 Thank you all, please be seated. Thank you, good afternoon. Welcome to the White House. It's an honor to welcome some of our country's most gifted and accomplished citizens. I appreciate your work on behalf of our nation. I congratulate you on this achievement, and I look forward to presenting you the national medals of science and technology. This afternoon, the East Room is home to innovators of a different kind. Some of our finest science and technology leaders. The men and women we salute have been recognized with countless honors, including the Nobel Prize. They have served as leaders of major research foundations, university presidents, directors of government agencies and heads of academic departments. And now they add to their deep and remarkable resumes the highest award a president can confer in their fields, the national medals of science and technology. And I congratulate you. The intellectual achievements of these men and women are momentous. In a single room, we have thinkers who help formulate and refine the big bang theory of the universe, the bootstrap resampling technique of statistics, the algebraic K theory of mathematics. I'm going to play like I understand what all that means. We have experts in fields like organometallic chemistry, atomic physics, and neurobiology. We have researchers who have drilled into glaciers, isolated the DNA of mobile genes, and pioneered the distributed feedback laser. Now, we've got some smart people here. And we're glad you're Americans. The many reasons that I'm an optimistic fella, and I am, is because I understand that this country is a nation of discovery and enterprise. And that spirit is really strong in America today. I found it interesting that one of today's laureates, Dr. Leslie Geddes, is 86 years old and continues to teach and conduct research at Purdue University. Even more interesting is what he had to say. He said, I wouldn't know what else to do. I'm not done yet. He's right, he's not done yet, because the promise of science and technology never runs out. With the imagination and determinations of Americans like our awardees today, our nation will continue to discover new possibilities and develop new innovations and build a better life for generations to come. And that's what we're here to celebrate. Leslie A. Geddes, 2006 National Medal of Technology to Leslie A. Geddes. For his contributions to electrode design and tissue restoration, which have led to the widespread use of a wide variety of clinical devices, his discoveries and inventions have saved and enriched thousands of lives and have formed the counterstone of much of the modern implantable medicine device field.