Dornbos named AAAS science policy fellow

Stephen Dornbos, a professor of geosciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has been awarded a prestigious Science & Technology Policy Fellowship by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dornbos will be working on energy, water and climate resilience policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment at the U.S. Department of Defense.

Stephen Dornbos

He is among 278 scientists and engineers who will spend a year serving professionally in federal agencies and congressional offices. The U.S. government benefits from the contributions of STPF fellows, while fellows learn firsthand about federal policymaking and implementation.

Dornbos’ expertise lies in the geobiology of microbial fossils in sedimentary rock from the Precambrian period, about 550 million years ago, when life on Earth was evolving from single-celled to multicellular organisms. He also studies the evolutionary paleoecology of early animals from the Precambrian to Cambrian transition, when an explosion of animal diversity occurred.

“While I do have expertise with climate science, the more important experience I will bring to the fellowship is with scientific methodology, data analysis, program management and communication,” he said. “A role in helping U.S. Army installations as they adapt to an increase in extreme weather and other climate change disruptions will be an exciting challenge.”

The fellowship program is part of the AAAS mission to advance science and serve society to support evidence-based policymaking. Fellows represent a broad range of disciplines, backgrounds and career stages. Of those in the 2019-20 class of fellows, 33 will serve in Congress and 245 in the executive branch among 19 federal agencies or departments.

Since the program’s inception in 1973, more than 3,000 fellows have supported the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the U.S. government, seeding every corner of Washington and beyond with a high caliber of scientific know-how.

 Visit www.aaas.org/stpf to learn more about the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships.

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