Please join us in welcoming our incoming fellows to Washington, DC. The AIP Congressional Fellow, Sara Barber, the AIP-ASA Congressional Fellow, Rachel Carr, the AIP State Department Fellow, Christopher Cahill, and the APS-AIP STEMD-Ed Fellow, Ramon Barthelemy, have all been through two weeks of orientation and have started working in their host offices.
Sara Barber, a member of AAS, is a recent graduate of the University of Oklahoma. She received her doctorate in physics after defending her dissertation, Planetary Remnants Around White Dwarf Stars, where she examined the properties of planetary systems in the epoch following the host star death. Sara will be working for the Space Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology (Minority Office).
Rachel Carr, a member of APS, received a PhD in physics from Columbia in 2015. Her doctoral work focused on measurements of neutrino oscillations in the Double Chooz experiment, located at a commercial nuclear power station in France. Outside research, she has held science writing positions at Fermilab and the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State. Rachel will be working in the office of Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Christopher Cahill, a member of ACA, received his PhD in chemistry from SUNY-Stony Brook in 1999. He joined the faculty of George Washington University in 2000 after a postdoctoral position in the Environmental Mineralogy Group at the University of Notre Dame. He is an expert in solid-state and materials chemistry with an emphasis on X-ray crystallography. Chris will be working at the State Department’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation in the Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism.
Ramon Barthelemy, a member of APS, received his BS in 2010 in astrophysics from Michigan State University and PhD in 2014 in science education from Western Michigan University. During the 2014–15 academic year, he served as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, conducting research on gender issues in physics. Ramon will be working for the Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement.
ASA is an important partner for AIP's Congressional Fellows program. AAS also contributes support for the State Department Fellowship. If you would like to contribute your science and technology training to directly address societal challenges or if you are seeking a professional development opportunity to engage in policy at the federal level, we encourage you to apply for a fellowship. The deadline is fast approaching for our State Department fellowship—applications are due by November 1.