2010 Trustees Award

Good evening. As a person who loves science and has a hunger for new knowledge, this evening has been a feast. I wish especially to thank the remarkable woman who brought us all together to honor NJ inventors, a great champion of innovation herself: Dr. Gert Clarke. Frankly, after hearing from many incredibly creative and inventive people, it is humbling to be at this podium. My hat is off to my fellow honorees. At the same time, I feel proud to live in the only state in the nation that has its own Inventors Hall of Fame….…And, encouraged by what is abundantly evident tonight: The flame of innovation continues to burn brightly in our state. We need to keep it lit. Clearly, innovation remains critical to NJ’s economic competitiveness and quality of life. Before turning briefly to the subject of energy, allow me an observation about something that struck me powerfully tonight…. It is the rich diversity of inventiveness and creativity we celebrated this evening. It’s wonderful. Our inventors are in various fields, at various points in their careers, come from different backgrounds and from around the world. Who can doubt that diversity is one of New Jersey’s greatest assets? Certainly, NJ’s historic position as a strategic crossroads and magnet for talent is one of the main reasons we became the Invention State. (We know from history that neither Thomas Edison nor Albert Einstein was born in NJ – and the same could be said of many other famous innovators who lived and worked here.) Today, our economy is more knowledge-based than ever. It makes sense to bring all the human talent you possibly can to the table – and to keep a strong focus on education. Certainly, a skilled, knowledgeable and diverse workforce is needed more than ever if we are to meet the challenges that lie ahead. In energy, a key challenge is to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Clearly, we need to do this to safeguard the environment and improve our nation’s energy security. But the pursuit of alternative forms of energy is important to our society’s economic future as well. Let’s briefly look at solar energy. To date, solar has been the focus of most of the alternative energy development in our state, to the extent that NJ has more solar installations than any state other than California. Green energy is still in its early stages. But the expertise being developed in our state could be the beginning of a future that resembles our past leadership in fields such as telecom and pharmaceuticals. At PSEG, we are very active in solar – with more than $800 million of investment, most of which is dedicated to developing 160 megawatts of solar electricity in NJ. Among other projects, we are building solar farms on a number of our own properties, installing solar panels on schools and town halls and mounting them on 200,000 utility poles and street lights in neighborhoods across NJ. This activity is generating business for small companies and is creating jobs in our state. Let me stress: These are not only jobs putting panels on roofs or on poles. They are jobs in engineering, software, systems development, communications, as well as management, marketing and sales…. ….In other words, a panoply of fields associated with a knowledge-based, high-tech economy…and with the skilled, diverse workforce to keep it growing. To conclude, what is true in energy is true in other fields. We are at a fork in the road. The choices we make now will affect the world we leave our children. Can there be any doubt… Our choice must be to build on our great heritage as the Invention State of the most innovative nation in the world. I am humbled by this award. Thank you.
- Dr. Ralph Izzo

Dr. Ralph Izzo was elected Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG) in April, 2007. Prior to that he was elected to eight other top executive positions within PSEG's family of companies.

Dr. Izzo is a well-known leader within the utility and public policy arenas. In the office of U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, he served as an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow. In New Jersey's Governor Thomas H. Kean, he served four years as a senior policy advisor specializing in energy, science and technology.

Ralph Izzo's career began as a research scientist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, performing numerical simulations of fusion energy experiments. He has published or presented over 35 papers on magnetohydrodynamic modeling. He received his Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science degrees in mechanical engineering and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in applied physics from Columbia University. He also received a Master of Business Administration degree, with a concentration in finance from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management. Further, he received Honorary Degrees from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Doctor of Science) and Thomas A. Edison State College (Doctor of Humane Letters). He is listed in numerous editions of Who's Who and has been the recipient of national fellowships and awards.

Dr. Izzo serves as Chair of Rutgers University Board of Governors and on the Board of Directors for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the New Jersey Utilities Association, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and The Center for Energy Workforce Development.