The AMS Congressional Science Fellowship Program: Why You Should Consider It
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Are you about to finish your Ph.D., and are you interested in career paths other than the academic one? Have you become disenchanted with the publish or perish life? Are you interested in policy issues related to the atmosphere? Are you looking for an interesting way to spend your sabbatical? Would you like to look into the possibility of working for Congress? Would you like to be the only expert in meteorology or climate on a House or Senate committee, and help to write new legislation? Would you like to find out how government works, and how laws are made? If you can answer “Yes” to any of these questions, I urge you to apply to be an AMS Congressional Science Fellow. In 1986 I was heavily involved in research into nuclear winter, the climatic effects of smoke from fires from burning cities and other targets that would result after a large-scale nuclear holocaust (Turco et al. 1983; Robock 1984). I was worried about the policy implications of the climate modeling I was conducting, and I was deeply involved in the controversy over the scientific results and the widely divided response of policy makers to our findings. I was frustrated that many of my scientific colleagues felt that even scientific research into this subject was too “political” and not something a “legitimate scientist” should do. In fact, at one of the first meetings on this subject at the National Academy of Sciences, a colleague from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told me that the policy implications should be left to policy specialists, and that scientists should confine themselves t just the scientific research. I felt that if I discovered a danger to society, using public funds to support my work, it was my duty to report these findings to the public and make sure that their implications were understood. I could not trust the “policy experts,” who had a great stake in the status quo. But what to do? I was overdue for my first sabbatical at the University of Maryland, and so I applied for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and American Geophysical Union (AGU) Congressional Science Fellowship programs. I thought that perhaps if I worked for Congress, I could have more of an impact on policy. At that time, AAAS sponsored two fellows each year, AGU sponsored one, and the American Meteorological Society (AMS) had not yet started a similar program. I was awarded an AAAS Fellowship, and spent the 1986–1987 academic year working for Congress. The AAAS Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship program is “designed to provide a unique public policy learning experience, to demonstrate the value of science-government interaction, and to bring technical backgrounds and external perspectives to the decision-making process in government” (AAAS 2000). Approximately 30 different professional societies sponsor fellowships, and AAAS administers the program in Washington. The program begins with a fascinating two-week orientation program including visits to all the parts of Congress (including the Library of Congress), executive and judicial offices such as the State Department and Office of Science and Technology Policy, and lectures from experts and politicians. This part of the program The AMS Congressional Science Fellowship Program: Why You Should Consider It