Former ASME Federal Fellow Mike Molnar Receives Roy V. Wright Award

Former ASME Federal Fellow Mike Molnar Receives Roy V. Wright Award Former ASME Federal Fellow Mike Molnar Receives Roy V. Wright Award Former ASME Federal Fellow Mike Molnar Receives Roy V. Wright AwardKalan Guiley (right), vice president of the ASME Board on Government Relations, presented former ASME Federal Government Fellow Michael F. Molnar, with the Roy V. Wright Award during the ASME Government Relations Dinner on April 20.Michael F. Molnar, PE, a former ASME Federal Government Fellow, was honored last month with the Roy V. Wright Award during the ASME Government Relations Dinner. Molnar, director of the interagency Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO) at the U.S. Department of Commerces National Institute of Standards and Technology, received the award after presenting the Roy V. Wright Lecture at the dinner, which was held April 20 in the Mansfield Room of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The Roy V. Wright Lecture and Award was established in 1949 to h onor Wright, ASMEs 50th president, for his contributions to the United States and his community. The lecture and accompanying award also recognize the motivational power that his speeches and leadership provided to all engineers in encouraging them to become good citizens as well as accomplished professionals.Molnar, who is also an ASME Fellow, is the founding director of the interagency AMNPO, which has a mission of fostering industry-led partnerships and implementing a whole of government approach to improve competitiveness and innovation within U.S. manufacturing. The interagency team is responsible for designing and establishing the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), the federal initiative to build a network of U.S. lokal hubs to accelerate the development and implementation of innovative manufacturing technologies for creating new, globally competitive products.During his lecture, Molnar, who served as a Federal Fellow with the White House Office of Science a nd Technology Policy in 2003-2004, stressed the importance of the team approach in developing technology-related public policy. The theme of my talk tonight is simple ASME matters, manufacturing policy matters, and Federal Fellows matter, he said. They all matter to sound engineering public policy. Collaboration is not always easy, but it is highly effective in getting big things done. So too is engineering public policy and the reason why ASME Federal Fellows are so critically important. Public policy is a political process, requiring public input, deliberation and debate, Molnar continued. Moreover, today many - if not fruchtwein - policy issues involve technology. Public policy depends on technically sound and unbiased information. Development of policies involving complicated technologies and commercial ecosystems especially requires subject matter experts from industry and academia. Today, both engineering and technology focused public policy is a systems challenge best done by teams. What is needed are subject matter experts in Congress and in the Executive Branch - Federal Fellows play a most important role.Later in his talk, Molnar related how he became involved in the Federal Government Fellows program out of the desire to serve the government in some volunteer capacity following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The attacks, he said, had resulted in a relatively mild economic recession, but a much deeper recession within the U.S. manufacturing sector that spurred the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the White House to seek for the first time an experienced federal fellow with expertise in manufacturing for help. After applying for the ASME Federal Fellows program and being competitively selected to serve as an ASME Fellow from 2003-2004, Molnar collaborated with then U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans and Undersecretary for Technology Phillip Bond, in a number of advanced manufacturing and RD activities, including organizing several regional roundtables, and ultimately developing the report Manufacturing in America.Following this work, the recession ended, U.S. manufacturing seemed to stabilize, and the national attention to manufacturing ended, Molar said. Yet manufacturing was not stable, and continued to hemorrhage jobs - some 6 million, representing a third of the entire direct workforce. In hindsight, more should have been done. The broader lesson Is the completion of a report, or passage of a bill, is only the start, he noted. Public policy requires sustained support. Initiatives need sound execution and successful implementation. Adjustments or course corrections are needed and for this, the ongoing involvement of stakeholders is needed. An active member ASME since 1982, Molnar has held more than 50 leadership positions at the local, regional and society levels, including section chair, vice president of ASMEs former Central Region, chair of the Manufacturing En gineering Division, and leader of the Manufacturing Technical Group. He received the ASME Dedicated Service Award in 2004.Following his lecture, Molnar was presented with the Roy V. Wright Award by Kalan Guiley, vice president of the Board on Government Relations and the host of the nights program, who called the honor a tribute to (Molnars) tireless service on behalf of ASME and the engineering and scientific community.Guiley acknowledged distinguished guest and ASME Member Dr. John Swanson for his generous contributions to the ASME Federal Government Fellowship. John is the quintessential American success story, Guiley said. Through hard work and drive he founded Swanson Analysis Systems Inc. in a farmhouse in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, and, together with a small group of employees, developed a system that would eventually become ANSYS. Bill Jones, a colleague of Johns and a former ASME Federal Fellow in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, says that John built A NSYS on a vision combined with dedication and a strong work ethic. John now brings that same energy to his philanthropy, giving to support the development of the future engineering workforce, advancement of the profession and service to the nation and the world.Guiley also expressed appreciation to two ASME Foundation Board Members, Lynden Davis and Jen Jewers, and thanked them for their support of the ASME Federal Fellows Program.William Wepfer, PhD, senior vice president of ASMEs Public Affairs and Outreach Sector, ASME Congressional Fellow Briana Tomboulian, PhD, who is currently serving in the office of Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), and Thomas Kurfess, PhD, current adjunct member of the Board on Government Relations and former ASME Foundation Swanson Fellow, also provided remarks during the award presentation program.