Sunday, July 11, 2021
By:
On Friday, I submitted my second draft of the House Science Committee wildfire science bulletin. While I was waiting for the next round of edits, I delved into bill summaries that I had to set aside several weeks ago when I was unable to locate them online. I have become more proficient at balancing timeliness and accuracy, though I am still becoming accustomed to reading and summarizing long (i.e., 100+ page) bills. Continuing to write bill summaries will prepare me very well for my reading and writing intensive classes come fall.
In other news, one of my mentors recently published a bulletin about the Energy Technology Initiatives for Infrastructure Funding Bill. I assisted with data collection and graphing for the bulletin, which was a very instructive process. Immediately following its publication, Congress released an updated version of the bill contradicting some of the bulletin’s content. My mentors jumped right on it, modifying the bulletin to maintain its accuracy.
I got ahead on my two blurbs in the Weekly while my mentors were busy rechecking figures against those in the updated bill. The first discusses the AAAS CEO’s upcoming testimony at the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on how flaws in the U.S. immigration system impact highly-skilled scientists. I learned a lot while drafting the blurb about the multitude of immigration policies that dissuade scientists from working and settling in the U.S. and how those policies often prompt scientists to relocate to the United Kingdom and Canada. My second blurb hinges on SATCON2, an upcoming workshop that will assess astronomers' progress toward mitigating the impact of satellite megaconstellations on astronomy. Once the Weekly is published tomorrow afternoon, I will pivot to making a second round of edits on my wildfire bulletin. With any luck, I will have published my first bulletin by early this week.
Until next week,
Julia Bauer