What's it like being the conduit between the very different worlds of politics and science? Ask Nancy Kingsbury, and she'll tell you that her work as a science advisor for the government of Canada is a lot like being an interpreter. "I translate science to the bureaucrats and politicians and translate the bureaucracy to the scientists." Kingsbury has been the Science Advisor on Climate Change for...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX When you think of intelligence agencies, you probably think of the FBI or the CIA. But the U.S. intelligence community comprises no fewer than 15 federal agencies, each with its own particular specialty. And most of them need scientists--especially now, because the federal government is projected to lose 40-60% of its workforce over the next 10 years due to retirement. "...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX By all accounts, protecting the information infrastructure of the United States and its allies ought to be a high growth area for scientists and engineers. While career opportunities in information assurance are growing in the private sector, scientists and engineers interested in national cybersecurity--the protection of the nation's information infrastructure--should l...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX Since 9/11, career opportunities in national security-related research and development have definitely been on the rise, not just south of the border but here in Canada as well. Through its various departments, the Canadian government is addressing present and future threats to a wide range of sectors including transportation, public health, and key information systems. ...
Three years ago, as part of her interview for a position at the U.K.'s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), ex-physicist Chandrika Nath (pictured left) took her first walk through the Palace of Westminster, the home of the two British Houses of Parliament, a journey she describes as "a trip back in time." In another sense, though, it was a glimpse of her future. After nearly a d...
Darnell Diggs and his twin sister are the youngest of 15 children who grew up in the small Alabama town of Brundidge to parents who did not finish high school. Their parents did value education. "Our parents inspired us to work hard at school, and if you didn't, you got disciplined. That was encouragement enough," Diggs recalls. Thirty-four-year-old Darnell is now Dr. Diggs, a physicist working a...
Recent media reports tell alarming stories from the United States to Uzbekistan about volumes of missing radioactive materials, with headlines warning of the potential for terrorist attacks using these nuclear materials. It's no surprise then that understanding and learning how to deal with the real threat from Radiological Dispersal Devices (RDD), known commonly as "dirty bombs," is of top conce...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX "I suppose you're not allowed to say anything about what you're doing at work," is a comment that Alex Lewis (pictured left) hears a lot, even from her own family. Working as a "knowledge agent" for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the science wing of the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD), Lewis has no choice but to disappoint those who imagine her role...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX If life can thrive in the most hostile regions here on Earth, could it exist even on Mars? Researchers are scouring the most extreme environments in our world to answer this question. Canadian paleogeologist Darlene Lim (pictured left) is at the front line. Currently a postdoc at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, Lim conducts biogeological research in some of th...
Now a postdoc, Micella discusses her recent transition and ponders what lies on the road ahead--and whether it's likely to get up again, brush itself off, and walk away.
