[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[April 27, 1999]
[Pages 644-647]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Presenting the National Medals of Science and Technology
April 27, 1999

    The President. Thank you very much. I want to begin by thanking Neal 
Lane and Secretary Daley for the terrific job they do for our administration every 
day and for the American people. I also want to welcome the two 
eminently qualified Members of Congress to be here, Senator

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Bill Frist, a distinguished physician, and 
Representative Rush Holt, our only bona fide 
scientist in the United States Congress, and it's about time we had one, 
and I'm glad they're both here. [Laughter]
    Each year, I look forward to presenting these medals because they 
show again that America's future is flowering as a result of the work of 
the honorees and people like them all over our country. I suppose I am 
living proof, when I come here every year, that it is possible for a 
person to love and support those things which he does not fully 
understand. [Laughter] Indeed, one of the reasons that I asked Al 
Gore to join the ticket with me in 1992 was 
that I felt that the work you do would shape the future of America, and 
I thought there ought to be somebody here in the White House who knew 
more about it than I did. In the years since, I've done my best to be a 
good student.
    One of the things that impresses me is the nature of the work that 
all of you do, although it is very different. I was deeply moved when I 
read as a young man what Albert Einstein said when he said, ``I think 
and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is 
false. The hundredth time, I am right.'' I wonder how many of you, day 
and night, perhaps fueled by lukewarm coffee or kept awake by stubborn 
puzzles, have waited for that hundredth time. We are very glad that you 
made the effort.
    You have sought answers to questions that few Americans can even 
begin to understand, or others people ask but can't answer, questions 
about neutrino physics and plant genetics, about polymer composites and 
urban poverty. Your success in illuminating the hows and whys of our 
world and raising the quality of human existence have helped make the 
time in which we live perhaps the most exciting in human history. I am 
humbled by your achievements and honored to present these medals to you.
    I'd like to take just a moment to reaffirm something that is obvious 
to all of you but needs to be equally clear to your fellow Americans. In 
an age when the entire store of knowledge doubles every 5 years, where 
prosperity depends upon command of that ever-growing store, the United 
States is the strongest it has ever been, thanks in large measure to the 
remarkable pace and scope of American science and technology in the last 
50 years.
    Our scientific progress has been fueled by a unique partnership 
between government, academia, and the private sector. Our Constitution 
actually promotes the progress of what the Founders called ``science and 
the useful arts.'' The partnership deepened with the founding of land 
grant universities in the 1860's. After World War II, President 
Roosevelt directed his science adviser, Vannevar Bush, to determine how 
the remarkable wartime research partnership between universities and the 
Government could be sustained in peace. ``New frontiers of the mind are 
before us,'' Roosevelt said. ``If they are pioneered with the same 
vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged the war, we can 
create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more 
fruitful life.'' Perhaps no Presidential prophecy has ever been more 
accurate.
    Vannevar Bush helped to convince the American people that Government 
must support science, that the best way to do it would be to fund the 
work of independent university researchers. This ensured that, in our 
Nation, scientists would be in charge of science. And where before 
university science relied largely on philanthropic organizations for 
support, now the National Government would be a strong and steady 
partner.
    This commitment has helped to transform our system of higher 
education into the world's best. It has kindled a half century of 
creativity and productivity in our university life. Well beyond the 
walls of academia, it has helped to shape the world in which we live and 
the world in which we work. Biotechnology, modern telecommunications, 
the Internet, all had their genesis in university labs, in recombinant 
DNA work, in laser and fiber optic research, in the development of the 
first web-browser.
    It is shaping the way we see the universe. Just last week, 
astronomers at San Francisco State University, whose work was supported 
by the National Science Foundation, announced they had detected a solar 
system of three large planets orbiting the star Upsilon Andromedae. This 
suggests strongly that there are billions of planets in the universe, 
some of them undoubtedly very much like Earth. Now, on my bad days here, 
that's a very sobering thought--[laughter]--but quite an exciting one.
    It is shaping the way we see ourselves, both in a literal and in an 
imaginative way. Brain imaging is revealing how we think and process

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knowledge. We are isolating the genes that cause disease from cystic 
fibrosis to breast cancer. Soon we will have mapped the entire human 
genome, unveiling the very blueprint of human life. Meanwhile, I want to 
compliment the committee on recognizing today the role of social science 
in honoring William Julius Wilson, 
whose work has deeply influenced what I have tried to do as President, 
to bring the benefits of work to people too long denied them.
    Today, because of this alliance between Government and the academy, 
we are, indeed, enjoying fuller and more fruitful lives. With only a few 
months left in the millennium, the time has come to renew the alliance 
between America and its universities, to modernize our partnership to be 
ready to meet the challenges of the next century.
    Three years ago I directed my National Science and Technology 
Council to look into and report back to me on how to meet this 
challenge. Today I'm pleased to present their findings.
    The report makes three major recommendations. First, we must move 
past today's patchwork of rules and regulations and develop a new vision 
for the university/Federal Government partnership. Vice President 
Gore has proposed a new compact between our 
scientific community and our Government, one based on rigorous support 
for science and a shared responsibility to shape our breakthroughs into 
a force for progress. Today I ask the National Science and Technology 
Council to work with universities to write a statement of principles to 
guide this partnership into the future.
    Next, we must recognize that Federal grants support not only 
scientists but also the university students with whom they work. The 
students are the foot soldiers of science. Though they are paid for 
their work, they are also learning and conducting research essential to 
their own degree programs. That is why we must ensure that Government 
regulations do not enforce artificial distinctions between students and 
employees. Our young people must be able to fulfill their dual roles as 
learners and research workers.
    And I ask all of you to work with me, every one of you, to get more 
of our young people, especially our minorities and women students, to 
work in our research fields. Over the next decade, minorities will 
represent half of all of our school-age children. If we want to maintain 
our continued leadership in science and technology well into the next 
century, we simply must increase our ability to benefit from their 
talents, as well.
    Finally, America's scientists should spend more time on research, 
not filling out forms in triplicate. Therefore, I direct the NSTC to 
redouble their efforts to cut down the redtape, to streamline the 
administrative burden of our partnership.
    These steps will bring Federal support for science into the 21st 
century. But they will not substitute for the most basic commitment we 
need to make. We must continue to expand our support for basic research.
    You know, one of Clinton's laws of politics--not science, mind you--
is that whenever someone looks you in the eye and says, ``This is not a 
money problem,'' they are almost certainly talking about someone else's 
problem. [Laughter]
    Half of all basic research, research not immediately transferable to 
commerce but essential to progress, is conducted in our universities. 
For the past 6 years we have consistently increased our investment in 
these areas. Last year, as a part of our millennial observation to honor 
the past and imagine the future, we launched the 21st century research 
fund, the largest investment in civilian research and development in our 
history. In my most recent balanced budget, I proposed new information 
technology initiative to help all disciplines take advantage of the 
latest advances in computing research.
    Unfortunately, the resolution on the budget passed by Congress 
earlier this month shortchanges that proposal and undermines research 
partnerships with NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the 
Department of Energy. This is no time to step off the path to progress 
and scientific research. So I ask all of you, as leaders of your 
community, to build support for these essential initiatives. Let's make 
sure the last budget of this century prepares our Nation well for the 
century to come.
    From its birth, we have been built by bold, restless, searching 
people. We have always sought new frontiers. The spirit of America is, 
in that sense, truly the spirit of scientific inquiry.
    Vannevar Bush once wrote that ``science has a simple faith which 
transcends utility . . . the faith that it is the privilege of man to 
learn to understand and that this is his mission . . . Knowledge for the 
sake of understanding, not

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merely to prevail, that is the essence of our being. None can define its 
limits or set its ultimate boundaries.''
    I thank all of you for living that faith, for expanding our limits 
and broadening our boundaries. I thank you--through both anonymity and 
acclaim, through times of stress and strain as well as times of 
triumph--for carrying on this fundamental human mission.
    Major Williams, please read the citations.

[At this point, Maj. Darryl Williams, USA, 
Army Aide to the President, read the citations, and the President 
presented the medals.]

    The President.  Thank you, Major. Thank 
you, ladies and gentlemen. Congratulations again. We're adjourned. Thank 
you.

Note: The President spoke at 3:08 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to 1998 National Medal of Science 
recipient William Julius Wilson.