Johnny Miri, 2024 AIP FYI Science Policy Communications Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Harvard University

My name is Johnny Miri, and I am an incoming junior at Harvard studying Physics and Math. In the past I’ve done research in computational physics and condensed matter. I’m also on teaching staff for our undergrad quantum mechanics course. I’ve been increasingly interested in science policy and can’t wait to explore that with AIP FYI.

I’m from Cedar Park, TX, where I grew up with my parents and three sisters. Outside of school, I love to cook, grill, watch sports, and play basketball. I’m a big fan of exploring cities and beaches.

Internship

Host: American Institute of Physics

Internship Blog

Week 1: Crying over spilled milk

What an amazing start to the summer! My name is Johnny, and I’m the American Institute of Physics FYI Science Policy News intern. My hometown of Cedar Park, TX is a little hotter and much dryer than this city. I’ve had a blast exploring Washington, DC so far. It’s beautiful, but the cost of living is outrageous here!

Our intern cohort kicked things off with orientation at the American Center of Physics office. At the spaghetti marshmallow team challenge, my cube idea bought us a ticket straight to last place. I would make a terrible engineer!

My favorite part of the office is the rooftop. There’s a great mini golf and bocce setup, which was a terrific way to pass the time. The other highlight was the free food they gave us.

I’m super excited by the work ahead for me! Science policy is a big interest of mine, and the FYI team (Mitch Ambrose and Jacob Taylor especially) has been incredible. I’ve been fortunate to be given assignments that are super exciting and meaningful. The past few days I’ve been writing up an article about the Department of Energy’s new AI initiatives, tracking the Congressional battle over the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, and polishing up different parts of the newsletter for Monday’s release. It’s certainly been a busy couple of days!

Outside of work, I’ve been loving my time at this internship so far. I’m having a great time kicking it with the other interns. Muji and I get along fantastically and have pretty much set up the dorm. The interns all walked over to the National Mall a couple of times to hang around. Jaden and I have yet to lose a spikeball match... I hope we stay undefeated. Charles has graciously accompanied me to the weight room, which is crucial because I’m a total noob. People here are so fun and welcoming! I’m thrilled to spend the summer with everyone.

Saturday night, I had a relaxing time chilling with the other interns, and afterwards introduced a few to my favorite card game! We also played spoons and BS. It was a lovely time.

There have only been two setbacks. The first is that I rolled my ankle playing basketball on Friday. Luckily it truly was a very minor sprain. By Saturday I was able to move around and play spikeball without too much trouble.

The second setback was my Trader Joe’s run... I was proud of myself for avoiding the bag fees by cramming things in my backpack. Next thing I know, I crushed the quart of milk inside! Thank goodness Jenna got a picture of my failure. It was a real joy washing everything and cleaning out my backpack.

It’s shaping up to be a terrific summer filled with funny memories, awesome new friends, and interesting work. Cheers to another week!

Week 2: Settling In

What a wonderful week! I’m having the most amazing time here. Our intern cohort finally worked out our taxes, which was a lot of fun because everyone was on a zoom call together. On Monday, I met up with one of my roommates from college, and we went to the Buffalo Wild Wings unlimited wings and fries special. I think I’ve had enough for a lifetime and don’t really want to think about it any more than that.

On Wednesday, I headed into the DC office with Charles, Charlotte, and Jenna. We met up with the rest of the interns as they arrived. There is so much wonderful food available from events being held there! Unfortunately, I have realized I tend to distract people while we work if I’m not careful. I made a real effort that day to separate out my break time and work time.

This week my first FYI article has been published! It covers the push by the Department of Energy to develop noncommercial, nondefense AI. This is something that I found uniquely exciting, since lots of my condensed matter research back in college was super computational and relied on some ML models. Journalism writing is so different from the academic work I’m used to, so I’m so incredibly grateful that my mentors, Jacob Taylor and Mitch Ambrose, have put so much time into explaining and reviewing things with me. I feel so grateful that I have been placed with such a supportive and generous team.

The Trimble Lecture was on Wednesday as well, so we all dressed up and attended the reception, followed by a brilliant talk about everything that goes into building space telescopes. It reminded me of the LIGO project, which I learned lots about from a brilliant physics professor at Trinity University in Texas. They announced that the next Trimble Lecture will be delivered by Dr. Lawrence Principe, which is super exciting to me because I love history of science, and he is one of the giants in that field.

I’m going to be away from DC next week. I’m sad to miss the dinner cruise but am so happy that everyone had a wonderful time. This Thursday I flew to France, where I will see some friends from college. We’re going to visit some beautiful churches and visit the beach. Luckily, I will catch up on my work by doing extra time remotely after the program has ended. I’m so grateful to be able to have that extra time to keep learning from the FYI team!

Last week, I tried pretty hard to plan so that I wouldn’t have food left in the fridge while I’m gone. Unfortunately, I ended up with a bag of onions and a sweet potato, so I threw those in the freezer. I really hope I can defrost them when I’m back!

Week 3: Away from it all

Like I mentioned last week, I spent most of this week in France. This trip was amazing! I saw beaches, shrines, churches, small towns, forests, and more. While I was here, I did my best to stay updated on science policy, but look forward to extending my time with FYI to account for this time off.

Two of the best photos I took on the trip are below!

Even though France was great, I’m beyond excited to be back and work on my projects with AIP. I’m also excited to catch up with the other interns and continue getting to know them better. It’s going to be a terrific summer of memories!

Once I returned, I settled in and got back into work. I’m still tracking the RECA bill progress in the House and Senate. I also got to watch some of Good Will Hunting and Wall-E with some of the other interns, as well as play some spikeball. It’s going to be a great week!

Week 4: Breaking the Streak

Ultimately, Jaden and I decided to do some charity work and give someone else a spikeball win. Now we’re 11-1. Charlotte and Reidyn had their lucky moment, but Jaden and I are still Hall of Fame material. I don’t really want to discuss it more than that...

My favorite event of the week was our potluck on Juneteenth! The day before, I went to Chinatown to get dried shrimp and mushrooms. My plan was to make a dim sum turnip cake called lo bak go, which is delicious and is a wonderful companion to dumplings. Once cooking started, I realized that I had no steamer. The lo bak go ended up being more akin to a potato cake, but still very delicious. There were so many amazing items at our potluck! I especially liked the pizza from Charles and garlic knots from Jaden. We had a great night! It wrapped up with a surprise birthday celebration for Charles, where we gave him a card. Overall, one of my favorite nights of the summer!

At work, things are going extremely well! I published another article this week on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. All my articles are available on the American Institute of Physics’s FYI page, so check them out if you’re interested! I’m having a blast at this job and am learning so much about science policy. My team went out to lunch at the Old Ebbitt Grill on Wednesday, and I got to enjoy a delicious burger. There was also a rooftop farmer’s market at the office that day, where I got some free swiss chard. Life is good!

Over the weekend, we got to help with Astronomy at the Mall! I had a great time, but it was incredibly tiring. Heatstroke fears moved the event indoors, which probably saved my life. There were lots of great moments at the fair. We set up a large cloth and mimicked the “fabric of spacetime” by rolling marbles and tennis balls around the space. There was a trivia game, which ended up being laughably difficult. After we got home, Reidyn and I went to McDonald’s, and then I crashed to sleep. Summer is going well!