Gizem Dogan, 2023 AIP Mather Policy Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Bowdoin College

My name is Gizem and I am rising senior at Bowdoin College, pursuing a bachelor’s in Physics and Government and Legal Studies with a concentration in International Relations. I am originally from Istanbul, Turkey and I’m a former SPS Physics Today Science Writing Intern. I believe sciences, physics in particular, possess immense potential for technological advancements to improve standards of living all around the world. Therefore, I aspire to build a career in science policy and defense technologies.
I’ve previously worked at American Enterprise Institute as the Science, Energy, and Environment Policy Intern in my junior year. Simultaneously, I’ve authored a research paper on the performance optimization of the DOE/DoD national laboratories at American University. I am currently studying abroad in Berlin, Germany, completing a Security Studies and International Affairs program. In the summer of 2023, I am excited to take on the role of the Mather Policy Intern for NIST and meet the incoming class of SPS interns!

Internship

Host: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Project

Abstract

Manufacturing USA is a relatively new government initiative to form manufacturing ecosystems around the U.S. in efforts to on-shore production, develop a skilled American workforce, and build resilient and sustainable supply chains. As of today, Manufacturing USA has sixteen institutes working in strategic technology areas ranging from robotic and AI to biopharmaceuticals and photonics. This presentation focuses on the 2023 Mather NIST Policy Intern’s task to develop a framework to draw inferences on these institutes’ membership characteristics, which will potentially be built into a performance review mechanism to be used by the sponsoring agencies, the DOE, the DoD, and the DOC, in the future. This projects draws from publicly available membership data to make observations pertaining to membership categories, longevity, and industry/academia participation. Aside from this project the presentation will also touch upon other side activities the intern had participated in over the summer such as the NIIMBL Annual Meeting, Atlanta HI-TEC Conference, and technical drafting assistances for Congressional offices.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: We’re back at it again!

It’s good to be back! As a former SPS intern (Physics Today'22) I am honored to return as the Mather-NIST Science Policy Intern. It feels good to not only to see some familiar faces such as Brad, Mikayla, Kayla, Jack, and my fellow former intern Janessa but also to be back in DC. I was surprised to learn that we are to stay in the same building as last year, Amsterdam Hall.

Tuesday we had the usual orientation day where we received a warm welcome from SPS family. I also met all of my fellow interns and could feel from those first moments together that we would make a good team.

My first week went by trying to figure out fingerprinting, badging, and getting my credentials at NIST. By the nature of it essentially being a national laboratory the background checks and badging takes a while so till I received my badge on Thursday I had to stop by the visitor center and obtain my visitor’s badge which required my mentor to be by my side. I’m working with the policy team at the administrative building at NIST. I feel privileged because I’ve actually visited the campus last year as a part of our internship experience. That was the time when I got to see the anechoic room, the clean rooms, the nuclear reactor they have on campus, and the open exhibition space where they have the atomic clock and many other standards.

This was also the week I got to spend more time with the administrative team. One of my mentors Lisa was kind enough to accompany me at work on the days I worked in person. Another one of my mentors Said gave me a quick your of the campus where I got to hear about his vast experiences at NIST and why he preferred to come back after working for the private sector for all those years. He also showed me Newton’s apple tree they have at NIST campus. Yes you heard it correctly! NIST has one of the apply trees that is a direct descendant of Newton’s original tree. CRAZY!

During the weekend I was happy to do some of the things I love doing in DC and visiting the many sites I missed. I took long walks around Georgetown waterfront, the mall, at the Wharf and went kayaking.

I’m once again sure I’ll end up getting a capital bikeshare membership. I will let you know next week!

Week 4: When worlds clash

Although the work week felt short, it was full of opportunities to come together with incredible physicists and physics lovers.

The most iconic piece of news from this week is our SPS intern lunch with THE John Mather, the incredible mind behind the COBE telescope that detected the cosmic microwave background. Last year around, when I worked for Physics Today, he had talked about James Webb telescope’s launch in December and they were excited to release the photos to the public. This year I made sure to ask over lunch what his favorite JWebb photo is so far. He said it’s got to be the first photo with all the distant galleries because it was with that photo that they discovered many more planets existed out in space than previously thought. It felt like I was able to have a more meaningful conversation with him as the Mather NIST Policy intern as his ideals for creating my current position capture my belief in the notion that we need more scientists somewhat involved in the policy-making and implementation processes in areas pertaining to national security to better inform our policymakers. Having said that, I can’t move on without conveying my gratitude to the AIP Foundation for hosting us and providing GREEK FOOD for lunch! As a Turkish person who grew up in the Mediterranean, gyro is sometimes the closest thing that reminds me of the exquisite Turkish cuisine so I was more than happy to munch on some gyro!

On another note, we received our special design SPS t-shirts this week! I love mine in light pink but apparently there was one extra, which our SPS Director Brad so very generously sent to me. (See photo below for reference) Perks of coming back as an SPS intern for a second year!

At work one of my supervisors had asked me to build a framework for Manufacturing USA membership analyses. Manufacturing USA is an initiative that aims to form manufacturing ecosystems all around the country through their growing number of institutes that all focus on a different strategic technology area. Some other goals of this initiative are to build a skilled American workforce and to foster private-public partnerships while overcoming small-business concerns. Currently it has sixteen institutes with a membership profile of industry, academia, government stakeholders, and NGOs; and member ranges of 70-250. We currently don’t have enough knowledge about the membership profile and would like to investigate certain trends so I submitted a framework for an analysis that would lay out our priorities and a method for data acquisition. The admin team gave me important feedback during the our staff mentoring meeting on Tuesday.

On Wednesday right after our lunch with John Mather, I got assigned a TDA, which I later learnt stands for technical drafting assistance. It is basically an opportunity for federal agencies whose operations are to be affected by a bill that will be introduced on the House or the Senate floor, to give feedback and comments to the Executive Office before the bill is signed into law. I was excited to review it and meet one of my coworkers on Friday to go over potential suggestions on the language of the bill and additions and/or clarifications we might ask for at NIST. Our meeting was quite stimulating and I could tell he appreciated my ideas and the suggestions I came up with so I closed the work week feeling proud of my accomplishments in our fourth week.

On Thursday evening I met Cece, one of my study abroad friends who also happens to have an internship in DC, to cook dinner at my place. It was good to catch up and talk about our time in Berlin. I miss being able to travel from one European city to the other over the weekend. I understand how lucky I was to have the privilege to explore all around Europe as a part of my undergraduate experience. Nevertheless, DC also provided us with many opportunities to immerse ourselves into the pace of the city this week. We had the Astronomy on the Mall event! Thanks to the SOCK Intern Emily, we had many physics demos we could demonstrate to the greater public. It never seizes to amaze me the number of people who are genuinely interested in physics and other sciences. In particular I was moved by all the parents who came up to us to talk about their kids’ interest in sciences and the fact that this event helps them introduce kids to “their people” whereas back home the they don’t have many adults that they can talk about physical concepts with. It is for them that we have to strive to democratize sciences and make it accessible for all demographics. This year Astronomy on the Mall was moved indoors due to weather forecasts indicating heavy rains over the weekend. Although it never rained on Saturday, the Smithsonian Building for Arts and Industries made for a great spot to host all institutions and even a small scale “science rave” as well as a summer solstice party outdoors later at night. We were all amazed by the colorful lighting that surrounded the building as well as the garden and the number of people who turned up for this incredible event.

On Friday evening I had the chance to hang out with two friends who I hadn’t seen in a long while. It had been a while since we went out together and I loved having their presence! Although my roommate Brynn was gone over the weekend so I couldn’t introduce them, I am looking forward to the future weekends when we can all have fun together. (Brynn! looking forward to having you back here, the room is too lonely without you :/)

As we move onto our fifth week in DC I am glad I had a chance to go to a Chinese Buffet at last! Literally my favorite food to stuf myself with!

See you next week!

P.S. I still haven’t gotten my DC CityBike membership. I think it might be too late at this point :()