Being lauded on the House floor by Representative Edward Markey stands out as the high point of Kristen Kulinowski’s term as a congressional fellow in the Massachusetts Democrat’s office. Markey praised her work on legislation that requires the federal government to make potassium iodide available to communities near nuclear power reactors. In the event of a nuclear emergency, people would swallow the iodide to protect their thyroids. “It’s very unusual to actually see legislation you’ve helped draft be passed and signed by the president during the one-year term of the fellowship,” says Kulinowski. “We think that September 11th had a lot to do with being able to move this forward. The idea of a plane crashing into a reactor became a greater reality in the public mind.”
More than 30 professional societies sponsor scientists and engineers to take their skills to Capitol Hill each year through a program run by...
