Wanted: Applicants for AIP, APS Congressional Science Fellowships

The American Institute of Physics and The American Physical Society are seeking physicists who have an interest in science policy issues. Applications are now being accepted for the 1995-1996 AIP and APS Congressional Science Fellowships.

The Congressional Science Fellowship programs enable PhD scientists to spend a year on Capitol Hill, working in the office of a Member of Congress or on a committee staff. The Fellows gain an understanding of the legislative process, and assist policymakers by applying technical expertise to the analysis of science-based issues.

Since 1988, AIP has been one of the approximately 20 professional societies which sponsor Fellows annually under a program organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS.) APS has sponsored Fellows since the AAAS program began in 1973. Another AIP Member Society, the American Geophysical Union, also participates in the AAAS Fellowship program.

After their Fellowship year, some Fellows return to industry or academia, disseminating insight into the workings of Congress among the scientific community. Others choose to remain in the policy arena, as congressional staffers or elsewhere in government. Positions occupied by former Fellows include the director of NIST, chief of staff of the House science committee, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy assistant director for the environment. Others hold positions in the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Technology Assessment, and the National Institutes of Health.

AIP’s 1994-1995 Fellow, Laura Philips, was an assistant professor in the Chemistry Department at Cornell University. She is serving her term in the office of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, (D-Conn.) The APS Fellow, John Morgan, is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates and was a senior research engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. He plans to begin his term in December.

Qualifications for the AIP and APS Fellowships include a PhD in physics or a closely related field, U.S. citizenship, and membership in APS or, for the AIP Fellowship, any of the AIP Member Societies. (The ten Member Societies of AIP are: The American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, The Acoustical Society of America, the Society of Rheology, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Crystallographic Association, the American Astronomical Society, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the American Vacuum Society, and the American Geophysical Union.)

Interested applicants are asked to send a letter of intent and a resume (of two pages or less) to the address below, and should arrange to have three letters of reference sent to the same address. All application materials, single-sided on 8.5" x 11" paper, should be postmarked NO LATER THAN JANUARY 15, 1995. Materials should be sent to: APS/AIP Congressional Science Fellowship Programs; 529 14th Street, NW, Suite 1050; Washington, D.C. 20045. One application suffices for both AIP and APS.