AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships Begin

This year, the prestigious AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship will count four statisticians and data scientists among its 47th class. William Adler, Kyle Novak, Samantha Tyner, and Jiayang Sun join 269 other fellows for the year-long program, which immerses outstanding scientists and engineers in science policy and applies their expertise throughout the federal government.

Kyle Novak (left) and William Adler

William Adler will spend his fellowship year as an oversight fellow in the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, where he will work on a team conducting oversight investigations of the administration and private sector. Adler earned a PhD in computational neuroscience from New York University and was most recently working with the Princeton University Gerrymandering Project.

Kyle Novak is returning to the Science & Technology Policy Fellowship after a previous stint researching data-intensive technologies for the US Agency for International Development. This year, he will work in the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Novak earned a PhD from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in applied mathematics.

Jiayang Sun

Jiayang Sun will work as a big data senior fellow for big data analytics with the Office of National Programs at the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, where she is working with Partnerships for Data Innovations. Sun earned her PhD in statistics from Stanford University. After her fellowship, she will begin a new position as professor and chair of the George Mason University statistics department.

Samantha Tyner

Samantha Tyner will spend her fellowship year in the Office of Survey Methods Research at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, where she will work on interactive data visualization, text mining, and effective communication to wider audiences. Tyner earned her PhD in statistics from Iowa State University and was most recently a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence.

Adler, Novak, and Sun are the first recipients of the ASA/ACM/AMS/IMS/MAA/SIAM Science & Technology Policy Fellowship, funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and chosen by representatives of the six societies.

For more information about the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship program, visit their website. Applications for the 2020–2021 class will be accepted November 1 to February 1, 2020.