LIVERMORE LAB ENGINEER HEADS NATIONAL ENGINEERING SOCIETY

LIVERMORE, Calif. - Ted Saito of the U.S. Department of Energy'sLawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been elected this year'schair of the American Association of Engineering Societies(AAES).

AAES is the umbrella organization for more than 20 engineeringsocieties, representing more than a million engineers in industry,government, and education. AAES is dedicated to the knowledge,understanding, and practice of engineering in the publicinterest.

A priority for Saito this year will be to increase publicawareness of the value engineering brings to society.

"Public surveys indicate most people feel they don't know enoughabout the profession," Saito said, " and they don't realizeengineering's vital role in our economic well-being and nationalsecurity. I hope to help change that."

Toward this end, the AAES last week co-sponsored (with theNational Academy of Engineering and National Engineers Week)selection of the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20thCentury (go to http://www.greatachievements.org/ )in recognition of National Engineers Week. The top 20 were announcedat the National Press Club in Washington, DC by astronaut/engineerNeil Armstrong.

Another responsibility for Saito will be monitoring public policyissues and tracking legislation that would effect engineers,including a national portable retirement plan for engineers, similarto a plan for teachers, that would permit engineers to takeretirement benefits with them when changing employers.

Saito served on the AAES board last year and previously sat aspresident of SPIE (International Society for Optical Engineering). Heis a program leader in Lawrence Livermore's EngineeringDirectorate.

Saito is a fellow of both SPIE and the Optical Society ofAmerica.

Saito earned his bachelor's degree in engineering and basicscience at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, his master'sdegree in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology andhis Ph.D in physics at Pennsylvania State University.

For more information on the AAES, go to http://www.aaes.org

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is anational security laboratory, with a mission to ensure nationalsecurity and apply science and technology to the important issues ofour time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by theUniversity of California for the U.S. Department of Energy.