Imagine. It is wonderful to have you all here with us this evening at the museum and also to all of you at home who are watching via cspan. We have this evening a wonderful presentation by john browne and then followed by a discussion with professor daniel of rice university. Without further ado i will hand it over to john browne. Help me welcome mr. Browne to houston. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, i want to thank the Houston Museum of Natural Science for inviting me. As someone who served on the boards of several museums and galleries i have a deep appreciation for the role that institutions like this play in the local community and indeed in society more generally. As a window on the path and an explainer of the present and as a guide to the future they are indispensable resources which go above and beyond what you can read in books. Houston is fortunate to have this place and it is a great pleasure to be here. As a natural scientist and subsequently an engineer ive always sought to maintain a board perspective about the arts and being involved in cultural organizations that go beyond our core discipline. When i applied for scholarship to the university of cambridge in england i had to submit an essay about something completely different to my main area of tuudy so i submitted a piece about the architecture of and i can explain later to anybody who is interested in what that actually means. With my first bonus check from bp i bought a print and is a more Senior Executive i served on the boards of organizations such as the Shakespeare Library in washington dc, British Museum and later, the tate. Today it is one of the great joys of a career to be able to spend even more time with organizations. There has been always something that has troubled me. I have heard people assert again and again that arts and culture as a foundation of civilization. Great art is certainly essential by understanding the human conditions and you only have to visit the roscoe chapel here in houston to appreciate just that. In my view it is preceded by great engineering which is the True Foundation on which civilization is built. That is why i wrote make, think, imagine. To make the argument that engineering is the lifeblood of human progress. Today i want to tell you for stories which i encountered either while writing the book or while ive been talking about it after its publication. You can interpret them just as you wish and i hope they start a decent internal discussion with you. My first story is about transcending the limits. A few months ago i gave a lecture at the Francis Creek institute where i am chairman of the board and it is one of europes major Biomedical Research hubs directed by a mobile present winter and home to several more prizewinners. After my talk of research, i was asked a question that made me hiink he asked, arent humans just like e. Coli . [laughter] his question was about the way in which we grow and use Natural Resources because when you put e. Coli bacteria into a vat of fresh nutrients of population grows, slowly at first, and then exponentially. After this period of rapid expansion things go downhill rather quickly as the bacteria rattle it out with a dwindling pool of resources. In the 18th century, thomas made a similar point, arguing that human population growth is doomed to push us towards catastrophic competition followed by decline. In the 1950s the american geologist coined the term [inaudible] but we dont use that anymore as he predicted the production would peak around the year 2000 and tail off rapidly. The club of rome made similar predictions a few decades later as it talked about the limits to growth. Somehow all these predictions about the collapse of civilization have never come to pass. I have no doubt that we face great challenges today, not least the unintended consequences of progress itself. Some of these challenges, such as antimicrobial resistance, and Climate Change have the potential to become existential threats. But we are not bacteria. Time and again engineers have used their ingenuity and imagination to overcome limits, work around resource constraints and Work Together to build a better world. That is why the amount of oil the word uses per unit of gdp has fallen by one third since 1985 as engineering has enabled us to do more for less. It is why texas is, by a longy margin, the largest generator of cheap power from wind in the United States. It is why in recovery they use Carbon Dioxide to make it the lowest carbon source of oil in the world. This is real progress. Its indicated by developments in climate sciencete and accelerated by evolving Consumer Preferences guided by a combination of Public Policy and Market Forces but made possible by engineering. My second story is about unintended consequences. During the 1980s the dominant u. S. Communications operator, at t, was broken up into several smaller companies. This was followed in the 1990s by the loosening of structure and this was all designed to open up the markets and encourage competition. We can now look back and ask what is all of this is achieved thanks to a series of mergers todays at t is actually bigger than it was before it was broken up. But when it comes to innovation and has lost something. Bell labs, at ts powerhouse, was described by some as a mobile prize factory and now owned by the inis firm, nokia. Talent, practical knowhow and intellectual property has migrated overseas, particularly to europe into china. The practical consequence of this is playing out today. American companies do not have any distinct competitive advantage in 5g instead, Companies Like ericsson, nokia, the chinese firm huawei are ruining out mobile internet in most parts of asia and europe testing new standards along the way. Unlike many Critical Technologies that is dependent on people and companies in the u. S. 5g can be and is being developed without u. S. Involvement. This would not matter if we had the world underpinned by freetrade and constructive dialogue about standards. It does matter when we are experiencing a technologically driven trade more, major feature of which is deep suspicion of china. As a result the u. S. Is at risk of falling behind. This matters because 5g is a step change but it will provide the speed and low latency needed by the self driving cars, robots and drones that will transform our economies. It will enable physicians to perform surgery on patients on the other side of the world using extended and tactile reality that enables them to feel what is going on and as i recently saw during a demonstration at the Wembley Stadium in london, 5g will offer 360degree Sports Coverage in real time that will completely change the way we experience life sports. At best, a technological and geopolitical standoff would slow the speed and breadth and depth of innovation but at worst that could reverse the globalization of engineered products. Many of you wilbur member having to carry three mobile phones when you went overseas. One for the u. S. , one for europe and one for japan. It is my fear that we are heading down the same path tod today. My third story is about making a practical difference. On december 11, 1945 Alexander Fleming and two other men put on their bowties to receive a mobile prize for their research into penicillin. While the ceremony unfolded in stockholm a little known phenom called Margaret Hutchinson russo was the looking after her sons at home. Hutchinson russo had almost been written out of history but she is the real star of the penicillin the story it was she who took a promising but highly unstable chemical substance and solve the significant engineering problemub necessaryo transform it into the drug that saved more lives than any other. By the time of the Normandy Beach landing in june 1944, the allied forces had 2. 3 million doses of penicillin. One year later production stood at 650 billion units a month. This is all things to hutchinson russos tenacity. The story demonstrates perfectly what engineering is about and why its such a powerful force in our world. I think of engineering as being like the ancient roman god who had two faces. One looking at the past and the other looking at the future. In the case of engineering one face looked to the fruits of scientific discovery while the other looked at the needs of commerce, humanity and customers and the important bit happens in the middle where engineers integrate all that they see and come up with solutions. These are the tools and systems that we use to understand and shape our world. Time and time again engineers have applied their art to overcome seemingly impossible challenges in the past 40 years they have driven a 250 fold reduction in the cost of solar electricity that the ambassadors are on a similar learning curve. I hope and expect that the same will happen with the days expensive Carbon Capture technology so it becomes the cornerstone of our response to Climate Change. As hutchinson russos work shows us so clearly this is what engineering does. It takes tools that were once unattainable he expensive and impractical and makes them available for everyone to use to make a practical difference in the world, printed books, lightbulbs, airplanes, automobiles and Artificial Intelligence algorithms all were written off in their time before going on to transform our world. My final story is about imagination. It takes place in the 19th century as engineers were building evermore efficient steam engines. The power produced by these machines was offending the established social order in prilding the prosperity and opportunity that would eventually ripple through society. These engineering advances were also unleashing the imagination of some of the earth best scientists, the french physicisr interest in these new engines using what he saw to elucidate one of the fun mental principles of the universe. The second law of thermodynamics, first form related by mr. , is what gives time its arrow and it states the universe as a whole is always moving towards a state of greater disorder and many assume that the Engineering Works in a new way always translating ideas into practical products. Very often it works the other way too. Only once the steam engine was made and working did he gain the maspiration to make his great imaginative leap and that is why i called my book, make, think, imagine, in that order. The things we make fuel our creativity, engineering allows us to imagine places weve never visited, times weve never lived in and things that have not yet been built. That is the job of business leaders, particularly in the Energy Industry because the future can sometimes look difficult and uncertain. The needs and demands of our customers are almost always changing. It is likely to peak in 20 years and today oil and Gas Companies represent the smallest portion of the s p 500 for the last 30 years and as investors put their money elsewhere they take it from oil and gas. Young talented people would much rather work in palo alto then in the [inaudible] basin. There is no doubt that we will rely on hydrocarbons for a very, very long time to come. It accounts for 85 of our energy today and some will likely account for 70 with a significantly larger base by 2040. The challenge for leaders is to build a future in which oil and gas still underpin human prosperity but in which the claimant is not afraid of unintended consequences. We need to take the carbon out of hydrocarbon. That is something ive been trying to encourage people to do for several decades. In 1997 as ceo of bp became the first leader of the major oil and gas company to recognize the threat posed by Climate Change and pledged to do something about it. Nd that was more than 20 years ago and theres a huge amount still to do and i have some ideas about what actions oil and Gas Companies might take today but we can certainly discuss those things later. But for now, let me, if i may, conclude with a quotation i my favorite quotation from president abraham lincoln. Speaking at the end of 1862 he said, the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. We must think on new, act a new, we must disenroll ourselves. Thats a wonderful philosophy and one which ive always tried to follow because it is not the job of leaders to administer the advent of the inevitable. It is their job to write the future. It is their job to imagine and then create the actions for tomorrow. This cant be done without the discipline of engineering, our ability to engineer is all that it allows us to bring order to disorder. Engineering creates eddies and counter in the relentless and chaotic flow of the universe when we call them civilization. Engineering allows us to dream of a better world and then go out and make that vision into a reality. Without engineering it all comes apart and our fate is sealed like a glass of bacteria. Thank you very much. [applause] welcome to houston. Thank you. Today we are going to talk about the book. We will try to discover what is inside and also try to uncover the side of the writer that we have with us. We will have a chance to read it but we wont have other times to talk with him here so take notes to write your question and to get it out later on so we can read it. I just want to explain the title. Make, think, imagine, in that order, my kid said [inaudible] then the subtitle engineering the future of civilization and the author, john browne, you are just introduced as board brown but we are not used to that title here in houston, lord. What is the title of that for you personally . As a practical matter i madeo permanent member of the second legislator of the house of the United Kingdom. You have to ask why in history it is an appointed house and its history goes back to a very lon way. It was the house of the barons to make sure that the king kept in order. We dont do that anymore. The king, the queen, heads of states have no active power and neither does the house of lords. Its not it does do a very good job of promoting times, engineering and technology within the United Kingdom. So, i would like to start from the very first page in here which is the dedication. It says to my father, who told me to get a real job. [laughter] what was your relationship with your father . I had a great relationship with my father who i wanted to do Everything Different from what he had done in his life. My family has a history of being [inaudible] and he was a great soldier during the war and he fought in the desert of north africa and other places and he eventually after being a professional for a long time joined the oil industry and was sent to iran where everyone spoke not arabic but rc. Fortunately, my father corrected the Personnel Department is that i will learn it before i get there. He did. I spent my teenage life aroundd oil and gas wells and i was determined i would never join in Oil Gas Company ass. So he influenced your choice. Yes, he did. I went to university and was determined to stay and do research into civics at the time with some really great people who had uncovered the mysteries of continental drift at cambridge and by then, under pressure on my father, said get a job and i said i dont want to, ive got one here already and he said thats not a real job, go in get a real job and do it for a year and see if you like it. If you dont, go back to doing research university. I then rather arrogantly went to see bp and my father retired that very day and i said i would like the job and they said really and i said yes for a year and then i said what is once more i want to get to the United States because i did want to leave the uk at the time. It was in knots good shape and it was in the 60s. Either they said yes to that to and imagine myself getting to do work around new york or houston even. The letter came in those days they were written in direct terms and that is how the Hr Department would adjust in those days but they were posting in anchorage, alaska so off i went to Anchorage Alaska to become a trainee engineer to do studies to convert myself to an engineer and to work in the field drilling and testing wells in the [inaudible] and to live 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle which i did for quite a little while and it was very exciting. One year led to another and after two years i said to professor i love it and he said stick with it and very few people of what they are doing. It was a good piece of advice. [inaudible] from my professor, my father was vindicated and that was enough. Good relationship with your father. There are always complexa between a father and a son but there are no complex between a mother and a son. Your mother is paula. Here you write in the very first chapters the commandments of lord browne and you write that you were inspired by yourat mother to solve problems that others had not yet considered and to helpno find Practical Solutions to humanities most pressing problems. Which pressing problems have you tried to solve . Hiss ive tried to solve a few and some of them are still in the process because they were pressing but one which is sees me which is what oil and Gas Companies were doing to their global claimants and that worries me a lot in the mid 90s and i was convinced thatce we could both produce hydrocarbon and reduce the amount of carbon that we were putting in the atmosphere and that is the problems that i started working on nbp and i thought progress w