00:00:01 The basis of technical achievement is human nature itself.

00:00:07 After all, it's human nature to be curious, to be intrigued by the unknown.

00:00:13 Yet as remarkable as human nature may be, it's often overwhelmed by the forces of nature, or the nature of the marketplace.

00:00:22 A few remarkable individuals face these obstacles, and not only overcome them, but leave in their footsteps a legacy of achievement that makes this planet a better place to live.

00:00:34 One was Eleuther Irénée DuPont, the founder of the DuPont Company.

00:00:40 Another was his mentor, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry.

00:00:47 As a young man, DuPont learned to adopt not only the principles of Lavoisier, but his discipline, his focus, his determination, his patience and perseverance, and most importantly, his method of discovery.

00:01:03 Lavoisier succeeded not only through his own brilliance, but through his leadership and partnership, by working in conjunction with a number of brilliant colleagues, a collaboration of the world's greatest minds.

00:01:18 The entire history of the DuPont Company was built on that principle, as will its future be.

00:01:27 Today, the Lavoisier Medal for Technical Achievement is the DuPont Company's highest honor for a career of vision, discipline, creativity, risk-taking, patience, perseverance, problem-solving, partnership, and leadership, culminating in contributions which result in measurable business impact or technical achievement of enduring significance.

00:01:53 The purpose of the medal is not only to acknowledge the achievements of a select few scientists and engineers, but to inspire all who follow to learn from the examples set by these remarkable people.

00:02:08 I had to consider a very rocky time the first year I was with the company. I didn't understand what was required of an industrial organization, and I wouldn't do too well.

00:02:21 And I was getting very fatherly and serious advice from the research manager at that time, and things went much better.

00:02:32 One of the most difficult things, I think, for young people is to recognize and discipline themselves, to stick to an objective, and to know when to move forward, when to inventory some other ideas, save them, but make sure that the main objective went forward, that they were communicating with the people who had to understand what they were doing,

00:02:59 and conversely, whose work they had to understand. So the communications, the clear objectives, a number of factors come into moving discoveries along.

00:03:14 I think our customers have a lot to teach us. They know what they need, but I'm going to express a slightly contrarian point of view here. They know what they need short term, but they may not know everything that we can do.

00:03:34 And I think some of the most important inventions are made by people who go beyond what the immediate market needs are. So again, it's just a matter of judgment, which way, what you do.

00:03:51 The thing that pleases me most is the long record of successful achievement made always with a team approach. I cannot point to anything I ever did that I did alone. It was always with help from other people.

00:04:22 I was lucky. I'm pretty sure I knew what I wanted to do when I first came, and I tried to do it. And I was interested in science, I was interested in fluid chemistry, and I wanted to see how the things worked. People that are closer to doing research tend to have a much longer outlook in time.

00:04:38 But how will this research do over a longer period, a real long period of time, years? They probably have the longest outlook of anybody. Business likes research to solve their immediate problems. I have no problems with that at all. I think research should help to solve immediate problems.

00:05:00 But consequently, businesses also should listen to what the long-term suggestions of research has, because that's going to be the long-term goal and the future of the company.

00:05:14 Yes, the ultimate customer outside the company is clearly the most important person you want to deal with. And you like to satisfy their needs. But you also like to anticipate the needs, anticipate the problems they have, anticipate the problems you see with the internal customers, the people that actually have to produce these things in the plant that we have.

00:05:39 Of all the things I've done here, I've tried to do, I'd like to think about some of the process improvements that have been made to enable the things to work. Because doing process improvements and doing these other things are like puzzle solving. Some of the puzzles solve to help the plants operate and processes operate, which would not have operated without them, or which would have operated much less efficiently and much less economically without them.

00:06:07 We're all in this together, the marketing folks, the manufacturing folks, and the research folks. Good ideas and good suggestions can come from anywhere. And the name of the game is to listen and to react.

00:06:21 You have somebody who's not an expert and tells you, makes you a suggestion, wants your company's suggestion, and it may be the world's worst suggestion. It may be horrible. Sit down there and take the time, because they're interested, and to explain this, explain why you think it might not work and why you think there may be better ways to do it. Because the next one will be a huge moneymaker, something that will be really good.