Saul Salazar

I am currently an undergraduate student at Macaulay Honors College at CUNY attending the Grove School of Engineering  majoring in Computer Engineering. I am a rising senior and I will graduate in May 2010. During my years at the Grove School of Engineering, I have been working on Intel’s Pin, being part of the Robotics club and Tau Beta Pi(National Engineering Honors Society) , and I serve as Vice-president of HKN (Electrical and Computer Engineering National Honor Society) at my school.

After graduation, I am looking forward to attending graduate school in the fields of Robotics, Communications or Financial Engineering. This last year will be key to decide which area to specialize in. Besides doing Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, I also have a big interest in swimming, piano, photography and design.

I have a passion for science and technology, and I am conscious of the impact that public policy plays in our day to day life. It is because of this that SEA’s mission sounded fabulous to me; interconnecting science and public policy for the well-being of the country as well as its future progress.

Jae Nam

I am a rising senior at Mercersburg Academy, a high school located in Pennsylvania. As I learned about SEA’s missions and its goals, I was fascinated by the fact that there are many enthusiastic people who continually make efforts to help politicians make sound judgments based on scientific truths, striving to connect the two fields that have often been regarded as somewhat inconsistent. To my surprise, I also found out that I was able to join this group of pathfinders and become one of them!

As I expected, it turned out that the experience was exceptionally fruitful. I attended several Congressional hearings related to the Waxman-Markey legislation (also known as ACES) and America’s Affordable Health Choices Ac, and garnered firsthand experiences of how science policies are proposed and implemented.

Also, I attentively tracked the speeches and the vote records from politicians, including the President, senators, the House of Representatives, and the gubernatorial candidates for New Jersey and Virginia.

Having had such valuable internship, I wish to continue my association with SEA.

I’d like to thank all the people – Brie, Bruno, Miles, Lesley and Daniel – who helped me during the internship.

Eleni Axiomakaros

I am currently an undergraduate student at The George Washington University, majoring in Biomedical Engineering. I am planning to work with prosthetics after I graduate but would also like to explore other opportunities within the field. This internship is a great way to actively learn about science policy and to combine my different interests.

Andrea Ippolito

Andrea Ippolito is a research scientist in the Cell Biology laboratory at Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC) in Natick, MA. At BSC, she examines the interface of drugs with cardiovascular cells on the medical device product, drug-eluting stents. She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Biological Engineering in May 2006 and a Masters of Engineering degree in Biomedical Engineering in May 2007. While at Cornell, she focused on tissue engineering work of the human meniscus and also served as president of the Society of Women Engineers and Vice President of the Institute of Biological Engineers. Outside of work, she currently serves as the co-founder of the Biomedical Engineering Society- Boston Industry chapter, Vice President of Professional Development for the Society of Women Engineers- Boston section, Director-At-Large of the Cornell Club of Boston, and also serves as a volunteer for the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association in Boston. As a virtual intern, I am interested in learning more about scientific and healthcare policy. I feel that all scientists and engineers should take a more active role in government policy decisions and the virtual internship gives me this opportunity.

Stephen Mitchell

I am an undergraduate mechanical engineering major at Valparaiso University from Cleveland Heights Ohio. I am a part of American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Society of Automotive Engineers. With Society of Automotive Engineers I am currently working on a Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) for competition. If we win this competition this vehicle will be used for transporting children to school through rough terrain in Africa. I am also a music minor and helped to start Valpo’s first male vocal ensemble. I am also a part of the chorale ensemble at Valpo and sing with The Blossom Festival Chorus, a professionally trained ensemble of The Cleveland Orchestra. I plan to work in industry after graduation and then possibly return to school for graduate studies within mechanical engineering. I am very happy with my field of study and I am interested in renewable energy research. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered the impact public policy has on my possible vocation.

Princess Ojiaku

I am currently a first year Master’s degree student at North Carolina Central University seeking to balance my studies in science with involvement in politics and policy. I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Louisiana State University, then spent a couple of years working in a pharmacology lab in North Carolina. Working in the lab lead me to I realize that while I was really passionate about science and research, I was equally as passionate about political issues and the role of science in society. I got interested in the science policy field as a result, and am currently gaining valuable experience through my involvement in the virtual intern program. Interning with Scientists and Engineers for America helps me to stay in touch with the latest topics in science policy from the weekly group discussions to my personal assignments of monitoring political candidates’ stances on scientific issues. I believe that it is important for scientists to have a voice in their communities, and/or the public at large to have a good understanding of what research does for them. Scientists and Engineers for America is an organization that assists in that goal, thus I am proud to have the opportunity to be a part of it.

Alissa Roland

I received my Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Bucknell University and a Master’s from UNC Chapel Hill. Having recently graduated, I will be attending law school in the fall. My career goals are based on uniting my scientific background with a legal education to foster legislation required by the ever-advancing scientific community. It’s important to motivate scientists’ involvement with the government and policy-making procedures to ensure our ability to compete in a rapidly expanding, worldwide scientific community. Interning with the SEA and getting involved with scientific policy on a local level is the perfect way to get started on my path.

Rebecca Schaefer

Alex Shipley

I am a rising high school senior at Flint Hill School in Oakton, VA. Although I have a wide range of interests, from sports (I run track and play soccer) to Shakespeare (I’m a season ticket holder at the Shakespeare Theatre in DC), to music (my iPod is almost always on and I can even play a few instruments), my passion is science, especially physics. I am interested in using theoretical concepts to solve real world problems, for example, exploring the theory of entanglement to develop faster and better ways to transmit information. I also believe that scientists do not and cannot live in a vacuum. They are part of society and have a responsibility to engage with it. Scientists cannot stand idly by when our elected and appointed leaders make policy decisions based on bad science. When I learned that SEA offered internships that focused on this very issue, I leaped at the chance to join and hope to contribute in some small way to improving the level of scientific knowledge inside the Capital Beltway.

Andrey Shostak

Andrey Shostak is a recent graduate from the University of California, Davis where he studied Biomedical Engineering. He is now enrolled in the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy and is interning at Scientists and Engineers for America, where he hopes to learn how to extend his science knowledge and engineering training to be able to reach out to the general public. He enjoys doing research and writing for SEA because it combines his scientific interests with a platform where he can help politicians and the public make sound, evidence-based decisions. Eventually, Andrey hopes to start his own biotech company to design and deliver high-tech medical devices to third-world countries.

Mark Staudt

Hi, I’m currently a graduate student in the 
Biomolecular Chemistry department at the University of Wisconsin. Our lab studies the sexual cycle of a human fungal pathogen (Cryptococcus neoformans). The fungal spore that results from this sexual cycle is believed to be the infectious agent. It follows that insight into the mechanisms that control sexual development in this organism promises to enhance our understanding of its infection and subsequent disease state. Before graduate school, however, I studied chemical engineering at the University of Texas and I worked in industry for a few years before returning to school. As a result, I’ve seen science from a variety of different viewpoints. Throughout them all, I’ve always been impressed with the ability of science to improve society, even if it hasn’t always done a good job explaining this ability. With the SEA, I’m most interested in helping the 
scientific community find an effective voice in our society and our policy debates. While society must be open to listen, I feel it falls to the scientists to translate research into a clear message and to advocate for this message to be heard. I’m excited to have the opportunity to join the SEA and to bring my unique background to help the scientific community re-integrate itself into the discussion.

Raven Baxter

I am a high school student in Western New York. I am in my third year of working with IceWatch Canada as well as IceWatch USA in studying the relation between ice phenology, phytoplankton, frogs, and climate change. I have been a virtual intern at SEA since the beginning of January and have already had a handful of new experiences. One of my first assignments was to assist in updating the SHARP network. This week, I am gathering information for the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Technology issue page. Being a virtual intern allows me to work on my own time, making it very easy to balance other obligations, and contributing my share of work to the internship.

“It is a great opportunity for me to explore careers in the fields of science and engineering.”

Zoe Hanson

Zoe Hanson is a 5th year graduate student in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focus is on beta arrestin mediated regulation of transcription.

Zoe became interested in science policy after entering graduate school. It was there that she realized that appropriate funding influenced the ability not only to do research, but also the caliber of science education provided at colleges and universities. Additionally, as she interacted with local high school students and undergraduates it became clear to her the K-12 science education is lacking in this country, as so many of these students do not have a fundamental grasp of basic science principles. Zoe plans to pursue a career in policy upon completing her Ph.D. She hopes to use the virtual internship program as an opportunity to gain experience within the policy field.

Alan Holt

I graduated from James Madison College at Michigan State University with a BA as a double major in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy and Social Relations and Policy, and I plan to go back to graduate school in the near future for public policy or political science.

Char Hu

I have the slightly unique experience of having been involved in both engineering and scientific research as an undergraduate, and now as a graduate student. It was through my varied research experience that I started to realize that the nature of scientific research in the coming decades would be profoundly different from what has come before. I think this is represented by the clear merging of the basic sciences, where there are no longer stark delineations between the disciplines. This melding puts the subsequent research in the unique position of actually being able to answer The Big Questions scientists have always asked. The implications from some of these discoveries, and how we respond to them, will be far-reaching. I realized that scientific policy, as opposed to the pure research, would have a major role in shaping how these discoveries are perceived and advanced.

Through SEA I’ve found the ideal venue to step into the world of science policy. The VI program is simply perfect because it is tailor-made for any schedule, especially a graduate student’s. I suppose the most surprising thing upon becoming a VI was the fact that I immediately began working on projects significantly important to the SEA mission. Thus far, I have helped annotate the SHARP, contributed a blog post, and helped create some of the Issue pages. It’s been an enlightening experience that I hope to build upon and continue in the future.

Philip Jones

Philip Jones is an undergraduate Psychology major at American University in Washington, DC. He hails from Raleigh, NC, and, probably due to his chemistry-teaching mother and engineer father, has always shown great interest in rational evidence-based decisions. Now, in his position as an intern in the SEA headquarters, he is working to help promote these concepts nationally through public policy. He hopes to continue attending American University for another academic year, to complete an M.A. in General Psychology.

Michele Kadnar

Michele Kadnar currently studies prion biology at New York University’s Sackler Institute of Biomedical Sciences. A PhD candidate in her final year, she focuses on baker’s yeast prions as a potential model for the mechanism governing the mammalian prion species barrier, specifically how certain prions such as that causing mad cow disease might cross species barriers. After receiving her undergraduate degree in biological sciences from Wellesley College, she assisted in Cystic Fibrosis gene therapy research at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Michele has recently joined SEA as an intern working on the issue of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education.

Since 2004, she has developed seminars on education-related issues with the New York Future Science Educators, an organization of graduate and postdoctoral students committed to assisting scientists in developing teaching skills for use in both science and education careers. Michele also teaches an introductory biology laboratory as an adjunct lecturer at the City College of New York.

“As someone who thinks science, itself, is a public service, I am excited to be involved in SEA where I can bring science policy issues to the public.”

Tyler Ridgley

Originally from Northern California I grew up with a great appreciation for nature and the preservation of it for the greater good. Upon completion of highschool I moved to central california and attended California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) where I played collegient Lacrosse for a year, did a quarter abroad in Spain, and eventually completed my B.S. in Engineering. I continued my education at Cal Poly, where I completed my M.S. in Engineering with a specialization in Integrated Technology Management. While working on my Thesis I worked full time for a year and half as a consulting Civil Engineer, our specialization was landfill operations and my main focus was engineering economics and process improvement. Since then I have changed careers, I am now working as an Electrical Engineer at an air force base in California. I am a humanitarian and naturalist.

Ted Thurn

I am currently a graduate student at Northwestern University in Chicago. My thesis involves examining the use of Titanium Dioxide nanoparticles to target breast and prostate cancer cells. I have been a virtual intern at SEA since the beginning of October and have gotten to do a lot of interesting things. One of my first assignments was calling the campaigns of candidates throughout the U.S. to get them involved in a science questionnaire as a part of the SHARP network. This week, I am compiling data from the Department of Energy on policies and standards that individual states have implemented to increase their reliance on renewable energies. The virtual nature of the internship allows me to work on my own time either at home or at the lab.

Katie Wilkinson

Katie is a 5th year Biomedical Sciences graduate student at University of California, San Diego.  She is studying respiratory physiology at high altitude and specifically the changes that occur in the brainstem during periods of chronic low oxygen.  She did her undergraduate work at the University of Pittsburgh where she studied Neuroscience and History.  As an SEA intern, she has worked on updating the website on the work of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, Stem Cell issues, and some of the 2008 Congressional races.  She also had the opportunity to attend Energy Policy forum with representatives from the Obama and McCain campaigns.

“I became an SEA intern because I’m interested in the ways science is communicated to the public and appreciate SEA’s mission of promoting the use of sound science in public policy.”