucial role in transitioning NSFNET in the 1980s into the remarkable Internet system so important to us today. Internet innovation was not Mr. Bloch's only role at NSF. Before his arrival at NSF, the agency largely saw computing as a research tool for existing science disciplines. As detailed in the book, ``Funding the Revolution'' by the National Research Council, Mr. Bloch treated computing as a new scientific field in its own right, both a new science and an interdisciplinary science connector. Mr. Bloch created a new science directorate at NSF entirely for computing, consolidating all of NSF's computing initiatives in one place, and recruited another famed computer pioneer, Gordon Bell of DEC, to head it up. Computer science was now on a par with the established physical and biological sciences and budgeting at NSF grew from $23 million in 1984 to $100 million in 1986 and has continued to rise since then. While NSF had followed distantly behind DARPA's leadership in computing, under Erich Bloch it came into its own and began sponsoring important scientific computing advances. Erich Bloch has always realized government's significant role in technology development, in coordination with the academic and commercial sectors. In receiving this award, he acknowledged that, ``we have learned that in these days of rapid development and keen competition much is to be gained from cooperative activities.'' He continued that, ``the global market is a reality'' due to the development of [[Page S6243]] computers, communication networks and IT. ``This paradigm change has pushed science and technology to the forefront of policy issues and policy considerations, here and across the globe.'' Along with Erich Bloch's key contributions to computing and the Internet and his foresightedness in matters of public policy, he deserves acclaim for the role that he has played in education. His creation of the NSF engineering research centers and science and technology centers reflect his belief in knowledge transfer. He brought together university scientists and industry researchers to provide educational benefits and help transform engineering education as well as to extend fundamental research benefits to industry. In education, Mr. Bloch also oversaw NSF's support of system wide reform for K-12 math and science education, including emphasis on participation by women and minorities in science and engineering. During his tenure, the budget for education and human resources more than tripled and NSF's overall budget increased to $2 billion. As a distinguished fellow with the Council on Competitiveness, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to furthering U.S. economic leadership, Mr. Bloch continues to advocate policies that promote the effective use of innovation in the development of the U.S. economy. He is also a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, has been a distinguished visiting professor at George Mason University, has been awarded 13 honorary degrees from major universities and ten major awards and medals, and serves as a member of numerous boards in both the public and private sectors. For his remarkable vision, innovation, and continued contributions to the advanced technology sector and to the national interest in the economy and education, Erich Bloch is most deserving of the venerable Vannevar Bush Award. Very few can boast of having made similar contributions to society. I am delighted to bring this honor to the attention of my colleagues, awarded to a computer and Internet pioneer, a visionary research administrator and science educator, to the attention of my colleagues and to express my sincere congratulations to Mr. Bloch. ____________________