Career Clips
- PDF / 1,747,423 Bytes
- 3 Pages / 604.8 x 806.4 pts Page_size
- 58 Downloads / 159 Views
Dr. Science Goes to Washington: A Transition from Research to Science and Technology Policy Kelly Kirkpatrick It is not uncommon to watch people's eyes shift uneasily and eventually glaze over w h e n I talk about my doctoral research in materials science and engineering. Such public reactions are a challenge for me, not an insult to my scientific pursuits. While I rarely talk explicitly about my dissertation work to nonscientists, I have dedicated my current professional endeavors to bridging the communication gap between scientists and policymakers by filling the role of someone who can understand the language of both. I work in Washington, DC with policymakers and politicians on policy issues related to sci ence and technology (S&T). One could argue: Give it up, why bother trying to explain the science and technolo gy to the general public or to politicians and policymakers? Piain and simple, I think it is important for nonscientists, especially those who develop policies to Support federally funded research and development (R&D), to understand the importance of investments in R&D. Of equal importance, I have chosen to play a role in helping the scientific Community, the materials science and engineering Community in this case, to gain an understanding of and to develop skills on how to provide these "federal bankers" the tools to create federal initia tives and programs. While I have always been interested in science, my interest in combining science with economic policy did not begin until I was a graduate Student at Northwestern University in Chicago. I had an opportunity to work as a graduate fellow at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory where I was first exposed to ways technical Information was trans ferred from laboratories to the marketplace. At the same time, my late husband was diagnosed with Cancer, which caused me to consider the impact of scientific discovery on the medical world. His illness played a major role in changing my focus from a n a r r o w scope of fundamental research for my dissertation to consideration of broader based R&D issues like technology transfer, globalization, intellectual property, scientists communicating with nonscientists, policy, and politics. These t w o major life experiences prompted me to think about a different w a y I could u s e my technical background. I began to look at the way in which scientists and engineers describe 82
Senior policy analyst Kelly Kirkpatrick (left) is briefing Duncan Moore, Associate Director for Technology, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Susan Iph Brown, an American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellow, on an idea for an Administration science and technology event.
their work to the public. I realized that unlike the medical, legal, and countless other professional c o m m u n i t i e s , the materials Community does not have a solid handle on how to effectively convey our interests and priorities to the key poli cy players in Washington. The torch I chose to carry is one that would help bridge the
Data Loading...
