Congressional fellows chart political waters

“It’s pretty quiet in this office,” said atmospheric chemist Maggie Walser, this year’s American Geophysical Union congressional fellow, when she arrived in September to work on the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Energy legislation debates were put on hold that month as members of Congress grappled with a bill to rescue failing financial companies. While some energy committee staffers lent support to the overburdened financial committee, Walser says incoming science and technology fellows were mostly left to “prepare for next year and learn our way around the building.”

Walser is one of 165 PhD scientists and engineers sponsored this year by various science organizations for one-year fellowships in Congress and at federal agencies. Walser’s AGU fellowship is one of six given this year by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and its member societies. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, which manages the fellowship program, provides the fellows with summer training classes on policy work before their fall start.

Of this year’s crop of fellows, a majority say they intend to pursue careers in policy; the others plan to return to scientific research or to teach policy. The career paths that last year’s fellows took show a similar trend.

A home on the hill

Materials engineer Alicia Jackson, last year’s Optical Society of America and Materials Research Society fellow, spent her fellowship on the Senate energy committee and will stay on full-time come January. She says that in addition to the financial crisis, election-year politics and partisan wrangling over offshore oil exploration derailed the passage of comprehensive renewable energy legislation. Jackson adds that her office helped the Senate’s financial committee craft the renewable energy tax credit extensions that were attached to the financial rescue package.

“It’s been quite a year to be here,” says physicist John Veysey, last year’s AIP congressional fellow, who also extended his hill stay in Senator Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) office. Veysey worked on the Lieberman–Warner climate security bill, which sought to reduce carbon dioxide emissions with a cap-and-trade system. The bill to address climate change had bipartisan support but was killed this summer by lawmakers who feared it would damage the economy. Veysey is seeking to stay in a science-policy advisory role on Capitol Hill when he leaves Menendez’s office at the end of this month.

“When I was finishing my PhD, I knew I probably didn’t want to pursue a research career,” says Walser, who had previously interned at the Washington DC–based nonprofit National Council for Science and the Environment. “[Science policy] was a path that seemed interesting to me. With issues such as climate change and energy, I think this is a time when I hope I can be useful.” Civil engineer Alex Apotsos, Walser’s AGU-sponsored predecessor, says he likes the more deliberative nature of his current work as a research scientist at the US Geological Survey, but he does miss the opportunities to influence policy. He says his future career goals may take him “between science and policy.” As a member of Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-MT) staff, Apotsos was involved in the creation of a watershed management program in Montana.

Optical scientist Elaine Ulrich, this year’s American Physical Society fellow, says her interest in science policy was piqued after witnessing a decline in federal support for science research—including for her own graduate research at the University of Arizona. Ulrich, who will be working on energy issues for Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO), says she feels “extremely patriotic” watching staff members in her office throw themselves at the “almost overwhelming amount of work that sometimes needs to be done.” Ulrich’s post-fellowship plan is to take what she learns about policy and apply it to business sustainability issues in the private sector.

Duke University biomedical engineer Robert Saunders, this year’s OSA and SPIE congressional fellow, will work on health and business legislation for physicist Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ). Saunders says he’s had a passion for science policy all along, adding that his science PhD makes him a rare breed among the lawyers and MBAs that populate the hill.

Last year’s APS fellow, Matt Bowen, extended his fellowship in Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) office to the end of this month. He says he’d like to stay on at Congress or work in the executive branch for the new administration. Bowen, a particle physicist, says he explained nuclear-energy technical reports to staff members and Senator Reid and did background research for proposed renewable energy legislation.

Back to school

At least two of this year’s fellows say their future plans may combine policy with academia. New AIP fellow Richard Thompson designed and taught a course in science and public policy as a research geoscientist at the University of Arizona and says he hopes to return to teaching science policy after his fellowship. He will work this year as an environmental legislative aide for his home-state representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ). Rice University bioengineer Amit Mistry taught high-school math and science for two years in New Orleans and says he may eventually return to academia to teach science policy. For now, he will work on health and education legislation for Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) as this year’s OSA and MRS fellow.

Returning to academia is biomedical engineer Audrey Ellerbee, last year’s OSA and SPIE fellow. This fall she deferred joining the electrical engineering faculty at Stanford University and began postdoctoral research at Harvard University with chemist George White-sides. She says she is doing the postdoc to regain her “agility” in the lab and to change research direction. Ellerbee’s experience on the tax and banking policy team in Sen. Carl Levin’s (D-MI) office included working on the bill that authorized the financial stimulus checks that most US taxpayers received this spring. She says her policy experience may come in handy in the future: “I would love to be one of those experts that [Congress] calls upon to help them understand scientific issues.”