Remarks Prepared for Dr. Raymond L. Orbach
Director, Office of Science
Science.gov 2.0 Launch Program
May 11, 2004
DOE Auditorium

Thank you, Dr. Warnick.

I would like to thank Dr. Warnick and his colleagues for OSTI’s enormous contribution in hosting Science.gov, and now for contributing the concept and leadership for Science.gov 2.0.

It is gratifying to note that the Office of Scientific and Technical Information – part of our Department of Energy Office of Science – holds an outstanding legacy of preservation and dissemination of science information. OSTI’s focus has been and continues to be to ensure DOE R&D results are accessible and widely known.

I would like to acknowledge our Small Business Innovation Research Program that funded the research behind this project, thus making Science.gov 2.0 possible.

It’s with great pleasure that we welcome our distinguished guests from this exceptional interagency collaboration, known as the Science.gov Alliance – a group obviously committed to advancing our nation's great science.

In these extraordinary times for science, the tools by which we share science information must also be extraordinary. Science progresses only if knowledge is shared, and Science.gov 2.0 shares knowledge with the public in a way not shared before – by helping the public find information most relevant to their needs.

We’re proud of this contribution, not just for DOE’s efforts, but also for the efforts across government agencies; and not just for Science.gov’s significance for our nation, but also for our world.

Since its launch in December 2002, Science.gov has been a resource critical to illuminating our nation’s science. Now, with the advent of Science.gov 2.0, it’s even better.

This is a very exciting moment in science as we enable our citizens to find the science information they need; help the public to rapidly tap into today’s research results; and show off the depth and breadth of our Federal scientific endeavor.

As the United States invests research power to regain predominance in Ultrascale computing, as we begin living in the era of the teraflop and dreaming of the world of petaflop, collecting, preserving and disseminating information – at times arriving at rates upward of millions of millions of calculations per second – is of utmost importance.

We anticipate great things from the future 3.0.

Now it is my honor and pleasure to introduce the Secretary of Energy, the Honorable Spencer Abraham, who has been a champion of science and technology for years, first in the U.S. Senate and now as a member of President Bush's Cabinet.

All of us in DOE's Office of Science were gratified when he commissioned - and personally narrated - a brief video about "DOE Science."

Secretary Abraham cares passionately about science education. He believes in doing everything possible to encourage young people to excel in math and science - and to pursue careers in these fields. Science.gov promises to help in this way, too.

In short, Secretary Abraham is a great activist and advocate on behalf of the science community.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham.