American Institute of Physics Public Policy Internship Created in Honor of John Mather '68
American Institute of Physics Public Policy Internship Created in Honor of John Mather '68
by Maki Somosot '12
11/17/2009
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has established the Mather Public Policy Intern Program in honor of Swarthmore alumnus and Nobel laureate John Mather '68. AIP Mather Public Policy Interns will be placed in government internships to contribute scientific expertise directly to developing public policy. Mather hopes the internship "gets students interested [in public policy] when they still have an opportunity to learn about government process in their formal education."
According to AIP Executive Director and CEO Fred Dylla, "The aim of the program is to promote awareness of the policy process among young scientists by directly engaging them in the work that goes on in the federal government." Each intern will receive guidance from policy makers as well as be assigned a personal mentor from the AIP. They will also benefit from a widespread network of current and former AIP Congressional Fellows.
Mather received the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics for his precise measurements of the primordial heat radiation of the Big Bang and currently works as senior astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, M.D. The internship program is funded by the John and Jane Mather Foundation for Science and the Arts.
Watch Mather's 2007 McCabe Lecture about the history of the universe.
