Few years ago, few bright young men were promoted to senior staff engineers in my organization. At Sun, any promotion beyond MTS-4 (member of technical staff) is a big deal. At this level, seniority means little. An engineer must have demonstrated technical depth, leadership, and industrial recogntion to earn the stripe. Retiring as a staff or senior staff engineer is honorable and many do.

Jokingly, I told those new Sr. Staff the simple criteria of DE. "You must walk on water," I said. "Have moved mountain. And be world-renowned." Less theatrically put, a Distinguished Engineer can do what an engineer cannot dream of doing. A DE would have completed a project and that have material impact on Sun's business. Lastly, a DE must be well recognized in his technical community.

They are Sr. Staffs — extremely good engineers. The hardest thing is to find a project that would have material impact to Sun business. Usually, a project like that takes 3 to 10 years and a team of good engineers. At the end of the project, the senior people are usualy very well known in the circle already. It is hard work.

Congratulations to the new batch of DEs. Glenn, Stephen, Sunay, and others. You guys changed the world.