[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[June 23, 1992]
[Pages 1002-1004]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the National Medal of Science 
and the National Medal of Technology

June 23, 1992
    Thank you, and welcome to the Rose Garden. Well, thank you very 
much. And what a beautiful day here in the Rose Garden. May I salute Dr. 
Bromley; Dr. Bernthal, the Deputy Director of the National Science 
Foundation; and of course, over my right shoulder here, Secretary 
Barbara Franklin, Secretary of Commerce; also Congressman Vander Jagt, 
who's so interested in all of this; and so many special guests here 
today, and then three generations of American scientists.
    As I look out at the group here of the men and women that we honor, 
you may remember what Albert Einstein said to his fellow scientists: 
``Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief 
interest of all technical endeavors in order that the creations of our 
mind should be a blessing and not a curse to mankind.'' Today we honor 
men and women whose life's work answers Einstein's challenge. They bless 
mankind not only with the brilliance of their minds but with the 
integrity of their hearts.
    I am very proud to present the National Medals of Science and 
Technology to our 16 recipients, to these men and women of persistent 
and, at times, clairvoyant determination. They've explained the 
frontiers of science on canvasses as infinitesimal as a single human 
cell and as infinite as space itself.

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We honor them for their accomplishments. But we honor them, also, for 
having the courage to undertake the journey.
    There's a church in Sussex, England which has a wonderful 
inscription that captures these recipients' pioneer spirit of 
innovation. The inscription says, ``A vision without a task is but a 
dream; a task without a vision is drudgery; but a vision with a task is 
the hope of the world.'' The hope of our world lies in individuals who 
asked why and then followed wherever that question led. Scientists like 
Nobel Prize Laureate Howard Temin, a truly seminal thinker in the 
history of biology who reshaped our thoughts about RNA and DNA. 
Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, who cofounded Microsoft and in the 
process literally led a revolution in the information industry. 
Visionaries like Eugene Shoemaker, who helped to transform our world, 
not only through the astounding breadth of his contributions to space 
explorations but also through the infectious enthusiasm of his 
imagination. Inventors like Norman Joseph Woodland, who developed a 
simple device of our daily lives: bar coding. You've seen first-hand how 
impressed I am--[laughter]--by how bar coding works. Amazing.
    You all proved that America's greatest resource is the genius of our 
people. We must encourage, we must support it. That's why Congress must 
double the budget of the National Science Foundation by 1994 and keep 
funding on track in 1993 for the superconducting super collider. That's 
why I'm committed to increases in R&D funding, large increases in R&D 
funding, to let our most talented people push the limits of their 
imaginations to understand the universe and to use the results to create 
jobs in the future of others. And to support research I've also 
established a national technology initiative to bring Government 
officials together with private business to shape technology, to move 
the new discoveries out of the Federal labs into the marketplace.
    In addition, I believe that we need to stimulate private sector 
investment, the engine obviously of any entrepreneurial economy. And 
that's why I'm going to continue to fight so hard to get Congress to 
slash the capital gains tax. This would create new businesses, encourage 
new innovation. I also want to make that R&E, that research and 
experimentation tax credit permanent.
    The world economy of the 21st century will demand a new age of 
American competitiveness in a fiercely challenging global marketplace. 
In order to compete we must make immediate, drastic changes, beginning 
with the need for the best educated, the most well-educated workers. 
Many of you here today, I'm told, are teachers, influencing one dream at 
a time, and you know that education is the basis of our future. You know 
the terrible fact that in some math and science studies we rank almost 
last, almost last among the industrialized nations. Rest assured we will 
turn that around. I'm counting on you, and I pledge to you the support 
of this Government.
    Technical competence is so vital that one of our six national 
education goals is to be the first in world math and science by the year 
2000. In order to reach that goal our budget invests $768 million in 
precollege math and science education, an increase I believe it's about 
18 percent over last year and 123 percent over the way things were just 
back in 1990.
    We must open a new world of educational opportunity for America's 
children and give middle- and low-income families more of the same 
choice of all schools that wealthier families already have. So, later 
this week I'll announce a new proposal that will do just that. It's a 
``GI bill'' for America's children.
    Forty-eight years ago the original GI bill opened educational doors 
for our war vets by giving them dollars to spend at any school they 
chose, public, private, or religious. It created a competitive 
marketplace of colleges and universities and encouraged improvement 
through innovation. Now it's time that we give the families the same 
consumer power for choice in precollege schools. That's why I'm 
introducing this exciting and, I think, powerful bill for our future.
    Our Nation can remain strong only by 
investing its resources and talents in sci- 
ence, technology, and education. And I 
want to recognize a group of special people 
who are dedicating their lives to that quest,

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our first class of Presidential faculty fellows, 30 young faculty 
members named for their excellence and promise in research and teaching. 
These scientists and engineers represent the best investment that we can 
make in our future. But I'd like to remind them of something. As you 
look at the distinguished medalists that we honor today, remember that 
whatever work you do, you will be standing on the shoulders of giants.
    I want to tell you about something, in conclusion here, pretty 
unusual that I ran into--I want to say discovered--a few months ago up 
in New Hampshire. Dean Kamen is here. He is a very special individual. 
What I'm talking about, the discovery, was of something known as the 
Maize Craze competition. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. Kids 
have to make a kind of a robot to fetch tennis balls out of a box filled 
with corn. Some of the best ideas sound pretty strange at first, but let 
me tell you, this is a terrific idea.
    I was enormously impressed, Dean, by how this Maize Craze teams high 
school students with high-powered engineering teams from major 
universities and corporations, a great example of the private-public 
partnership that will lead us to excellence in the next century. I had 
forgotten what a salesman Dean is, but he just came into my office and 
he said, ``Now, if these corporations can sponsor Olympic athletes, why 
isn't it a great idea that they encourage young scientists in the same 
way?'' And he's absolutely right about that. Maize Craze is part of U.S. 
FIRST, a national alliance of business, education, and Government 
working to reverse declining student interest and performance in science 
and math.
    I invited Dean to bring his winners here today, sponsors Xerox and 
NYPRO, and teams from Wilson Magnet and Clinton High Schools. We're 
honoring today a spectrum of achievers that goes then from high school 
to the pinnacle of research. In turn, we need to nurture every step on 
the educational ladder, for each depends on the soundness of the 
preceding one.
    So I just came out here to say congratulations to all of you, 
especially, of course, to our distinguished medalists who show us the 
triumph of the human mind and the unfolding drama of the human 
imagination. May God bless all of you. And now, Dr. Bernthal will 
present the citations, and I will stand in awe as these geniuses come 
marching by.
    Congratulations, and thank you all for coming.

[At this point, Deputy Director Bernthal presented the medals.]

    Well, I believe that concludes our ceremony. Dean, are those young 
people with you here? Maybe we could ask them to stand up, all those 
that came down from the Maize group. Where are you, all of you 
scientists--tortured my mind up there.
    Well, that concludes our ceremony. But we're just delighted you all 
were here, and thank you very much for coming. Thank you.

                    Note: The President spoke at 1:38 p.m. in the Rose 
                        Garden at the White House. In his remarks, he 
                        referred to Dean L. Kamen, founder of U.S. 
                        FIRST, and D. Allan Bromley, Assistant to the 
                        President for Science and Technology and 
                        Director of the Office of Science and Technology 
                        Policy.