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Immediate Release

Secretary Carter Presents the DoD Distinguished Public Service Award to Secretary of Energy Moniz

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter today honored Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz with the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award, the department’s highest civilian honor.

Secretary Carter presented the award during a visit to the Department of Energy headquarters in Washington.

“From his collaboration with DoD in managing our nuclear enterprise, to his efforts to counter nuclear proliferation, to his work to improve nuclear safeguards and enable verifiable nuclear reductions, to his leadership on efforts to fight climate change, Secretary Moniz has made enormous contributions to our nation’s security,” Carter said. “This award acknowledges his service, his intellectual acuity, his historical accomplishments, his decent and civil way of conducting himself, and his unrelenting optimism.”

The Distinguished Public Service Award is the department’s highest honor for private citizens and non-career public servants. This year, Secretary Carter has presented the award to a bipartisan list of distinguished current and former officials, including former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and Henry Kissinger; former National Security Advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft; former Sen. John Warner; Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.


Secretary Moniz has served as energy secretary since May 2013. Prior to his nomination, he was the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also has served as head of the physics department and Bates Linear Accelerator Center; founder of the MIT Energy Initiative; and director of the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment.

He also served as under secretary of energy from 1997 until 2001, where his work included a review of nuclear weapons stewardship and negotiations over the disposition of Russian nuclear materials. He served from 1995 to 1997 as associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.