Balance, Leadership, and Heroes Thank you, President Jenifer, for your kind introduction.

President Jenifer, faculty, students, administrators, staff, and honored guests. In coming here to UTD, I have been greeted with a warm welcome from everyone at this University and in the community. I am immensely enjoying working with the students, faculty, administrators, and staff. I feel I am among friends, and that is a wonderful feeling, as well as a wonderful basis for shared accomplishment. I am proud to be able to work with all of you to help this University grow, and to join with the community in the science education initiatives which we are developing together. It is a great honor to be invited here today to speak to you, the graduates, together with your families and friends. This opportunity prompts me to many thoughts as I come here to say a few words to you at this important moment in your lives. One interesting thought is to realize how accustomed I have become to using viewgraphs or PowerPoint slides when I talk, and that this is an interesting experiment to see if I can actually talk coherently without being able to point to an outline or diagram on a projection screen But the thoughts that strike me most deeply on this occasion relate to the confluence of events that bring us all here today, that make this day possible, and how this reflects the complex balance in our society and in our personal lives that is necessary for great things to happen. Family and career; common good and personal achievement; public institutions and private entrepreneurship these things are often seen in terms of the inevitable conflicts that arise between them, but today, I would like to talk instead of the wonderful synergy between them, and the key to life that is creating balance. As I stand here, I am prompted to think of this question of balance in terms of the inevitable recollection of my own graduation, and hence my own path through life. So permit me to indulge in a little personal musing, and to reflect on how this balance affected my own life. As you know, I was privileged to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics, and am now working on community-based science education here as a Visiting Professor at UTD. But what path brought me to this point? What balance of factors, what combination of opportunities and influences, allowed a young kid growing up in the Bronx in New York City to go where I have gone? The path was started by my parents, who in that wonderful, essential commitment to the future, not only made many sacrifices to raise me well, but who supported me with love and dedication as I followed my curiosity and wonder at the natural world into a career in science. They never went to college, but they guided me well in the most important things in life which above all else involves striving to be a good person. It is often said, and it is

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Balance, Leadership, and Heroes very true, that some of the most important lessons you teach are by the example of how you conduct your life, not the lessons that you consciously think you are teaching. So the initial path has a lot to do with family. But, moving on, how did I get the education I needed to pursue my passion for science? It was society that stepped in first, with public schools in New York, which included one dedicated to what I found most interesting in life, the Bronx High School of Science. Since my parents were of modest means, the next step, college, was a serious financial challenge, but then private philanthropy stepped in. I was accepted at Cooper Union, a small, private college in lower Manhattan. What makes Cooper remarkable is that it is a tuition-free private college, open to all by competitive admissions. What made this remarkable educational opportunity possible was Peter Cooper, a classic rags-to-riches self-made man, who used his fortune to endow The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1859, for the purpose of providing a free education to others like himself who could not afford one. So in a joint venture between family and private philanthropy, I lived at home with my parents, and commuted on the subway to a college education that was paid for by the generous and forward-looking bequest of a wealthy selfmade man from over 100 years earlier. After college and benefiting from the fruits of Peter Coopers private entrepreneurship and philanthropy, my career was back in the hands of the public sector. I, like you today, also graduated from a public university, receiving my Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. While there I was supported by the National Science Foundation, more public dollars at work making the future possible for a kid from the Bronx who wanted to do science. It was at UMass that this NSF support made possible first my graduate coursework, and then the thesis research that lead to a Nobel Prize, that high honor which was created by another successful private entrepreneur, and one of the worlds greatest philanthropists, Alfred Nobel. In the years after my PhD, I worked on controlled fusion research at Princeton Universitys Plasma Physics Laboratory, a publicly funded research facility run by a private university. Public and private, all intertwined, all working together to create opportunity for a young kid from the Bronx to move ahead through life and make what contribution he could. And now I am here at UTD, working on community-based science education, and finding wonderful support in this quest from students, faculty, administrators, and staff here at UTD, along with other kindred spirits in science museums, science centers, corporations, and community organizations, all dedicated to a common goal of bringing science to kids, and to the public, in exciting and wonderful ways. Again, public and private, organizations and individuals, each contributing in their own way to achieve something important. Another essential element of any balanced life is friends. Good friends are so important, that I think I need not say much more, except to remind you to value them, and to build a

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Balance, Leadership, and Heroes solid basis of shared trust with them. You can make no finer investment of time and energy in your life. So there it is, family, friends, and the individual; public and private elements of a balance that is essential to a successful life for us all. But how does one achieve this balance, how do you know what to do, how to make it all happen, how to make life worthwhile? In response to that question, I would like to offer some thoughts about something which has only become clear to me in recent years. Look for and study the true heroes in your personal life, in the world around you, and in history, for you will find a wealth of guidance there. My biggest historical hero is Theodore Roosevelt, that sometimes over-the-top, but most extraordinary man, who did so much to shape our country. He was a man of exceptional intelligence, courage, and dedication, with an extraordinary moral compass that guided him to vigorous engagement with life and a legacy which we in this country all benefit from today. I recommend him to you as a person worthy of study and of enjoyment, for you cant help but get a thrill out of someone who approached life with such extraordinary zest and sometimes off-the-wall enthusiasm. I particularly mention TR today because to my mind one of the most remarkable things about him is that he combined and balanced what can seem to be polar opposites into one extraordinary human being, as part of one entirely self-consistent personal philosophy of life. He was a Harvard educated man who decided to run a cattle ranch in the Badlands of the Dakotas, where he reveled in working side-by-side with the cowboys, and served as a deputy sheriff, while simultaneously making keen observations as an author of widely-read books and articles. He moved with perfect ease between the world of the wealthy into which he was born, to the world of the laborer and cowboy. He deeply and genuinely respected and identified himself with those he met throughout his life from all the varied worlds he immersed himself in. He did so on the basis of who they were as human beings, what they strived for, and what they contributed to society. His friends thus spanned the range from the grittiest cowboy to the sophisticated and powerful. He seamlessly fit into and enjoyed to the full the political world in Washington DC, where he wielded with great enthusiasm the power of what he called the bully pulpit of the Presidency, and yet found his greatest peace and solace, particularly in times of tragic personal loss and despair, in nature and the wilderness. As a politician, he was a progressive who created the modern presidency and the role of a strong government to guarantee fairness to all but at the same time, he was equally a conservative who deeply believed that individual, personal responsibility and initiative was the essential strength of our society.

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Balance, Leadership, and Heroes TRs balanced perspective lead him to engage in legendary and precedent-setting battles with monopolistic big business, while at the same time championing the essential role of business in creating the products and wealth which moved the country forward. He was an avid hunter throughout his life, but also a great lover and student of nature. Many today forget that key leaders of the conservation movement in the United States the first environmentalists were dedicated, enthusiastic hunters like TR. This seems contradictory to some nowadays, but TR understood the balance of nature. In the same spirit of balance, he was the war hero whose famous charge led him to political success and a Congressional Medal of Honor, but also the man who received the Nobel Prize in Peace for negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese war. He was a consummate politician, who was also an author and recognized authority on an amazing array of subjects beyond politics. One of my favorite TR tales is that when the experts at the Smithsonian failed to be able to identify a particular wildlife specimen, they sent it over to the White House for definitive identification. The President was happy to oblige. So TR stands as an example that not only can our society successfully integrate and balance all these seemingly conflicting elements, but it can even be done in one person. In this regard, it is amusing and instructive that his legacy is regularly claimed by both ends of the present political spectrum. Although we cannot all have a larger-then-life role like TR, we can all provide leadership in our own way in our own lives. And while I have waxed enthusiastic today about TR, I invite you to seek out and learn from your own set of heroes as you go through life. They can be from your personal life, from the national and world scene, or from history. A hint they are unlikely to be found amongst the manufactured celebrities and superficial heroes foisted off on us by Hollywood and the media. Look for the people from all walks of life who are genuine in their approach to life and to others, and who, like TR, base whatever they do on a core of high ethical values, in both their personal and public lives. So, to close, as you leave here today, I offer you my heartiest congratulations on all that you have achieved. You should take the time to congratulate yourselves on your efforts, on many challenging tasks well done. But also take the opportunity to think of the kaleidoscope of circumstances that made your success possible this great public university, the generous public and private support which made this university what it is today and what it is poised to become in the future, this unique nation that we are so fortunate to live in, and particularly, the support of your family and friends. Value your personal character and integrity above all else, consider the balance of life, seek out the real heroes, and prosper. Thank you.

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