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My name's Jason Rao.
I'm currently the Director for International Affairs at
the American Society for Microbiology, the oldest and
largest society of life scientists in the world.
I'm also the Advisory Chair of the smallest and newest of
nonprofit in the health sciences called Health Security Partners.
I'm also a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Biochemistry,
Cellular and Molecular Biology training program.
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Well, I followed what some would call a non-traditional
career path.
After finishing my PhD here at Johns Hopkins, I went on,
I did a postdoc at the NIH.
And then I took a turn.
I decided to try a fellowship at the AAAS,
a AAAS Diplomacy Fellowship.
And I was placed at the State Department in the office of
Cooperative Threat Production.
And there I pursued a almost ten year career path in
international science and security.
Working on non-proliferation programs, bioterrorism programs.
But also supporting international science
cooperation between the US and many other nations.
From there I worked on The Hill for
a year as a Brookings Fellow.
And the last few years of my career with the government,
I actually worked at the White House in the Office of Science
and Technology Policy, as an advisor on global engagement and
international science.
I was fortunate to work as a senior policy advisor to
President Obama in the crazy world of politics at
the White House.
And from there I went back, as I mentioned,
to the American Society for
Microbiology where I direct their international affairs.
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Well, I love science policy just in the same way that I felt that
I was advancing science and
our field of knowledge as a basic researcher.
Science policies and opportunity to
make the world a better place, at a much higher level.
Policy today, more than ever before,
is really in need of data.
Of what we call evidence-based policy making, and
scientists really are essential to making that happen.
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Well you know, it's different for everyone and
really depends on the organization or
institution that you're working for.
Inside the government, a day to day science policy advisor
does many of the same tasks that you might do now in terms of
lots of email communication and attending meetings.
I think what's important is that you're also doing a lot of
reading about the issues.
You're understanding the nuances of an issue.
You're writing very succinct memos about the issue to
policymakers.
And you're trying to get at the heart of the issue through phone
calls, conversations and a new set of communications
that you're not normally doing as a scientist.
But day to day that's what we do.
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If you stop and think about the greatest challenges we face
today as a nation and as global community, climate change,
energy shortages, disease eradication, biodiversity,
environmental remediation.
These are all challenges that are firmly rooted in science,
science, provides the solution.
And yet we look at our policymakers, and
there's not a lot of scientists amongst them.
So, getting into science policy and really providing evidence
in our policymaking is needed now more than even.
And I can think would only become increasingly important
and thus provide an increasing number of opportunities for
PhDs to get involved and
provide their expertise into policy making.
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My advice there is, the best thing you could do is really to
find someone working in the area you're interested in and
connect with them and ask their advice.
From there they will have very specific suggestion
on what to do.
What opportunities there might be to participate in a meeting.
Or what organizations might be looking for
an intern, et cetera.
Of course there are also fellowship and internship and
training opportunities that help PhDs transitions into
different careers such as the AAAS, policy fellowships.
The National Academies of Science have a few.
Some of the scientific societies have an increased number of
opportunities there.
So looking into each one of those is great.
But again I'd say find a mentor or
find someone working in the area and network from there.
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