Funding for this publication was provided by the University of Chicago. Argonne National Laboratory is operated by the university for the US Department of Energy

laboratory afffces near experiments large experimental hall

Mr. BRUCE. Thank you, Dr. Schriesheim. Dr. Wiley, from the Pacific Northwest Laboratory, the Director there. Dr. Wiley, we will hear from you now.

STATEMENT OF DR. WILLIAM R. WILEY, DIRECTOR, PACIFIC

NORTHWEST LABORATORY, RICHLAND, WA

Dr. WILEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is worthwhile being third on the listing here sometimes, because I could just-are there any questions.

Mr. BRUCE. Only in the hanging.

Dr. WILEY. Seriously though, many of the statements that have been made about technology transfer, about university programs, I will spare you and just enter that as a part of my written statement just refer to some key items that I have identified out of that document, if that's okay with you.

Mr. BRUCE. Without objection, all of the full statements will be entered into the record.

Dr. WILEY. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I am awfully pleased to be here today, to represent the Pacific Northwest Laboratory. Approximately one year ago, during my first appearance before this Subcommittee, I discussed the research and development programs and unique features of PNL, as one of the Department of Energy's multi-program National Laboratories.

This year I would like to discuss the critical importance of DOE's Supporting Research and Technical Analysis budget, not only to these Laboratories but to the U.S. scientific community as a whole. Also, you requested in your letter of invitation that I discuss a major new scientific initiative at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory, which is to establish a Molecular Science Research Center.

Before I get into a discussion of the Molecular Sciences Research Center, I would like to talk about the importance of basic research to the needs and problems of the country. Over the past few years, several reports have identified the important role that basic research plays in the technology development as well as the relationship between technological advancements and the economic development of our country, and indeed, some of the regions within our country.

Both the Administration and the Congress have accordingly placed strong emphasis on enhancing support for basic research across scientific and engineering disciplines. Some of the most significant technical challenges facing the United States relate to energy development and stemming the degradation of our environment as a result of energy uses, and industrial competitiveness of course. All of these missions are, of course, part of the Department of Energy mission.

The complexity of some of these challenges exceed the knowledge base, the basic fundamental knowledge base of the scientific community. We are unable to solve these problems because of the lack of knowledge coming from basic sciences. Current methodologies and equipment cannot be expected to meet tomorrow's challenges, nor can they be expected to produce tomorrow's technologicallybased business and economy.

Basic research has always been the principal source of new knowledge, leading to the understanding of complex problems. The pace of science has progressed to the point where molecular-level research, that very fundamental basic research, the interaction of molecules with each other, has clearly emerged as an area that promises to provide scientific breakthroughs.

The experience at PNL has shown that the key to making progress in several scientific programs lies in understanding the processes and the mechanisms at the molecular level. Whether the challenge is developing advanced materials, converting coal to clean fuels, or treating hazardous waste, the key to all of the understanding of this is at the molecular level, a very fundamental basic research effort.

The Supporting Research and Technical Analysis budget of DOE is a principal source for basic research support at DOE's multi-program laboratories, as well as the source of the majority of the research grants made by DOE to the universities. Likewise, the supporting research budget is the budget category in which the new state-of-the-art scientific facilities at DOE's multi-program laboratories are being funded.

Simply stated, the Supporting Research and Technical Analysis budget is one of the most important components of the Federal budget for maintaining the basic research capabilities of the U.S. and especially the scientific community. I urge this Committee to continue its traditional and strong support for this budget.

I want to turn now to a discussion of the Molecular Science Research Center, which we refer to as a basic resource for small science in the country. During my appearance before this Subcommittee last year, I briefly mentioned Pacific Northwest Laboratory's plans relating to a new scientific initiative called the Molecular Science Research Center.

The primary purpose of the MSRC, which I will refer to it here, will be to revitalize the Laboratory's basic research capabilities, while at the same time creating a national user facility which will be made available to the research teams from academia, industry and the Government laboratories.

The MSRC is intended to be a laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment, such as tunneling electron microscopes, NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance, and computer capabilities far beyond what we have today. All of this will bring together in one location, theorists and experimentalists in an interdisciplinary environment. The overall goal is to accelerate the process by which knowledge derived from basic research can be extrapolated with the assistance of computers, to new applications, thereby expediting the transfer of technology to the marketplace.

I want to briefly give you some idea of where we are in the development of this unique basic fundamental science facility. In 1986, PNL established an advisory committee comprised of representatives from industry, universities, DOE Laboratories, and other institutions throughout the country. The purpose of this was to get this community to help us identify the research themes that would be the focus of the Laboratory's new thrust in molecular sciences. In 1987, October of 1987, PNL hosted a workshop of more than 200 people to hear the wider scientific community discuss what the

research needs were of the molecular sciences center. The report of the workshop proceedings, entitled: "Chemistry at Interfaces" was published in January of 1988.

I might just point out, Mr. Chairman, that in this week's editorial of Science magazine, there's a kind of reaffirmation of the fact that the molecular interfaces is a key component to solving many of the chemical, biological and physical problems that we will face in the future.

We have met with several representatives of the university research community in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere in the U.S., to brief them on the concept of the MSRC and to explore ways of joint collaboration in conducting research at these facilities. The concept is to be able to do research in the manner that one does research in the basic small sciences while at the same time, providing a larger sector of the scientific community with frontier level equipment and instrumentation.

We have also met with representatives from industries in the Northwest and throughout the United States, to solicit their input and their participation in this user facility. PNL has committed funds from its exploratory research budget to develop research proposals to date. This has permitted us to purchase equipment and to recruit staff for a small sector of what the center will be in the future.

The formal research proposal, as was indicated by Dr. Decker today, was submitted to the Department of Energy on March 1. I am confident that the peer review which the proposal is going through at the moment will suffice and we will be able to get on with this important facility, which will be the first of such a facility in the United States. There is one other facility located in Okasaki, Japan.

The MSRC is intended to focus on fundamental interactions of molecules in the complex heterogeneous environment. The MSRC will be a user facility, as I have often repeated, available to visiting scientists from the industrial and academic communities. It will be an opportunity for those scientists who, for reasons of not having sufficient instrumentation and equipment, to proceed at frontier levels of science. The MSRC will be an educational training resource for undergraduate students and graduate students in science throughout the country.

I want to turn now to why the MSRC at PNL. Very simply, a laboratory, whether a part of the Federal laboratory system, the university system, or a component of the industrial company, must have leading edge equipment and instrumentation or it cannot perform excellent research. Moreover, it cannot attract first-rate scientists or faculty, and it is not the first choice of the best and the brightest graduate students in the country.

A laboratory must keep pace with scientific advances in equipment and instrumentation, especially if it is to have technology development as its major mission. To solve the applied problems given to us by DOE, we need this facility.

Let me summarize then. A stable research and development policy and a continuing commitment to basic science are keys to the economic strength of this country. While the U.S. still spends more than any other country on research and development, the

percentage of civilian research has remained constant over several years. Meanwhile, our competitors have increased their expenditures for civilian research programs and are beginning to challenge our pre-eminences in our technology based market areas.

For the first time in 1986, the U.S. trade balance in high-technology goods was negative. Basic research is the important investment in our country's future. Just as we learned in 1970 that oil was an important ingredient to economic strength, we should be just as mindful that a strong commitment to basic research is equally important to our economic strength.

The supporting Research budget of DOE is a vital component of this commitment. Again, I would like to thank you for your continuing and strong support for this budget. I hope that we can expect that in the next couple of years.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Wiley follows:]