For Danielle Lohman, her passion for science policy began when she heard a Ph.D. chemist speak at a career conference about the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellowship at the State Department in Washington, D.C.
Lohman, recently a postdoctoral fellow in Dave Pagliarini’s Department of Biochemistry lab at the Morgridge Institute for Research, was in her second year of graduate school as part of the Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison at the time.
“I just thought her life was really cool,” Lohman says. “When I saw her speak, it was the first time that I realized scientists could do things that weren’t strictly laboratory science.’”
AAAS is a multidisciplinary scientific society and research publisher based in the nation’s capital whose mission includes advancing science and promoting scientific research. AAAS fellowships give talented scientists the opportunity to work in a broad range of fields, from engineering to neuroscience to astronomy.
At Morgridge, Lohman has been working in the Pagliarini Lab, part of the Metabolism theme, investigating the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in human diseases.
But even with her success in the lab, Lohman knew science policy was a path she wanted to pursue. This year, her dream became a reality.
After a period of intensive interviewing with six different federal agencies in Washington, D.C., Lohman was one of 271 candidates selected for a prestigious AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship. Lohman will be working in the Office of Biological Policy in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation — an area of the State Department that deals with issues like biological weapons and biosecurity.
For more about Danielle and her fellowship, click the link before to the Morgridge website.
URL: https://morgridge.org/story/metabolism-scientist-wins-prestigious-aaas-fellowship/