This is a great occasion and I want to express my deep appreciation to my peers and colleagues in the solar energy field and to the Solar Energy Division of ASME for selecting me to receive the first Yellott Award of the 21st century. In accepting this award I know that it is not given to me alone, but also to all of the outstanding researchers who worked under my guidance in building up the research facilities in solar thermal conversion, storage, thermal control of buildings, direct contact heat transfer, and solar cooling at SERI. In addition to my colleagues at SERI, also the authors and co-editors for the ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering have made major contributions during my 10 year tenure as the founding editor. All of these men and women achieved a worldwide reputation of high quality research for solar sciences and technologies and share in this award. Since I retired from SERI 12 years ago, I have served as the ASME legislative Fellow for Energy and Environment at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). NCSL serves all state governments and its goals include giving timely and objective information on energy issues to all 7,464 start: legislators, providing technical assistance on solar and other forms of energy to the 50 state governments, and conducting symposia on energy issues for state legislators and their staff. My talk today is based on personal reflections, observations and analyses, but does not represent an official position of any specific organization.