Our Vision

We envision a future where our contributions to the physical, biological, and environmental sciences have transformed the world as we know it. Our discoveries have changed forever how we provide for life’s most basic needs – and how we view our own existence within a complex, ever-changing universe.

By 2023, science will have helped us achieve a large measure of energy independence. The energy intensity of our economy decreases, and energy sources are now more plentiful and clean. There is a new, more competitive menu of renewable energy sources, a safer generation of nuclear power, a hydrogen-based energy storage utilization infrastructure, and an efficient energy distribution network that is greatly enhanced by breakthroughs in nano-designed materials, computation, and other relevant fields of science. Having completed key experiments, the promise of fusion power – clean, almost limitless energy – is closer than ever.

We see a world where science provides enduring solutions to the environmental challenges posed by growing world populations and energy use. New, cost-effective approaches, some based on the use of engineered microbes, enable us to tackle some of our most intractable cleanup problems. On a global scale, we have a clearer picture of the complex process of climate change, and we have solutions in hand made possible through the biological and environmental sciences, and in particular, through genomics¹.

Through 2023, science will sustain critical growth and strength in the world’s economy. During this period, entirely new industries will be created, and virtually all industries will benefit through the enormously broad reach of breakthroughs in energy and the physical sciences. Our mastery of catalysis, nano-assembly, self-replicating, and complex systems will not only increase our industrial efficiency, but it will create entirely new opportunities for harnessing the power of our material world.

Science fiction will give way to science fact as medical miracles unfold and a new set of promises arises to fill the void. DOE² will continue to capitalize on its strength at the nexus of the physical and life sciences, delivering the nanoscience, biology, precision engineering, and advanced computation that will ‘close the deal’ in these developments and secure our valued contributing role in medical science. Restoring sight to the blind with microassembled retinal implants will start the journey, with the next stop, hope for those with spinal cord injuries.

As the future unfolds, not only do people enjoy an improved quality of life, but they are more secure. DOE science will have provided the science behind innovations in monitors, sensors, computational analysis, structures, materials, and countless areas that help to provide early threat detection and protect those that we serve.

In the not-too-distant future, our universe will seem more familiar to us, and the mysterious properties of matter and energy less complex. Our pursuit of answers to some of the most persistent questions of science will have revealed important secrets.

At the end of the day, we envision a future where our discoveries have resulted in improved benefits to mankind, whether it was to light the night, heat a home, transport food, cure an illness, or to see and understand the beginning of time itself.

Notes:

	Genomics–	the study of the relationships between gene structure and biological function in organisms.
	DOE–	Department of Energy.

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