Science and Technology Policy Fellowships
Interested in shaping policy?
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Last night I had a chance to check out a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship Cocktail Mixer. The American Association for the Advancement of Science or AAAS recruits scientists and engineers to help learn about how policy is crafted and how scientists and engineers can bring our expertise to the table.
Check out the main website for the fellowship here.
The format of the zoom mixer was random shuffling of people into zoom meetings. This is maybe one good thing about Pandemic. It’s easier to attend events like in my PJs. Here is what I learned:
Applicants
Come from all disciplines, ages, and walks of life. I was talking to fellows who were professors, fresh graduates, and young professionals.
All fields were represented including physics, artificial intelligence, computer science, atmospheric science, biochemistry, civil engineers, and more than I can name here. If you are technical and have an advanced degree then you should think about applying if interested in policy
Day to Day Job of a AAAS Policy Fellow
You learn to learn very fast and get good at writing one page memos in a short amount of time.
The job is a lot of communication from meetings with constituents to other people in the congressional, executive, or judicial branches.
As the technically “competent” person you might be listening to people who are similar to you, but are unable to be heard by people in government. You can become a sort of spokesperson for people who might not have a chance to get heard.
You might end up working on something unrelated to your field of study, but your education will help you understand and synthesize the information faster than anyone else in the office.
Reading a lot of news. Spend all morning reading the news and then picking any sort of small topics that might be of importance while also maintaining longer term projects and goals.
Things move slow in government so its hard to quantify your work. You kind of just send those 1 page memos out in the void (I can sympathize).
Sometimes the days are short and sometimes they go for 20+ hours. Get used to a lot of meetings and talking.
Life After being a AAAS Fellow?
The fellowships range anywhere from 1-2 years and it looks like as soon as you get the job you also need to be thinking about what is next.
Most of the current fellows seemed like they wanted to stay in government or specifically stay on The Hill, but all of these opportunities sound fluid.
Some people go to think tanks while others might go to being a lobbyist and some might even go to more local governments or into industry.
My Thoughts
Seems like a good opportunity for those that are younger or very established.
Having a family/kids might make being a AAAS Fellow a bit difficult due to the unpredictable nature of the job and short finish line of the fellowship.
If you’ve never lived in the DC area this could be a good way to explore a new city and get to do some fun stuff like playing softball on the mall, jazz in the sculpture garden, free museums, and everything DC has to offer.
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Talk to you Friday,
Tony
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