[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 98 (Monday, June 18, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1322]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO DR. WARREN F. WITZIG

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN E. PETERSON

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 18, 2007

  Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor 
the life of Dr. Warren F. Witzig, of State College, PA, who died on 
June 13, 2007. Dr. Witzig, who was born on March 26, 1921, was one of 
the pioneers of nuclear power. Indeed, the Penn State Nuclear 
Engineering Society recently honored him as a ``visionary and innovator 
in the establishment of the United States nuclear power industry.'' The 
Penn State community, his friends and colleagues, and most importantly, 
his family, will miss him.
  Dr. Witzig received a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1942, from 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, NY; an M.S. in electrical 
engineering in 1944, from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Ph.D. in 
physics from the University of Pittsburgh. From 1942 to 1960, Dr. 
Witzig was employed at the Westinghouse Research Laboratories and 
Bettis Plant in Pittsburgh, PA.
  During World War II, he worked on the Manhattan District program on 
high vacuum systems, heat transfer, mass spectroscopy, and ionic 
centrifuge. He served as the first experimenter in the Materials 
Testing Reaction and later as engineering manager of in-pile tests for 
the naval reaction program in Hanford, Chalk River, and the MTR-ETR 
complex.
  Dr. Witzig took the reactor of USS Nautilus, the world's first 
nuclear-powered ship, critical for the first time in 1954 while serving 
as senior engineer. He was integral in the development of nuclear 
submarines used by the U.S. Navy, developing engineering that was vital 
to the Skipjack and George Washington series of nuclear submarines, 
which have been the backbone of the U.S. nuclear navy.

  After leaving government service, he traveled worldwide in his 
consulting practice, NUS Corp., which grew into one of the country's 
largest independent groups of nuclear consultants. He became professor 
and department head of Nuclear Engineering at the Pennsylvania State 
University in 1967. While at Penn State, Dr. Witzig was responsible for 
one of the earliest student programs in nuclear engineering in the 
United States. He established the undergraduate and associate degree 
programs and initiated the continuing education Program on Radiation, 
Nuclear Safety and Environmental Effects for Public Education. Dr. 
Witzig conducted research in areas of reactor design and safety, fuel 
cycle, nuclear safeguards, rad-waste disposal, emergency planning and 
radiation monitoring.
  Retiring from the university in 1986, he served on multiple public 
and private nuclear safety and oversight boards. Dr. Witzig chaired the 
Westinghouse GoCo Sites Nuclear Safety and Environmental Institute 
board of directors from 1988 to 1993. In 1979, Governor Richard 
Thornburgh called him into the service of the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania during the emergency shutdown of Three Mile Island II.
  In June 1992, Witzig presented the paper, ``The Value of a Nuclear 
Safety and Environmental Committee,'' at the Ukraine Academy of Science 
at Chelyabinski State University. He toured the site of the explosion 
at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Dr. Witzig had been a life-long 
advocate of nuclear energy as a clean, safe, and efficient source of 
energy and also for the training, accreditation, and oversight of 
nuclear operators.
  Among Dr. Witzig's honors are Fellow, American Nuclear Society; 
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Sigma Xi, 
Sigma Pi Sigma, and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies; Special Citation for 
an Engineering educator in Excellence in Engineering Education, EEl 
Power Engineering; Who's Who in Engineering and America; and Penn 
State's Outstanding Service Award for retirees.
  He was also a leader in his community, serving Ferguson Township as a 
financial auditor and working 6 years on the Planning Commission, 
establishing the township's first comprehensive zoning ordinance. A 
member of the State College Presbyterian Church, Dr. Witzig was an 
ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. He served on the 
Christian Education committee, and was a Sunday School teacher.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in extending our 
deepest sympathy to Dr. Witzig's family, especially his beloved wife 
Bernadette, his children Eric, Leah, Marc, and Lisa, his grandchildren 
Heather, Sean, Christie, Monica, Mallory, and Alicia, and his great 
grandchildren Madeline, Ava, and Miles. Our Nation owes a debt of 
gratitude to Dr. Witzig for his contributions to nuclear engineering. 
His leadership and ingenuity have saved lives, developed new 
technology, and advanced our knowledge of nuclear science.

                          ____________________