Lucia D. Simonelli (Ph.D. ’16, applied mathematics and statistics, and scientific computation) was awarded the 2019-20 American Mathematical Society Congressional Fellowship and is working in the office of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Prior to being a Congressional Fellow, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the mathematics section at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy.
Simonelli's work has been predominantly in dynamical systems, specifically working to prove properties of parabolic flows using functional analytic techniques. She also recently co-organized the first Latin American School in Applied Mathematics held in Quito, Ecuador. The mission of the school is to foster the growth of advanced, rigorous studies and research in physical and mathematical sciences in Latin America. Specifically, the goal of the school is to highlight the applications of mathematics in other disciplines and in industry to demonstrate the usefulness of mathematics as a tool in career choice.
The Congressional Fellowship program is administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and provides an opportunity for scientists and engineers to learn about federal policy making while contributing their knowledge and analytical skills to the process. Fellows spend a year working on the staff of a member of Congress or a congressional committee, working as a special legislative assistant in legislative and policy areas requiring scientific and technical input. The fellowship program includes an orientation on congressional and executive branch operations and a year-long professional development program.
The fellowship is designed to provide a unique public policy learning experience to demonstrate the value of science-government interaction and to bring a technical background and external perspective to the decision making process in Congress.
Republished with permission from the American Mathematical Society. This story originally appeared on the American Mathematical Society website: https://www.ams.org/news?news_id=5219
Photo Credit: University of Texas at Austin