2月16日，美国国家工程院宣布了14项21世纪的重大工程技术挑战项目，这些技术挑战一经克服，将可极大地改善人们的生活质量。
这14项任务是由来自世界各地专家组成的一个多学科委员会，在美国国家科学基金会邀集的会议上提出的。该委员会成立于2006年，经数次召开会议讨论后提出了这一系列挑战技术。通过一个互动式网站，此项工作在1年多的时间里汇集了世界各地著名工程师、科学家以及普通大众的意见。委员会最后得出的结论经过了50多个主题专家的审核。
最终，委员会的选择被分成对人类发展必不可少的4大主题：可持续发展、卫生、减少脆弱性以及生活愉悦。委员会决定不为这些技术挑战项目进行排名，挑战项目名单包括：生产可负担得起的太阳能、以核聚变提供能源、开发碳隔离技术、管理氮循环、全球都可用到洁净水、恢复和改善城市基础设施、推进医疗信息学、研制更好的药物、人脑逆向工程、防止核恐怖行动、确保网络空间安全、增强虚拟现实、推进个性化学习以及发展科学发现工具。
委员会成员表示，他们并没有试图涵盖每一个重大挑战，也不为克服所选择挑战的特殊方法背书。他们没把目标重点放在预测或是小机械装置上，而是尽力找出有益于人类与地球兴旺繁荣所需要完成的事项。委员会主席、美国前国防部长威廉·佩里则表示，委员会所选择的工程技术挑战，是他们认为可通过创新和承诺，大多在本世纪初即可实际完成的，其中有些可以快速达成。
美国国家工程院在该计划的网站上为大众提供了投票机会，以选出他们认为最重要的议题，并发表个人意见。该院院长查尔斯·魏斯特称，这些技术挑战中任何一项的成功都将大幅改善每个人的生活。
原文如下：我就不翻译了免得贻笑大方，有能力的卡友帮助翻一下
Date: Feb. 15, 2008
Contact: Randy Atkins, Media Relations Officer
National Academy of Engineering
202-334-1508; e-mail <
atkins@nae.edu>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Leading Engineers and Scientists Identify Advances That Could Improve Quality of Life Around the World
21 Century's Grand Engineering Challenges Unveiled
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) today announced the grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century. A diverse committee of experts from around the world, convened at the request of the U.S. National Science Foundation, revealed 14 challenges that, if met, would improve how we live.
"Tremendous advances in quality of life have come from improved technology in areas such as farming and manufacturing," said committee member and Google co-founder Larry Page. "If we focus our effort on the important grand challenges of our age, we can hugely improve the future."
The panel, some of the most accomplished engineers and scientists of their generation, was established in 2006 and met several times to discuss and develop the list of challenges. Through an interactive Web site, the effort received worldwide input from prominent engineers and scientists, as well as from the general public, over a one-year period. The panel's conclusions were reviewed by more than 50 subject-matter experts.
The final choices fall into four themes that are essential for humanity to flourish -- sustainability, health, reducing vulnerability, and joy of living. The committee did not attempt to include every important challenge, nor did it endorse particular approaches to meeting those selected. Rather than focusing on predictions or gee-whiz gadgets, the goal was to identify what needs to be done to help people and the planet thrive.
"We chose engineering challenges that we feel can, through creativity and commitment, be realistically met, most of them early in this century," said committee chair and former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry. "Some can be, and should be, achieved as soon as possible."
The committee decided not to rank the challenges. NAE is offering the public an opportunity to vote on which one they think is most important and to provide comments at the project Web site -- <
www.engineeringchallenges.org>.
The Grand Challenges site features a five-minute video overview of the project along with committee member interview excerpts. A podcast of the news conference announcing the challenges will also be available on the site starting next week.
"Meeting these challenges would be 'game changing,'" said NAE president Charles M. Vest. "Success with any one of them could dramatically improve life for everyone."
The Challenges
¨ Make solar energy affordable
¨ Provide energy from fusion
¨ Develop carbon sequestration methods
¨ Manage the nitrogen cycle
¨ Provide access to clean water
¨ Restore and improve urban infrastructure
¨ Advance health informatics
¨ Engineer better medicines
¨ Reverse-engineer the brain
¨ Prevent nuclear terror
¨ Secure cyberspace
¨ Enhance virtual reality
¨ Advance personalized learning
¨ Engineer the tools for scientific discovery
The Committee
William Perry (committee chair), former secretary of defense, U.S. Department of Defense, and Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor and professor of engineering, Stanford University
Alec Broers, chairman, Science and Technology Select Committee, United Kingdom House of Lords
Farouk El-Baz, research professor and director, Center for Remote Sensing, Boston University
Wesley Harris, department head and Charles Stark Draper Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bernadine Healy, former director, U.S. National Institutes of Health, and health editor and columnist, U.S. News & World Report
W. Daniel Hillis, chairman and co-founder, Applied Minds Inc.
Calestous Juma, professor of the practice of international development, Harvard University
Dean Kamen, founder and president, DEKA Research and Development Corp.
Raymond Kurzweil, chairman and chief executive officer, Kurzweil Technologies Inc.
Robert Langer, Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jaime Lerner, architect and urban planner, Instituto Jaime Lerner
Bindu Lohani, director general and chief compliance officer, Asian Development Bank
Jane Lubchenco, Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Zoology, Oregon State University
Mario Molína, Nobel laureate and professor of chemistry and biochemistry, University of California, San Diego
Larry Page, co-founder and president of products, Google Inc.
Robert Socolow, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, Princeton University Environmental Institute
J. Craig Venter, president, The J. Craig Venter Institute
Jackie Ying, executive director, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the U.S. National Academies. They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter.
