While I mentioned my internship briefly before, I'll elaborate with some more details now. The internship runs May 30 to August 5, and is offered through the American Institute of Physics (AIP). In particular, the internship is through the department that publishes the online science policy coverage publication FYI (which you can find here). As is stated on their website:
AIP’s Government Relations team tracks developments in Washington, D.C. and advocates for funding and the development of sound public policy to advance the physical sciences. FYI is an authoritative news and resource center for federal science policy, with a focus on the physical sciences.
While I do not know the history of how FYI began (something I will have to ask my mentor later) I do know the publication expanded since this internship was first offered last year. The summer 2016 intern co-wrote only two articles, because FYI focused on larger pieces. However, the team recently began sending out a weekly newsletter every Monday that provides basic updates on a variety of topics along with a longer article, so I will help add blurbs to the weekly newsletter as well as helping to co-write longer pieces.
For the most part, then, my internship will consist of two weekly meetings on Monday (to discuss the latest issue before it goes live) and on Thursday (to discuss what will go in the next week's edition). I will spend my time between the American Center for Physics (ACP) building in College Park and on the Hill when sitting in and covering congressional meetings. While advisory meetings generally are not televised (thus need to be attended personally), the congressional hearings are (thus can be viewed from the ACP building).
One interesting fact I already learned today:
On the university level, we are always told the government wants to fund applied research over basic research, since applied research has immediate applications whereas basic research is knowledge for knowledge. However, my mentor said on a policy level the government experiences more contention over funding applied research since it is debated if that should be a solely private enterprise. Why give governmental funds to create a product that the private entity will rake up money from by selling it to the general public? Shouldn't they pay for that research themselves if they will benefit financially from it? If you look at the budget cuts Trump proposed, a lot of them would affect departments that sponsor applied research since Trump feels private enterprise should be doing that on their own without governmental support.
John Mather, Nobel Prize in Physics recipient (2006), used his prize money to start the AIP Mather Public Policy internship, given to two students each year. The Mather interns work with congressional staffers on a congressional committee. For the first time, one of the interns is working on the Senate side.
P.S. - He's really nice!!
"You are the best of the best SPS [the Society of Physics Students] has to offer," said Director of SPS Brad Conrad. As such, Conrad said this means we will take more out of this experience than most people. "No surprise is the best surprise," so be sure to ask as many questions of your mentor(s) as you'd like to avoid unexpected situations, he added.
I already met my mentor before coming here, back during my first SET CVD (Science, Engineering, and Technology Congressional Visits Day) as an SPS Associate Zone Councilor. His name is Mitch Ambrose, and is a science policy analyst for FYI who is responsible for updating FYI’s Federal Science Budget Tracker and Federal Science Leadership Tracker. Prior to joining AIP, Mitch was a fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Institute and interned with the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
Photo courtesy of the American Institute of Physics.
On a different topic, the 14 interns are living in a shared apartment space that has a common living room with seven bedrooms branching off. Every two bedrooms share a bathroom, so four people (two pairs of two roommates) share a shower. It will be interesting to see how well that coordinates since we all have to be on the metro by 7:45 a.m. to make it to our 9 a.m. start time.
Also, the closest food store (Trader Joe's) is 0.5 miles away, while the Walmart is 2 miles away. I will be getting a lot of exercise for my food this summer.
The apartment at George Washington University I'm sharing with another intern. The bathroom is shared with two other interns in a bedroom on the other side.