By AFRO Staff
Morgan State University is aptly represented among the 300 science and technology professionals selected to join the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s 50th class of fellows.
Craig Scott, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Morgan, Archana Sharma, Ph.D., associate professor in Morgan’s graduate Landscape Architecture Program (MLA), and Adejare (Jay) Atanda, DrPH, a recent graduate from the School of Community Health and Policy (SCHP), are included among this year’s cohort chosen for the prestigious Science and Technology Policy Fellowships (STPF).
As part of the one-year assignment, the researchers would be deployed throughout the federal government network to assist in informing actionable, science-based policies. Of the 300 fellows chosen, 31 will serve in Congress, one will serve at the Federal Judicial Center, and 268 will serve in the executive branch among 19 federal agencies or departments.
In addition to receiving a stipend and other benefits, the fellows also will garner first-hand experience in policymaking. Meanwhile, the government benefits from the fresh-eyed contributions of highly trained scientists and engineers, who represent the full spectrum of disciplines, backgrounds, and career stages.
“AAAS policy fellows have been demonstrating excellence in science policy for the past half-century — defining what it means to be a scientist and engineer in the policymaking realm,” said Rashada Alexander, Ph.D., STPF director and alumna fellow in a statement. “In our 50th year of partnership with the U.S. government and many esteemed scientific societies and supporters, we are excited to usher in the newest class and follow their important contributions to policy, science and society.”
Morgan’s Sharma was chosen as the first AAAS fellow to serve in the U.S. Department of Transportation as an equity policy research advisor. Scott will serve as an advanced manufacturing policy fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he will be supported by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Lastly, Atanda, who earned his doctorate in Public Health Analysis and Epidemiology from Morgan, will serve as a policy advisor at the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science was founded in 1848 as the first permanent organization at the national level formed to promote science, engineering and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. The Association is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world.
The Association started the Science and Technology Policy Fellowships program in 1973. Many of its estimated 4,000 alumni around the world are now pursuing careers in policymaking at the federal, state, regional or international level, while others pursued careers in academia, industry or the nonprofit sector.
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