Biophysical Society Newsletter - February 2016

16

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2016

FEBRUARY

Message from BPS Congressional Fellow

Dear Biophysical Society Colleagues: I would like to brief you on the first four months of my experience as the inaugural BPS Science & Technology (S&T) Congressional Fellow. I am only a third of the way through, and this has already been one of the most memorable times of my career. I arrived in Washington, DC, on Sep- tember 1, along with 30 other Fellows who were sponsored by other societies. Our first two weeks were for orientation, which was carefully guided by the umbrella organization that is the Ameri- can Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). As Congressional Fellows, we were joined at orientation by approximately 220 Fellows who are working throughout the executive branch, ev- erywhere from the National Institutes of Health to the National Security Agency to the State Depart- ment. It was an exciting and fun way of meeting other Fellows throughout the government, and making the important personal contacts that are critical for success. A slight aside here: I am what is referred to as a “mid-career” Fellow, meaning that I have left other employment to be a Fellow for a year. I estimate that approximately 20% of the Congres- sional Fellows are mid-career. The vast majority are freshly-minted PhDs or DVMs(!) who have chosen to begin a career outside of academia. My aside is to let you know that no matter where you are in your career, you could be the next BPS Congressional Fellow, so apply! After the two-week orientation period, we began the weird and fascinating task of interviewing in Capitol Hill offices for a location to do our fellow- ships. Because the phrase “bio” appeared promi- nently on my CV, I was specifically interviewed to work on health care portfolio issues. Health care and related areas are an enormous area of public policy and very few elected officials have much ex- pertise in the area. Neither did I, but here’s where a PhD in bioscience becomes incredibly impor- tant: flexibility and the ability to seek out sources of information are what we’re good at. Through your PhD training, you are likely familiar with the health-related aspects of your research. Honing that knowledge to provide information to your office/lab/mentor is something that you’re prob- ably already used to. It’s not particularly different

on Capitol Hill. (If you haven’t begun practicing how to explain your research to non-experts, you should start immediately; that’s a valuable skill no matter what your career holds.) I interviewed in many offices including those of Senators Bernie Sanders, Al Franken, and Dianne Feinstein, as well as those of Representatives Dan Lipinski, Andy Harris, and Raul Grijalva. I ended up in the House in the office of Representative Steve Cohen, who represents the 9th district of Tennessee that includes Memphis, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Memphis, and the University of Tennessee School of Medicine. Since I have a faculty appointment at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, this was a good geographic match; I know the Con- gressman’s district well. I also had a very good rap- port with Congressman Cohen and his staff. That is something that is vitally important to having a good fellowship. So far I’ve helped Representative Cohen write an opinion/editorial piece that ran in the Memphis paper on the importance of NIH funding for Tennessee. I’ve also helped him select legislation to cosponsor, and letters to cosign, most of which request federal support for biomedical research. The Congressman was already a proponent of NIH and other research funding agencies, and I hope that my being in his office has made him an even more vocal supporter. As I write this, Congress just passed the 2016 budget, provid- ing a $2 billion increase in funding to NIH. I like to think that the S&T Congressional Fellows sprinkled throughout Capitol Hill helped to make that possible. I’ll be at the Annual Meeting in Los Angeles if you would like further details about my experience. If you missed the December 2015 deadline for applying to be the BPS 2016-17 Congressional Fellow, there’s always 2017-18. It’ll change your life. Apply! Many regards, and Happy New Year, — Randy M. Wadkins Associate Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry University of Mississippi & 2015-2016 BPS Congressional Fellow

Randy Wadkins