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BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
16
FEBRUARY
2016
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
Message from BPS Congressional Fellow
Randy Wadkins