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Weigand receives DOE's first Schlesinger Award

Gil Weigand of the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate received the inaugural James R. Schlesinger Award from Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman.

The Secretary lauded Weigand for his "passion for excellence along with his ability to foster and implement the practices and values that are necessary for the protection of our nation."

Gil is credited with conceiving and implementing DOE's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, which pooled government programs and national laboratories to build the world's best high-performance supercomputers. High-performance computing and simulation at the ASCI level now pervade all areas of science and engineering.

"Simulation and modeling has arrived. It is wholly acknowledged today as a scientific methodology on an equal par with theory and experiment," Gil said at the ceremony.

Schlesinger, who was present for the award ceremony, was the first Secretary of Energy. The Schlesinger Award is the highest award in the newly established Secretarial Honor Awards Program and the highest non-monetary award bestowed by the agency.

Another team from ORNL—the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence team—was honored by Secretary Bodman for their support of the Department of Energy's national security mission.

Dave Felde and Ron Miskell of the Nuclear Science and Technology Division; Jon Kreykes, Jim Sumner and Duane Starr of the Global Initiatives Directorate; and Alan Parker of the Legal Directorate were selected by the Secretary to receive the Secretary's Achievement Award, which recognizes significant achievements on behalf of the department.

The Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence team was recognized for their work in DOE's nuclear nonproliferation programs "to mitigate the risk of nuclear proliferation and international terrorism."

Gil Weigand's Speech

Thank you Secretary Bodman and thank you Secretary Schlesinger. I am truly humbled by the enormity of this honor and I would like to acknowledge the true heroes upon whose shoulders I have had the honor to stand. They are the men and women of the simulation and modeling community. To them I would like to say. Congratulations, we have made it. Simulation and modeling has arrived. It is wholly acknowledged today as a scientific methodology on an equal par with theory and experiment.

I would also like say to my two daughters, who are here with me today, thank you girls for understanding when so often you did not know why. I love you.

Recently, Secretary Schlesinger made a presentation at the energy summit sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences. During his talk, he painted a grim picture for the future of U.S. Energy Security and the possibility of energy independence for as long as we relied on oil powered engines. However he did make one optimistic point: The solution to our national energy challenge is technology. In my own work on energy security today at Oak Ridge I have been seeking an elevator speech to describe the path forward in energy security and I now have it: in the precise words of Secretary Schlesinger “technology is the solution”. Secretary Schlesinger went on to say that the high price of oil has stirred the country’s entrepreneurial juices.

Well given my experience at Time-Warner’s AOL I can tell you that those entrepreneur juices are a powerful brew. I believe they are part of the “magic” that makes America great. The free enterprise nature of this great country allows entrepreneurs with good ideas; to get access to capital, to put new products into the marketplace, to sometimes fail, but ultimately to succeed at solving extremely important problems, and getting rewarded for their risks and efforts. I saw this at AOL and I agree with Dr. Schlesinger that it will be part of the eventual solution to our energy challenges.

So while the Time-Warner part of me says that free enterprise will be part of the solution, the DARPA and DOE side of me says that there are some problems that the markets cannot solve on their own. These are problems that are too important--like fighting wars--or problems that are too big--like finding a cure for cancer or conquering space.--they cannot be left completely to a lazie-fare marketplace. I believe meeting our future energy needs is in this category.

As I stand here, holding an award for leadership in technology, I have to look into a mirror and ask myself, so what now? Clearly mine and my colleague’s computer and simulation accomplishments within the DOE nuclear weapons complex and at DARPA were important, but they are not the end of the story. Simulation and modeling was the driving and pacing force in Stockpile Stewardship via the ASCI program and more recently they have been the driving and pacing force in Science via the SciDAC program. If we act and act boldly, simulation and modeling likewise can be the driving and pacing force in Dr. Schlesinger’s challenge, “the solution is technology”.

I truly believe that the fearless application of advanced modeling and simulation, enabled by DOE’s world-leading high performance computing, is precisely what our government needs to do to enable our free market entrepreneurs to discover new ways of meeting our energy needs. Whether the energy system is nuclear, solar, wind, or bio-mass we can defy the pessimists; I believe we can achieve a credible impact in 10 years. At DOE we have done so before; the existence proof exists for us.

Imagine in 10 years going into your garage and disconnecting your car from the electrical grid that’s connected to a non-polluting nuclear energy power station and then traveling hundreds of miles on batteries supplemented by solar energy collectors on your roof. Also imagine when your batteries get low, a bio-fuel engine kicks-in to get you to a service station where you can exchange your batteries for a set of fully charged ones with about the same level of fuss we experience today when we fill up our car with gasoline.

I am truly grateful for this award today and for Secretary Bodman and Dr. Schlesinger being here to present it to me. I think the best way for me to justly honor what they have done and this great nation for giving me the opportunities it has is for me and the simulation and modeling community to continue our work to find new ways that “technology can be the solution”.

I promise to do that and I am looking forward to continuing to work with many of you.

Thank you.