SIAM News Blog
Awards and Recognition

2024 SIAM Science Policy Fellows

SIAM is excited to announce the 2024 SIAM Science Policy Fellowship Program recipients. This program selects from a diverse pool of early career professionals that are dedicated to science policy and its advocacy. Fellowship recipients learn about the workings of science policy as it pertains to applied math and computational science by conducting relevant activities and completing an independent project on policy initiatives that further SIAM’s science policy efforts.

As Science Policy Fellows, recipients will have the opportunity to experience firsthand knowledge of science policy by participating in SIAM’s Committee on Science Policy (CSP). Every spring, the CSP meets and engages with representatives of federal agencies relevant to the discipline, such as the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Additionally, the CSP visits congressional offices to promote the importance of research funding, graduate training, and undergraduate education in applied mathematics and computational science data science. 

The 2024 Science Policy Fellows are:

  • Jonas Albert Actor, Sandia National Laboratories
  • Arielle Carr, Lehigh University
  • Ekaterina Landgren, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Iván Ojeda-Ruiz, Texas State University
  • Catherine Claire Pollack, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Jonas Albert Actor

Sandia National Laboratories

Learn more about Jonas, his reasons for pursuing the fellowship, and his envisioned role as a SIAM Science Policy Fellow in the video below.

Arielle Carr

Lehigh University

Watch the video below to learn more about Arielle, her motivations for applying for this fellowship, and her expectations as a SIAM Science Policy Fellow.

Ekaterina Landgren

University of Colorado, Boulder

Ekaterina (Kath) Landgren is a postdoctoral fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She received her Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Cornell University and thrives on interdisciplinary teams. During her Ph.D. she has worked on projects in the realms of mathematics, atmospheric science, and opinion dynamics. Now, Kath brings these varied interests together by researching social aspects of climate change issues. Specifically, she is modeling widespread underestimation of public support for climate policy using the tools from complex social systems and social science. This work combines two fundamental questions in her research: How do we move society toward large-scale solutions to the climate crisis? How does one’s position within a system influence their view of it?

Why did you apply for this fellowship? 

Prior to becoming a permanent U.S. resident, I was an international student for over a decade. I was always extremely aware that my presence in the U.S. was extremely conditional. I felt it most acutely in the summer of 2020 when the Trump administration threatened to require in-person attendance from international students in order to remain in the country. The threat of having to abandon our lives in the U.S. is only one of the many stressors that international students face. Many funding opportunities and programs exclude applicants based on citizenship status throughout the education pipeline. As a Science Policy Fellow, I would like to advocate for international students, who form the majority of U.S. mathematics graduate programs. This fellowship is the perfect opportunity for me to complete a project about an issue I care so deeply about.

What are you most looking forward to as a SIAM Science Policy Fellow?

I am excited to learn more about the decision-making process around science policy in general, and about how I could contribute to the ongoing efforts in international student advocacy, in particular. I am really looking forward to meeting my cohort and to collaborate with other mathematicians in a realm that is new to me.

Iván Ojeda-Ruiz

Texas State University

Learn more about Iván, his reasons for pursuing the fellowship, and his envisioned role as a SIAM Science Policy Fellow in the video below.

Catherine Claire Pollack

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Watch the video below to learn more about Catherine, her motivations for applying for this fellowship, and her expectations as a SIAM Science Policy Fellow.