Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

Women in Clean Energy Symposium

Ed. note: This is cross-posted from U.S. Energy Department.

Join Us Live This Friday: Women in Clean Energy Symposium

If we are to succeed in the global clean energy race, we need the talents and contributions of all members of society. This is the driving force behind the Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) initiative. Launched in partnership with eight other governments at the inaugural Clean Energy Ministerial -- C3E leverages the skills and talents of women worldwide to help advance the global clean energy economy.

This Friday, September 28, organizers of C3E will celebrate an important milestone -- the launch of the Women in Clean Energy Symposium. Hosted by the U.S. Energy Department and the MIT Energy Initiative – the Women in Clean Energy Symposium will bring together distinguished and emerging leaders to help lay the foundation for a broader, continuing effort to advance women's leadership in clean energy.

The centerpiece of the symposium will be the first-ever C3E Awards ceremony -- recognizing six mid-career individuals with outstanding accomplishments in the clean energy field. Awards will be given out in a range of categories including: innovation and technology development, entrepreneurship, policy and advocacy, and advancements for the developing world.

Best of all, the symposium will not be limited to those attending in person. We’re making the event interactive so that you can share your own thoughts and perspectives throughout.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory researcher Kirsten Alberi works in the lab's luminescence mapping laboratory at the Solar Energy Research Facility. Here she aligns a laser and sample to map the photoluminescence coming off the sample. (Photo Credit: Dennis Schroeder, National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Golden Goose Award: Scientific Research Investments Paying Off

Yesterday, Members of Congress, representatives of the academic, scientific, and business communities, and other luminaries gathered to honor seven federally-funded researchers whose work has transformed technology, medicine, and countless lives. The researchers are the first-ever recipients of the Golden Goose Award, which highlights the unpredictable nature of basic scientific research and the fact that some of the most important scientific discoveries come from federally funded research that may once have been viewed as unusual, odd, or obscure.

This project is coordinated by some  leading advocates for science and research in the country: the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Association of American Universities (AAU), Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the Science Coalition, The Task Force on American Innovation, and United for Medical Research, with support from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Chemical Society, and the American Mathematical Society. 

One of the winning projects – the study of glowing jellyfish – led to innovative advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment as well as new breakthroughs in AIDS research. Another – the study of tropical coral – sped the development of game-changing ceramics for bone grafts and prosthetic eyes.  When I think of jellyfish, I don’t think of cancer research. But that is precisely the wonder of research: it changes the way we think, and the way we live.

Government funded research is all around us. Even when we don’t see it, or don’t think of it in that way, researchers across the country are looking for ways to find it.

The final winner of the Golden Goose Award was Charles Townes, the inventor of laser technology. Laser is the foundation of countless technologies we use each day: the Internet, digital media, computer hard drives, satellite broadcasting, laser eye surgery, and laser cancer treatment. Dr. Townes was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Navy, but many of his peers and supervisors were skeptical of his work.

“Many people didn’t think it would work,” Dr. Townes explained. “In fact the head of the Department and the previous head of the Department, both of whom got Nobel Prizes so they weren’t stupid, came to my lab and said, ‘Look, that’s not going to work, we know it’s not going to work, and you know it’s not going to work, so stop, you are wasting the Department’s money.’ And about 4 months later, we had it working.”

“With the support of general science you can learn a lot of things, and every once in a while something has terrific applications and it helps our industry a great deal and it helps the economy a great deal,” Dr. Townes later went on to say. 

Dr. Townes is 97 years old, and is hoping to continue doing research until he turns 100. “Life is such fun I’d like to keep going! I want to learn new things and discover new things.”

It is this quest for discovery that our researchers embark on each day. The journey may not always fall into our idea of what science should look like or sound like on paper, but their paths lead to some of the most vital foundations of our economy, our livelihood, and our hope for the future.

We congratulate the Golden Goose Award recipients, and look forward to their future life changing discoveries.

Bess Evans is a Policy Analyst at OSTP