[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 148 (Friday, November 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S11209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO DR. LURA POWELL

 Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise today to say thank you to 
one of the true leaders in the Washington state science community, who 
has recently announced that she will be stepping down from her position 
at the end of the year. I am speaking of Dr. Lura Powell, vice 
president of Battelle and Director of the Department of Energy's 
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PNNL, in Richland, WA.
  During the past 2 years, Dr. Powell has developed a bold strategy to 
ensure that the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will play a 
significant role in carrying out the missions of the Department of 
Energy as we move forward into the 21st century. The recent 
installation of two major pieces of equipment will position the 
laboratory to be a leader in molecular research--research that reaches 
across many disciplines, including environmental cleanup, national 
security, and the life sciences. The new 9.2 teraflops supercomputer 
and the 900-megahertz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, both of 
which are part of PNNL's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, 
will attract academia, industry, and other Government researchers to 
the lab in an atmosphere of collaboration and discovery. I had the 
opportunity to attend the dedication of the NMR spectrometer on March 
28, 2002. This equipment is poised to play a central role in the fast-
approaching revolution in systems biology, the seeds for which were 
sown by the amazing success of the Human Genome Project.
  Dr. Powell has set out to establish a systems biology program for 
PNNL that will position the laboratory to play a significant role in 
the Department of Energy's Genomes to Life initiative and to 
participate in the National Institutes of Health biomedical mission. 
Congress has consistently supported increased funding for scientific 
research in the biomedical sciences at NIH, and there is an equally 
important role for the Department of Energy to play in this field. 
Genomics research holds great promise for unraveling many previously 
intractable scientific problems, and will one day lead to the 
development of technologies that will help address some of our nation's 
most pressing challenges: carbon sequestration and climate change, the 
national security risks posed by bioterrorism, even clean and 
sustainable energy production. The Genomes to Life program will indeed 
enhance the Department of Energy's ability to fulfill its many diverse 
missions, and PNNL--thanks in large part to Dr. Powell--is poised to be 
a prime contributor to this initiative.
  In her term as Director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 
Dr. Powell has reached out to create new partnerships within Washington 
State to support this agenda. They include the University of 
Washington, Washington State University, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer 
Research Center, and the Institute of Systems Biology. Meanwhile, 
conversations are ongoing with still other institutions in the Pacific 
Northwest that will further expand PNNL's collaborations. These efforts 
will bring a strong bioscience presence to the State of Washington, 
provide economic sustainability to the Tri-Cities area and lead to 
scientific discoveries that will ultimately benefit this Nation as a 
whole. I want to recognize Dr. Powell for her vision and commitment to 
public service and wish her much success in her future 
endeavors.

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