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Government Fellowships
Linking Engineers with Government
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"The
fellowship program has been one of the most important initiatives in good
government in the past century."
— The Honorable Rush Holt, U.S.
Congressman
from New Jersey & Former Congressional Fellow |
Each year, IEEE-USA sponsors three government fellowships for qualified IEEE members. The fellows spend a year in Washington serving as advisers to the U.S. Congress and to key U.S. Department of State decision-makers. Known as either a Congressional Fellowship or an Engineering & Diplomacy Fellowship, this program links engineers with government, providing a mechanism for IEEE's U.S. members to learn firsthand about the public policy process.
Program
News & Notices
2012 - The application materials will be available soon.
 Application Kit for 2012 Congressional Fellowship
Application Kit for 2012 Engineering & Diplomacy (State Deparment) Fellowship
The 2011 Fellows
Congressional:
Dr. Patrick E. Meyer, Newark, DE Dr. Meyer is an energy and environmental policy analyst, specializing in alternative energy, electricity, and fuel technology policy analysis; global sustainable energy systems; and energy and environmental systems modeling and analysis. He has broad experience with advanced applications of mobile and stationary alternative energy, with a research focus on the social equity implications of energy policy implementation and technology diffusion.
Dr. Meyer has volunteered on the IEEE-USA Communications Committee since 2005, and serves as the IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Energy, Environment, and Sustainability Editor. He has authored more than 25 articles and editorials for Today's Engineer, in addition to peer-reviewed journal articles for IEEE Technology and Society Magazine and other publications. Since 2008, he has run his own part-time consulting company, Meyer Energy Research Consulting (MERC), and as a consultant has conducted smart grid, solar energy, and policy research for IEEE and IEEE.tv.
Dr. Meyer holds a Ph.D. in Energy and Environmental Policy from the University of Delaware, and a M.S. in Science, Technology and Public Policy and a B.S. in Public Policy from the Rochester Institute of Technology. At the University of Delaware's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, Dr. Meyer was sponsored as a Doctoral Affiliate in the National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program. In his spare time, Dr. Meyer travels the nation, mountain biking, hiking, and camping, and has so far visited 84 sites in the US National Park System.
State Department:
Dr. Umesh Thakkar, Washington, DC Dr. Thakkar is serving as a policy fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He is a senior research scientist at the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has focused on improvements to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in K-12 and higher education. Dr. Thakkar has served as a program director at the U.S. National Science Foundation in graduate education and in elementary, secondary, and informal education.
Dr. Thakkar has been appointed by both Republican and Democratic Mayors of Urbana to the Community Development Commission, where he successfully worked with other commissioners to provide children and families living in low-income housing with educational opportunities and access to technological resources. He also has been appointed to the Urbana Free Library Board, where he contributes to the library's long range planning. As a Spectrum Scholar of the American Library Association, he is developing an expertise in digital data curation and preservation.
Dr. Thakkar has been an IEEE member for the last 15 years and his work has been presented at IEEE conferences. He is a corresponding member of the IEEE-USA Career and Workforce Policy Committee. In addition to IEEE, he is a member of the AAAS, ALA, and the Association for Computing Machinery. He received his BS in computer and information science and his PhD in instructional design and technology, both from the Ohio State University. He has traveled to all 50 U.S. states.
Rebecca Taylor, Austin, TX Ms. Taylor is General Partner and President of Taylor-Deininger Partners, Inc, a consultancy focused on advising senior executives and board members on strategic issues relating to technology manufacturing and design operations, new market opportunities, and Intellectual Property portfolio development. She has started and/or advised technology companies since 1991, when she formed her first company, Terrace Mountain Systems, a software design consultancy focused on embedded communications systems. She held a variety of software design and technical consulting roles at Fisher Controls and Digital Equipment Corporation in the first 8 years of her career. A holder of patents in the field of mobile device communications, Ms. Taylor has formed or advised numerous software and hardware technology startups over the past 20 years, and is a recognized advisor to the startup community in Central Texas.
A Senior Member of the IEEE, Ms. Taylor has spoken at recent ITC conferences on the process of starting companies, for IEEE members. She also has contributed to IEEE Congressional Visits Day, traveling at her own expense to inform the Texas delegation on the value of investing in STEM undergraduate and graduate education.
A resident of Austin for 25 years, Ms. Taylor has served numerous community organizations as a board member, including the Austin Community College Foundation, Austin Lyric Opera Executive Resource Council, and Austin Technology Council (ATC). She was a founding member of the ATC, serving as chair during formative stages in the 1990s, helping the organization to grow from 200 to nearly 1,000 members. She is a speaker or judge for University of Texas business plan competitions, as well as for the ACTiVATE entrepreneurship program at Texas State University. Ms. Taylor has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Iowa State University and holds a Masters degree in public policy from the University of Texas' LBJ School of Public Policy.
The 2010 Congressional Fellows
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Dr. John “Jack” Cederquist, Senior Member, Ann Arbor, MI - Jack is serving his fellowship in the office of
Senator Jon Tester of Montana working on energy and environment issues.
He received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 1980, and his MS in applied physics from the same school in 1977. He also has a BA in physics from Pomona College. Jack is currently a distinguished member of the technical staff at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems. His areas of research include optical remote sensing, particularly airborne and ground-based long wave infrared hyperspectral imaging sensor systems. In addition to IEEE, he is a member of the Optical Society of America, SPIE and IEEE's Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society. He is a member of the IEEE-USA Research & Development Policy Committee and has participated in Science, Engineering and Technology Policy Congressional Visits Days. His main policy interests are federal basic and applied research and development funding and K-12 STEM education. |
Dr. L. Jean Camp, Senior Member, Bloomington, IN - Jean is serving her fellowship in the office of Congressman Bob Etheridge of North Carolina. She received a PhD in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MSEE and BSEE/ BA Math from University of NC – Chapel Hill. Jean is an associate professor of informatics at Indiana University. She has also taught at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, worked as a visiting scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, and held research positions at CMU's Software Engineering and Information Networking Institutes. Jean holds several computer patents and has published books on identity theft and information security. She is a former member of the IEEE-USA Intellectual Property Policy Committee, a current member of the Committee on Communications and Information Policy, and she has participated in the annual IEEE-USA Congressional Visits Day. She has also been a member of ACM's Task Force on Job Migration. |
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The 2010 State Department Fellow
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Dr. Norman Lerner, Life Member, Arlington, VA - Norm is serving his fellowship with the US Department of State as
a Senior Advisor to CITEL/Organization of American States (Inter-American Telecommunication Commission). He received a PhD in math/ economics from American University, and MBA in finance from Columbia University and a BS in electrical engineering from MIT. Since founding the company in 1970, Norm has been president of TRANSCOMM, a consulting organization specializing in the solutions of domestic and international financial, economic and business development problems of high technology industries, with particular emphasis in telecommunications, energy and postal industries. Dr. Lerner has focused his company's efforts on telecommunications projects in more than 25 countries, especially Latin America. He has also served as an adjunct professor of management science and technology at George Washington University, and a guest lecturer at the Inter-American Defense College. Prior to forming TRANSCOMM, Dr. Lerner developed techno-economic policy in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Office of Telecommunications Policy. Dr. Lerner is a licensed professional engineer in VA, HI and NY, and a member of the IEEE Communications Society. He is also a credentialed journalist and has written for Frequencia Magazine and Telepress LatinoAmerica. |
For reference...6 DEC 2007: US News & World Report article: Wanted on the Hill: A Few Good Scientists
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Last
Update:
15 July 2010
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