On September 6, a group of scientists will begin one-year terms
working on Capitol Hill. The American Institute of Physics, the
American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union, and,
jointly, the Optical Society of America and the Materials Research
Society, all sponsor Congressional Science and Engineering Fellows.
Approximately 25 professional societies participate in the program
each year under the auspices of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
The Congressional Science Fellowship enables 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 in return, assist
policymakers by applying technical expertise to the analysis of
science-based issues. AIP has sponsored one Fellow annually since
1988. APS has participated in the Fellowship program since its
inception in 1973.
Fellows begin their term in September with a two-week orientation
sponsored by the AAAS. AIP's incoming Fellow, Kevin Bieg, comes to
the program from Sandia National Laboratories, where he has been
Program Manager for Technology Transfer and Commercialization.
Prior to this, he served as Science Advisor to DOE's Office of
Inertial Confinement Fusion. His background includes experimental
work in polymer chemistry and inertial confinement fusion for
research applications. He has a PhD in chemical engineering from
the University of Illinois, and an MBA from George Washington
University.
Kevin Aylesworth is the APS Fellow for 1995-1996. Aylesworth
received his PhD in physics from the University of Nebraska,
followed by a postdoctoral position at the Naval Research
Laboratory. His science policy experience includes founding the
Young Scientists' Network and working as a paralegal on such issues
as standards of admissibility of scientific evidence, intellectual
property rights, and product liability. Aylesworth is also a
General Councillor of the APS.
The AGU Fellow is Timothy Cohn. Cohn previously worked at the US
Geological Survey, developing statistical methods for analyzing
environmental data. Cohn received his PhD in Water Resource
Systems Engineering from Cornell University, and before working for
USGS, was a research assistant at the Brookings Institution. Kelly
Kirkpatrick has the distinction of being the first Fellow sponsored
by MRS and OSA. She has just completed her PhD in Materials
Science and Engineering at Northwestern University.
This fall, the societies will be accepting applications for next
year's Fellowships. The application deadline for AIP and APS is
January 15, 1996. 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 ten AIP Member Societies. Further information on the AIP
and APS Fellowships will be posted on AIP's Homepage at
http://www.aip.org; a list of AIP's ten Member Societies can be
obtained at http://aip.org/aip/memsoc.html.
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, 1996.
Materials should be sent to: APS/AIP Congressional Science
Fellowship Programs; c/o The American Physical Society; 529 14th
Street, NW, Suite 1050; Washington, DC 20045. One application
suffices for both AIP and APS; please specify your society
membership when applying.
Information on the AGU and OSA/MRS Fellowships can be obtained by
contacting those societies directly: AGU contact: Pat
Azriel/202-462-6900; OSA contact: Susan Reiss/202-223-8130; MRS
contact: Gail Oare/412-367-3004.