Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu

Sec. Chu is 4th from the left.

October 28 I traveled to NASA Goddard with other Einstein Fellows to to listen to a presentation by Steven Chu, Nobel Prize winner in Physics and now Secretary of Energy for the United States of America.  It was important to President Obama that this important position in our government be held by someone that was a scientist first, politician second.  His talk was titled, How Innovation has Changed [and will continue to change] the World. He noted some key discoveries:

Haber-Bosch Process that made it possible to harvest nitrogen in the air for fertilizer and changed the world's ability to feed itself.

Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize for the development of a new disease resistant wheat that is credited for saving a billion people worldwide from starvation .

William Shockley's development of the transistor from the vacuum tubes.

Integrated circuits - optical fibers - wireless communication.

He ended with a plea for continued investment in Research and Development by the US which is currently 9th in the world for annual R&D investment.  We need, "Invented in America, made in America, and sold worldwide."