Week 2: Settling In

I think I’m getting the hang of this. Take that with an enormous grain of salt. The only person I know who can truly understand my ineptitude is myself. As such, I really wouldn’t trust me to give you an objective opinion on my current level of “getting the hang of this-ness.” That fact aside, things at FYI are humming along.

Going through two weeks has given me an appreciation for “the process.” FYI has two distinct ways to publish updates in science policy: bulletins and FYI This Week. Bulletins are usually the length of a typical article you would see in your favorite newspaper, anywhere from 1500 to 3000 words on the long end. FYI This Week is a weekly newsletter and update about all of the things going on in science policy. It’s a great resource if you are at all interested in keeping up with the latest developments in the field. Not to do any shameless self-promotion but you can subscribe and get email alerts here! Anyway, the process at FYI seems to focus on finding things to put in FYI This Week, going to those things or researching them, then summarizing them into a blurb that will be published the next Monday. The process repeats endlessly.

I think I’m getting the hang of fitting myself into this. I had a pretty god idea of what my week would look like, the only deviation being Wednesday’s strike to #ShutDownSTEM. AIP, and my mentor encouraged me and the rest of the staff to use the day to continue educating ourselves about the history of racism and exclusion within STEM and academia. I’d like to say I put the day to good use reading through the recent TEAM-UP Report, and trying to read through as many articles on the Particles for Justice resources page. I’d really recommend watching this debate from 1965 (!) between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley and if you’ve never heard of James Baldwin, check out this video from TED-Ed. In addition to educational resources, a lot of good experiences were shared over Twitter under #BlackInTheIvory. Hearing and acknowledging the experiences of our Black colleagues is the first way we attack racism in our own community. The second is by engaging in systemic and long-lasting culture change that promotes Black voices with STEM. I’m glad I could participate and was happy that the team had a thoughtful discussion on how we could help to promote black voices in science policy and do better ourselves in highlighting the inequities in the field.

Aside from the strike, one thing that I really liked from my week was listening to an American Nuclear Society panel discussion on the use of low enriched uranium in space propulsion technologies. I already have some knowledge of the technology so hearing a completely different perspective on it was supper interesting, and boy was the discussion spicy! Hearing scientists from all different backgrounds give their differing opinions and sometimes having completely contrary analyses of the same facts is endlessly fascinating to me. This is what attracts me to science policy. Being able to analyze and communicate policy that inherently requires technical knowledge and a scientific background is why I study both. I find being able to put that into practice by writing about it and disseminating that knowledge to a less technically minded audience really rewarding. I’m looking forward to what the next week will throw at me.

Also included are some pictures taken at different points during my week. I’ll probably expand on some of them in a later post

Cheers,