CEO and President Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.

I had a rich math and science education in the public schools. My dad was a self-educated, hands-on scientist, engineer, machinist, chemist, and inventor. We were always doing and learning things. I was lucky.

The technology all around us releases us from bare existence, and delivers us to a world where we have time to think and to be.

The sciences are the roots of technology. But it's bigger than that. Technology changes, it rusts, but science is forever.

The discoveries of science are the basics of what we know. And still bigger: man's pursuit of discovery is best when it's autotelic...internally driven, an end unto itself; creative. Which makes it somehow "pure." Free of politics, economics, and need.

Learning science is much more than lessons in biology, chemistry, and physics...as important as those lessons are. Learning science is taking those lessons and toying with the discoveries, exploring how they feel, trying, failing, succeeding, and understanding deep in your bones. Learning science is experiencing the flow in discovery and creativity.

We need the fundamentals, and we need to experience pure science as an end unto itself. Like music and art.

Our inherent curiosity mates well with these needs in learning science. Yet we must take care that the "learning requirement" to "demonstrate basic scientific knowledge" doesn't drown out the need to experience pure science. Fortunately, there is a grace: when we learn the way the discoverers did, we learn by pure science, and we get there implicitly. Instead of the goal being to learn a list of facts, and how to solve a set of problems, we discover the facts, and learn how to build on them. The result is perhaps the same, but the journey is more intriguing, engaging, and is an end unto itself we can use throughout our lives.

University of Idaho “Future Truck”:
Recognizing that technology of the future needs support today, Ed Schweitzer pledged $200,000 to the University of Idaho’s “Future Truck”project, becoming its major sponsor. Located in Moscow, ID, UI mechanical engineering students turned a standard 2000 Chevy Suburban into a hybrid-fuel vehicle which uses less fossil fuel, improves the environment, and makes a significant contribution to the advancement of transportation technology. The five-year project was completed in 2004.

Electronics Course:
Ed Schweitzer encourages education at all levels. He understands that a better-educated public can achieve greater personal and professional satisfaction. The Basic Electronics Course, an idea Dr. Schweitzer developed, is one of the many opportunities he has created for students (of all ages) to learn more in the field of science. The course is a cooperative effort between SEL and the Pullman School District where SEL hired an instructor, developed the curriculum, set up a classroom and equipped the lab. Classes began in August 2000. Since that time almost 1,000 students have benefited from the course. A Basic Electronics Course, a Robotics Course, and a Pre-Engineering Course are now offered.

University and School Donations:
Dr. Schweitzer and SEL continue to support scholarships, professorships, internships, public and private schools, and universities and colleges throughout the world. SEL donates $100,000 each year to educational institutions in the names of its employees. The program allows employees to designate the school to which the donation will be made.

Dr. Schweitzer recognizes the importance of practical experience for students. He agreed to donate equipment required to upgrade protective relays, metering and communications for the electrical distribution system at the Washington State University Power Plant and East Campus Substation in Pullman. This provided opportunities in “real world” application for Electrical Engineering students attending coursework at the University. The donation exceeded $185,000.

WSU’s Electrical Engineering Department participated in this project by assigning one group of students enrolled in EE 415 with an emphasis in power distribution for this project. The same group continued to work on this project as they enrolled in EE 416 the following semester. The students were involved in relay programming and provided support in the installation process of the protective relays at both substations.

Over the past five years, SEL has donated equipment and materials to over 75 academic institutions totaling more than $1 million.

Palouse Discovery Science Center:
Early in this decade, a dream of a science center became reality when Dr. Schweitzer and SEL donated 11,000 square feet of space for displays, activities and programs. Up until that time, the science center displays were housed in various locations and were not accessible to the public on a daily basis. In 2003, a home was found for PDSC when Dr. Schweitzer welcomed it to Pullman in a building owned by SEL. In 2007, Dr. Schweitzer and SEL donated $1 million to the PDSC to purchase a building of its own. The Palouse Discovery Science Center offers programs to children from toddler-age through high school and adults. A hired executive director, an active board and many volunteers direct the activities of PDSC, the only stand-alone science center in Washington State east of the Cascade Mountains. School children from Washington and Idaho enjoy the benefits of this unique operation.