[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 101 (Thursday, June 10, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4033]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Tribute to Michael Martinez

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is Thursday, and it is that time of 
the week. I know a lot of our reporters in the Senate like this because 
it is the signal of kind of the end of the workweek here. Of course, it 
is also a signal that I get to come to the floor and do what is one of 
my favorite elements about being a U.S. Senator: talking about someone 
who makes Alaska what I believe to be the greatest State in the 
country. We call this person our Alaskan of the Week.
  Before I get to talking about our Alaskan of the Week--an 
extraordinary young man named Michael Martinez--let me tell you a 
little bit about what is going on in Alaska right now.
  Today, in Anchorage, the Sun rose at 4:44 a.m., and it will set 
tonight at 11 p.m. It was light almost all day. Blackout curtains are 
up, and 12 midnight Sun celebrations are abounding. It is a great time 
of the year to be in Alaska. You can't believe the energy you feel.
  We were recently able to pass a cruise ship bill--and I appreciate 
the Presiding Officer's doing that a couple of weeks ago--that enables 
cruise ships to come back to our State this summer. So we are going to 
have tourists coming, and you should, too, America. If you are watching 
on C-SPAN, come on up. Alaska is safe. It is beautiful. If it is on 
your bucket list, make it happen this summer. You will love it. You 
will see breathtaking scenery and some of the most generous, innovative 
people in the country. You will not be disappointed. So come on up.
  You will be in a State where 21-year-old Michael Martinez, our 
Alaskan of the Week, was born and raised--one of the many, many reasons 
I remain optimistic about the state of our State and the state of our 
country. So let me tell you a little bit about Michael.
  His mother, Mary, is from the village of Kotlik in the Yukon-
Kuskokwim Delta. She is Yupik. His father, Eufemio, is from Central 
Mexico. So those two met and married in Anchorage, and that is where 
Michael was raised.
  As I said, he is 21 years old now and has one more year to go before 
he receives his bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the 
University of Alaska Anchorage--a great university. Although he has 
been very successful so far in his already having won many awards for 
his research, he plans on going to graduate school. There is so much 
for him to study, after all, and his interest in science runs very 
deep, as it has since he was a young boy when he began winning science 
fairs.
  An Alaska reporter wrote a story in 2016--so 5 years ago--already 
documenting then young Michael's successes. The first award was for an 
experiment demonstrating how weight and length affect the throwing 
distance of traditional hunting spears used by Alaska Natives. Isn't 
that a cool research topic? In eighth grade, he won an award for 
designing a robot.
  Eventually, he moved on to bigger and better things, like, at the 
tender age of 16, trying to find a cure for cancer and getting 
mentorship from his high school teachers at Service High School in 
Anchorage and, very importantly, in the Alaska Native Science and 
Engineering Program--what we call ANSEP--in Alaska. He won the Emperor 
Science Award, which is a prestigious science research award offered 
through PBS Learning Media and Stand Up to Cancer.
  Michael worked with his mentor, Dr. Holly Martinson, Ph.D., from the 
University of Alaska Anchorage, to make a database for Alaska Natives 
suffering from cancer. It was his introduction to the world of 
research, and he fell in love with it. He entered ANSEP.
  Let me talk to you a little bit about ANSEP. It is a program that 
attracts young Alaska Native students from all over Alaska and provides 
extraordinary educational opportunities for them in science, in the 
STEM fields. ANSEP students have been enormously successful and have 
gone on to do incredible, incredible things. I can't say enough about 
this tremendous program.
  Eventually, Michael was introduced to another mentor, Dr. Brandon 
Briggs, a professor of biological sciences and the director of the 
Advanced Instrumentation for Microbiome Studies. It was his work at Dr. 
Briggs' lab that led him to his current passion of finding better 
environmentally friendly ways to extract much needed, even critical, 
materials from the Earth.
  Increasingly, both here in Congress and across the country, we have 
been focusing on metals and minerals that are needed to power our 
future, particularly rare earth elements and critical minerals. So much 
of our economic future and our national defense depends upon these 
minerals. The problem--although we have many of these minerals, rare 
earths included, in our country and particularly in Alaska--is that our 
mining industry has had incredibly difficult times in terms of being 
able to access them, whether it be with permitting delays that take 
years, with far-left environmental lawsuits that prohibit the 
extracting of them, or with the lack of production capacity. The result 
is that China, like it is in so many other areas, is dominant, 
controlling up to 90 percent of some of these critical minerals.
  Like many of the challenges we face and confront with China, we need 
the best minds in America working on these things. Our young minds hold 
the promise of our future.
  That is one of the reasons we recently passed a bill right here in 
the Senate this week to fund research institutions, so that we can 
unleash this talent and creativity.
  This is where our Alaskan of the Week, Michael, comes in. It was 
recently announced that Michael won first place in the High North Young 
Entrepreneur Award at the High North Dialogue, an international pitch 
competition for Arctic-related business ideas. Here is what he won it 
for: forming a company with his adviser-mentor, Dr. Briggs, called 
Arctic Biotech Oath, which is working on sustainably extracting rare-
earth elements, as I said, which are in abundance in Alaska.
  How does this work? What is the science and chemistry that he is 
already working on? In a lab, they are using microorganisms, fungi, 
which dig into the ore, breaking it up, and releasing the rare-earth 
element into a solution, which is a more natural and sustainable 
process to extract these rare-earth elements.
  This process is still in research and development, but it has 
incredible potential for our Nation and for our State, and he has 
founded a company that is doing this, and Michael is just 21 years old. 
Michael could be anywhere doing this, but he is staying in Alaska 
because Alaska is home, and he is committed to contributing to our 
State.

       That is why I'm still here. And that's why the company will 
     be here and will be based in Alaska. I was born and raised 
     here. I am trying to improve our State and see Alaska soar 
     and thrive within the next couple of decades. I want to see a 
     green energy sector evolve in Alaska.

  So that is Michael. He wants to be part of this, and he is part of 
this at the tender age of 21.
  So to Michael, thanks for all your hard work.
  By the way, thanks to all the mentors in Michael's life and ANSEP and 
UAA, which have helped him along the way.
  Good luck in your endeavors, and congratulations, Michael, for being 
our Alaskan of the Week.