“This is a career-changing fellowship for me,” says particle physicist Christopher Spitzer, the current American Institute of Physics (AIP) and AVS congressional fellow. Spitzer, who holds a PhD from the University of Washington in Seattle, recently began work in the office of Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), where he will assess the partnership between academic laboratories and small businesses and analyze the proposed Keystone Pipeline that would link the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to US refineries. “Not too many people on the hill have technical backgrounds, which I think is really needed in the discussions on some of the challenging issues [the country is] facing,” he says.
Spitzer is among 210 PhD scientists and engineers undertaking one-year science and technology fellowships in Congress and at executive-branch agencies under a program managed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dozens of professional societies and other organizations select...
