1. Write your member of Congress

This seems like a cliched activity but a very small percentage (<5%) of Americans write to their member of Congress every year. Many members of Congress consider responding to constituent mail to be a very important part of their job. Tell them what’s important to you! Here are some ways to get started:

a. The path of least resistance and the way to add your voice to a larger science chorus is to ask science societies if they’re doing any letter-writing campaigns. For example:

• The American Physical Society periodically organizes letter-writing campaigns, such as the student letter campaign at the Physics Congress: http://ultron.aps.org/forms/aps.cgi?ID=1084
• The Planetary Society is currently doing a letter campaign:  http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/be-a-space-advocate/
• Stand with Science is currently doing a letter campaign to protect science funding: http://standwithscience.org/theletter/

b. Write your own letter to your member of Congress

The American Physical Society has a page which provides you with advice on how to write a letter to a member of Congress. This page helps you find your member of Congress and let’s you click an icon to send them an email. http://www.congressweb.com/cweb2/index.cfm/siteid/APSPA . The American Institute of Physics also has an informative page about writing to your member of Congress: http://www.aip.org/gov/nb1.html

Advice on what to include in a letter to a member of Congress abounds on the internet (I found this site to be pretty reflective of my opinions although I wouldn’t emphasize personalized emails as much as this author: http://www.bchw.org/lnt/main/udall.htm). The most important things to do are to communicate clearly and concisely what you are writing about and how you’d like the member of Congress to address your concern and to do so in a timely manner. Members of the House receive in the neighborhood of 50,000 pieces of mail each year and senators often receive many times that amount per year. It’s important to make it easy for the Congressional staffers who manage the mail to understand who you are (you must be a constituent of the office you write to otherwise your letter will most likely be ignored or passed on to your representative’s office), what you care about, and what you want the member of Congress to do.

If you are writing about a particular piece of legislation, include the bill number (H.R. # or S. # depending on if it’s a bill in the House of Representatives or Senate). You’ll most likely be encouraging your member to vote yes or vote no on a particular piece of legislation or asking them to consider your opinion when deciding what future action to take on the issue you’re writing about. You could also ask your member to introduce legislation to address your concern or to work to hold a hearing on the issue you care about (although that will depend upon which committees your member is on).

c. Create your own science advocacy chorus: send letters to Congress as a SPS chapter activity

Follow the same advice for writing letters as given in section (1)(b) above. This is a great way to get your chapter involved in the national dialog. Once you get your feet wet with Congressional letter writing, consider expanding your letter writing campaign to other science society chapters on campus (such as American Chemical Society student chapters, engineering student societies, etc.) or even the campus at large.

2. Mobilize other people for your cause

The old adage of “the more the merrier” has never been truer than in the case of writing to your member of Congress. Congressional representatives are just that: people elected to represent their community in the national dialog! How can they represent you if they don’t know what you think about issues that are important to you? Start a chain reaction of science advocacy!

a. Encourage your family and friends to write their member of Congress using the advice given in Section (1).

b. Encourage the public to write their member of Congress in support of science

Public outreach is one of the best ways to get the general public excited about science. When you’re wrapping up a great outreach talk or event, remind the audience that the federal government is a major supporter of science and ask them to write their member of Congress in support of federal science programs. Better yet, have a letter or petition (see subsection (c) below) on hand that they can sign or have a form letter available that they can easily forward to their member of Congress.

c. Start a petition

The website http://www.change.org/ makes it very easy for you to start a petition on any issue that’s important to you. You can use this tool to gather support for issues at the campus, local, state, federal, or global level. This petition website has tips on how to make an effective petition and signature-gathering drive using social media.

d. Use social media to build support for your cause

Many members of Congress use social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate with their constituents. You can use these tools to communicate directly with your member of Congress. The number of FB/Twitter followers  is generally pretty small (in the neighborhood of a few thousand people) for the average member of Congress so your engagement using these platforms can really stand out.

You can also use social media to connect with other people who care about issues that are important to you in your community, state, nation, or the world. There are many Facebook groups centered around specific branches of science/physics and also general pro-science groups. An example of how social media has been leveraged to fight poverty can be found here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/one-campaign/id439424134?mt=8 . Write your own social media app for science policy!

e. Start a chapter of the Forum on Science Ethics & Policy on your campus: http://fosep.org/

3. Meet your member of Congress or their staff

Get to know the person who is your official voice in national affairs. Let them put a face to a name and hear your story from you. This will let them more effectively speak for you. 

a. Go on your own to meet your member of Congress in Washington

Members of Congress are very busy people who split their time between Washington and their home district so it’s possible that your member won’t be in town when you’re in Washington. The best thing to do is to get in touch ASAP with your member’s scheduler if you’re going to be in Washington and would like to stop by the office to meet the member. The scheduler should be able to help you get on your member’s calendar if they’re in town and available when you’re available. If the member isn’t in town, ask to meet with the staffer who handles science issues. This staffer will pass your input up to the member of Congress.

It may be easier for both you and your member of Congress to meet in the home district rather than Washington. Present this as an option when contacting the Congressional office. You may even want to propose having your member of Congress come to your campus to talk to your campus/local science community about federal science policy issues. Think of a good and timely reason for them to come (maybe your department just won a big research grant or maybe some science issues have been in your local newspaper recently or maybe a science faculty member has just been given an award…).

The American Physical Society and American Institute of Physics have information on how to prepare if you’re able to schedule a meeting with a member of Congress or their staff: http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/grassroots/index.cfm and http://www.aip.org/gov/nb2.html

b.  Meet your member of Congress during Congressional Visit Day

There is an organized Congressional Visit Day every year which you can learn about here: http://www.setcvd.org/.  Most participants participate through their science member organization (such as AIP) so if you’re interested in participating you should get in touch with your science organization.

4. Do a policy-related internship

Learn about the policy-making process from the inside. Broadening your understanding of science policy decision-making will make you more effective as a citizen-advocate and as a scientist who will have to interface regularly with the federal government.

Do not underestimate the value of being in Washington, DC and networking with the many people who work in science policy. Regardless of what career path you choose, it will likely be to your advantage to know a wide range of people throughout the research science and science policy infrastructure of the United States. 

a. SPS Summer Internships

From their website: The SPS summer internship program offers 9.5-week-long positions (June 4 – August 8, 2012) with various organizations in science policy, communication, outreach and scientific research. All internships include paid housing, a $4,200 stipend, a commuting allowance, and transportation to/from Washington, DC.

One particularly relevant policy internship is the Mather Policy Internship. This allows an intern to work in a Congressional office for a summer and is a great introduction to the legislative process.

More information can be found at this site: http://www.spsnational.org/programs/internships/

b. Congressional internships

Members of Congress host interns throughout the year. Interns are usually undergraduates but they can also be masters-level students as well. As with the SPS Mather Internship, this is an excellent introduction to the workings of the legislative branch. Usually Congressional offices tend to select interns who have some connection to their district (they’re a constituent, they go to school there, they grew up there, etc.) so keep that in mind when applying. Call offices where you’re interested in interning and ask them the application process for an internship. It’s generally harder to land an internship for the summer months so be sure to apply early and apply often!

Note: you will be a very unusual applicant because of your science background–most Congressional interns are studying political science or international relations. Ensure that you positively represent the uniqueness of your qualifications while also addressing why you are “suddenly” interested in policy.

Here’s a resource to get you started: http://dc.about.com/od/jobs/a/Internships.htm

c. Internships at think tanks, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), companies, lobbyists, law firms

There are plenty of organizations throughout the United States which work in the science policy or science advocacy arena. These organizations may have internship programs which will give you experience working in the non-government side of science policy. Start doing some Google searching for organizations that are working to promote science and see if they have internships listed on their website. If they don’t, feel free to email their public relations contact person and ask if they can point you in the direction of any internship experiences that will give you an introduction to science policy or science advocacy. Explore the possibility of interning in the government relations division of a company–a lot of science advocacy (often called lobbying) happens from companies who have a vested interest in strong federal science investment.

Some organizations to start with are: the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), National Academy of Sciences, Union of Concerned Scientists, Brookings Institution, Center for American Progress, Lewis-Burke Associates. This is by no means an exhaustive list or a representative list of what organizations are out there–this will just give you a starting point.

Another good place to start is the list of registered lobbyists for science and technology issues: http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=SCI . Start looking up organizations on this list and seeing if they have government relations internships.

5. Stay informed!

Keeping up to date on what’s happening in Congress and in the President’s administration will let you determine the most effective action you can take to have your views count.

a. The FYI Blog from the American Institute of Physics: http://www.aip.org/fyi/

This blog is a great source for hearing about the many happenings on Capitol Hill which pertain to physics. They highlight and explain everything from Congressional hearings to proposed legislation to the budget.

b. The American Physical Society’s page on Policy and Advocacy: http://www.aps.org/policy/

This site has lots of information on the state of physics in the national dialog as well as updates on how APS is working at the intersection of physics and science policy.

c. Other societies may have public policy arms which produce newsletters or blogs on policy–contact your member societies to find out!

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One of the biggest concerns amongst undergraduates is the ubiquitous question of “what comes next?” Students of physics are no exception — and may suffer more due to their hardwired desire to be able to predict the arbitrary future state of a system (i.e., their lives) given its current conditions (i.e., their undergraduate tenures). However, if the breakthroughs in quantum mechanics of the last century have taught us anything, it is that Nature is not quite as deterministic as we once thought. And the good news is – there’s plenty of advice out there, both on how to move past College and what to do while there to further your career goals. This past spring, the daily astronomy research blog Astrobites interviewed Caltech astronomy professor and Sigma Pi Sigma Plenary Speaker John Johnson in a series of three articles about getting into graduate school, making the most of undergraduate research, and a brand new lab at Caltech he created called the Exolab, which he describes as a place where undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs combine their “mathematics street fighting skills to attack novel problems.”

Not every undergraduate in physics will choose to go to graduate school, but for those that do, the process of applying can be extremely intimidating. There are letters of reference to solicit, essays to write, the general GREs, forms to fill out, and…(cue scary music) the dreaded Physics GRE. In the first interview, Prof. Johnson comes right out at the beginning and states that the Physics Subject GRE, which has inspired fear in generations of physicists, is in fact NOT the strongest predictor of career success in physics and astronomy. Furthermore, he states, as the next generation of faculty begin to take root in Universities across the country, the emphasis is shifting to undergraduate research as opposed to the results of a standardized multiple-choice test. “There’s nothing unusual about students who scored below the 50th percentile on the physics GRE going on to become professors at an elite university,” Prof. Johnson goes on to say. Interestingly, the general Verbal GRE seems better correlated with student success, so he suggests not ignoring preparation for this portion of the exam. The remainder of the article focuses on the more substantive application requirements, which Prof. Johnson explains, come basically down to research. Getting involved early, even on a small scale, is what leads to developing an understanding of basic methods, letters of recommendation, and sometimes even publications. The good news is that it’s now easier than ever to find research opportunities – for example, SPS provides a yearly clearinghouse here, and the National Science Foundation funds the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, which allows students to spend 8-12 weeks working with leading researchers at other institutions over the summer.

Building on the above emphasis on undergraduate research, Prof. Johnson’s second interview focuses on how to make the research experience as rewarding as possible. Actually finding someone to work with may seem intimidating, but is actually much easier than most students realize. Almost every professor and scientist is more than eager to work with students [personal tip: if you're meeting with a professor and unsure of what to say, just ask them about their research! Every scientist loves to communicate their work with others.*] Once you’ve found an advisor, Prof. Johnson stresses the importance of communication in your relationship with him or her. Research can often feel like a solitary, isolated process, and discussing your work (and perhaps more importantly, where you’re stuck) with your advisor and/or colleagues is vital to making progress. Good communication also leads to good letters of recommendation, which are vital for future career opportunities. However, no matter how good the intentions, research slumps will inevitably occur. Prof. Johnson masterfully uses a mathematical analogy to illuminate the situation: “the learning curve for research is not linear, it’s exponential. You’re getting better at what you do much more rapidly than you realize. As human beings…we have a tendency to take low-order Taylor expansions to evaluate our progress at any given moment.” In other words, when you’re looking at a given zoomed-in piece of the curve (i.e., a single research problem), the curve looks linear, regardless of its overall increasing shape. So, hang in there, and don’t forget about those higher order terms! They will matter, in the long run.

The last article in this series discusses a brand new collaborative research lab Prof. Johnson has built at Caltech called the Exolab. Unlike in other sciences such as chemistry and biology, research groups in astrophysics tend to be small, often consisting of just a few graduate students and postdocs plus a professor. While this model can sometimes lead to more direct personal interaction, it can also become more of a static situation where the professor simply directs and trains the entire group. The Exolab was in part inspired by a trip Prof. Johnson took to the chemistry lab at Caltech, where he saw an undergraduate training a graduate student and postdoc on a piece of sophisticated equipment. He thus founded the Exolab as a place where “everyone contributes a piece of expertise, and everyone benefits from others’ experience.” Joining such a group might seem intimidating to younger students, but he suggests that, just like learning a foreign language, the best way to get involved is total immersion. Just as in finding success in research, the key is again communication. So you say your school doesn’t have such a place? Maybe now would be the time to talk to your advisor about building one!

I know I’m looking forward to hearing Prof. Johnson “connect worlds” as he discusses the latest discoveries in the exciting field of extrasolar planets, as well as share more of his wisdom on how to navigate life as a physics student at PhysCon 2012. Please share your thoughts below!

*This technique actually works well with just about anyone, not just scientists. A wise mentor once told me that, in social situations, the surest way to stimulate conversation is simply to get someone to talk about themselves!

Chris Faesi is a second-year graduate student in Astrophysics at Harvard University, where he studies star formation and its role in galaxy evolution. He is a former SPS Associate Zone Councilor, member of the 2012 Congress Planning Committee, and also (full disclosure) an Astrobites author. Once upon a time, he too was afraid of applying to graduate school.

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Two chapters in the first section, “The Future Needs Us” and “What a World!”, specifically discuss issues, biological weapons and climate change respectively, that are still incredibly pertinent today. Certainly one can take an all or nothing approach to both of these issues, but the practical resolution to both will likely come somewhere in between. Both chapters present arguments from the reasonable ends of the spectrum. I thoroughly enjoyed the format of the chapters – Professor Dyson presents both sides of the arguments, weighs in, and still allows the reader room to come to their own conclusions. Actually, let me refine that last statement – the format of the chapters actually encourages readers to investigate these topics themselves and come to their own conclusions.

Most of the second section deals with war, which Professor Dyson admits “scientists are powerless to deal with.”  I found it difficult to connect with the context of this section – my generation hasn’t lived through the threat of imminent nuclear disaster. Perhaps, as Professor Dyson suggests, this is an important part of the process – only by forgetting the nuclear weapons can the political maneuvers necessary to eliminate them be executed. Getting past the context though, the questions posed by each chapter are still pertinent questions: how do we balance between predictions that the world will fail magnificently and the possibly false hope that since humans have survived on Earth thus far, we will continue to survive? In our time, this question belongs less to the debate on nuclear weapons and more to the debate on climate change.

Professor Dyson suggests that “the international community of scientists may help to abolish war by setting an example to the world of practical cooperation extending across barriers of nationality, language, and culture.” This is what I hope we will all explore during the Congress. How can we, as a community and as individuals, succeed in establishing connections across disciplines for fuller understanding and across cultures and borders for increased world-wide stability?

Jenna Smith is a graduate student at Michigan State University, doing work at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. She’s been a long-time friend of SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma, and she attended the 2008 Physics Congress at Fermilab. 

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The path she took to her career is an exciting one, as outlined in a Penn State profile by Adam Eshleman: The Stellar Detective. The piece outlines her journey from Jamaica to Penn State, through her excitement at studying astronomy and the challenges of being a woman in science to voting to ‘demote’ Pluto. The article then proceeds to talk about her research, and the fact that she came to use tomography – something well used in medicine – to analyze stars. Read on to learn more about the details of her work and her fascinating history: http://www.rps.psu.edu/indepth/mrichards.html.

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“The Very First Light” tells the story of this successful pursuit.  Mather interweaves the history of the development of our current scientific understanding of the early universe, his personal story of a life in science, an account of mastering the bureaucracy of webs of committees and teams of scientists, engineers, and technicians, and the grand denouement that led to the award of the Nobel Prize in Stockholm.  One learns of the joys and strains of great minds and egos striving together.  There are the moments of hectic activity interspersed with the heartbreaking moments when all would seem lost, as when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just seconds into its flight.  Through it all the Mather humbly, quietly, gently, and determinedly kept moving forward, through re-designs and staffing changes, and delays upon delays.  Each change of fortune is describes in both scientific and emotional detail.

For someone who has engaged in tabletop physics for most of my life, the world of teams of hundreds of people is totally foreign.  Mather has provided a valuable glimpse.  The contrasting styles of a government agency like NASA, with its teams of technicians, and academic researchers, with their small teams of graduate students and postdocs, are revealed.  Ultimately, this is a story of personalities, and there are so many fascinating ones.  I found myself drawn to David Wilkerson who was present at Dicke’s first attempts to detect the cosmic microwave background radiation, served faithfully as a member of Mather’s team on the COBE satellite that measured its spectrum, and whose name will always be associate with the WMAP satellite that has provided tremendous imaging of the minute anisotropies of the background radiation.

Having provided a vision of the beauty of the universe captured by this investigation, Mather closes his book by taking a moment to ponder the significance of his discoveries.  It is a worthy endeavor for all of us.  And then it is time to be grateful, grateful to John Mather for our new view of the universe provided by his dogged pursuit of two decades and grateful for the manner in which he has laid the process out before us in this book.

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But how do you dispel the persistent myth that physics is ridiculous and horrible? One way that’s effective is through videos. We’ve had many SPS Chapters use YouTube videos to show off their chapters, explain cool physics phenomena and more. But physicist Henry Reich created the YouTube channel MinutePhysics, and became a sensation. Based on the premise of explaining physics in fun, minute-long videos, his most popular video is an explanation of Schrödinger’s cat (found here, the video has nearly 2 million views). Something Henry Reich feels passionately about is that people learn that the explanation their teachers gave them in school isn’t the end-all-be-all; that there’s more than one explanation out there – and the one you were taught may not have been the best.

The MinutePhysics videos are very entertaining and engaging. (Even if you have a degree in physics! Maybe even especially) My personal favorite: The Theory of Everything series. They’re great to talk with your SPS Chapter or Physics Department about, and you can always go to our forums to discuss some MinutePhysics-related questions!

This is one of our posts that go along with the PhysCon Media List. Check out the other materials on the list! 

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Readings are posted here, with a suggested schedule of one item a week.  Each item will give you insight into one of the invited speakers or workshop topics.  The first one, scheduled for this week, is a fascinating and compelling interview with keynote speaker Jocelyn Bell Burnell, about the discovery of the pulsar, the subsequent awarding of the Nobel Prize to her doctoral adviser, and the challenges she has faced as a female pursuing a career in astronomy.

Share ideas about the readings with others at our discussion forum. Make this meeting a long-ranging experience!

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To register as a Student or Non-Student Attendee, please go to our online registration site. For more information on registration, please visit the Registration Page.

If you register before September 17 registration fees are $170 for students (undergraduate & graduate) and $340 for non-students

After September 17 the cost of registration raises to $250 for students and $420 for non-students.

After registering, please remember to make your hotel reservations.

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