National Engineers’ Week [3]was started in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers [4]. The celebration is held in conjunction with President George Washington [5]'s Birthday; our first President is considered by many engineers to be the nation's first engineer because of his survey work.
Engineers use imagination and analytical skills to invent, design, improve and build things and turn ideas into reality, apply basic research and dream up creative and practical solutions. Engineering has made numerous contributions to modern life, and has made it more comfortable, safe and prosperous. Engineers change the world.
The engineering field is as varied as engineers themselves. Engineers design and build superstructures and delicate medical instruments. They explore for energy and better and more efficient ways to deliver it, they design environmental controls for buildings and drive innovation in various fields of energy such as wind, fuel cell technology, solar energy, geothermal energy, petroleum, gas, nuclear engineering, alternative energy, energy efficiency, fusion, hydrogen and superconductor technologies.
At DOE [6] and its National Laboratories [7] engineers support the discovery and design of new materials with novel structures, design functions and properties that may lead to new materials for the generation, storage and use of energy and address and solve environmental impacts of energy use. Other engineers use modern tools and capabilities in the engineering sciences to ensure the safety, security, reliability and performance of the current and future U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without having to conduct underground testing. Still other engineers are working to facilitate collaborative computational research for energy applications.
Do you want to know more about engineering at DOE and our National Laboratories? Do you want to find your own research? Learn more about the Nobel Prize-winning work? Find research results that will compliment your work?
Not sure where to start? Go to Science Accelerator [8], developed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information [9] (OSTI) to advance discovery and to deliver science information. Science Accelerator is a gateway to chemistry and all science at DOE, including R&D results, project descriptions, accomplishments, full text documents, conference papers, scientific e-prints….and more. All available at no cost to the user, who can find what he or she needs quickly, though a single query and with a real-time relevance ranking system.
Celebrate National Engineers’ Week by learning more about science and engineering. Science Accelerator [8] makes it easy. And remember to thank an engineer.
What makes engineers so amazing is their ability to dream up something that seems impossible and then turn it into a reality. A very fascinating profession.