    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 17 (Monday, May 3, 1999)]
    [Pages 750-753]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    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 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,

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    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
    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

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    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 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,

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    he referred to William Julius Wilson, recipient, 1998 National Medal of
    Science.