Washington, D.C. / It's paradise to me / It's not because it is the grand old seat / Of precious freedom and democracy

By now you may have heard I'm in Washington DC for a few months. Why?

I'm going to be a Research Assistant for the Board on Science, Technology and Economic Policy at the National Academy of Science (NAS), starting tomorrow. A mouthful, yes!

Here's a little excerpt from something I already wrote about it:

"The National Academies are the 'advisors to the nation on science, engineering and medicine'. Though funded by Congress, they remain independent of the Executive and Legislative branches, and less than half of their work is commissioned by either branch; they have significant discretion in directing their investigatory resources. This allows the NAS to maintain both the credibility of independence and the kind of clout needed to make a real impact in policy debates. The Board on Science, Technology and Economic Policy (STEP) of the NAS is at the nexus of policy debates over patent systems, high-skilled immigration, government investment in renewable energy technology, and national innovation schemes more generally. These are exactly the types of policy, and the types of policy-making process that generate them, that I came to the US to study. From their website:

In 1991, as concern about international economic competition intensified, the Academies created a standing program on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) to identify means of accelerating innovation, advancing competitiveness, and improving monitoring of the nation’s economic performance through the Academies’ process of convening expert committees, conferences, and workshops, and issuing thoroughly reviewed, authoritative reports. Under the guidance of a committee of industrialists, financial executives, former policymakers, and academic economists (including three Nobel Laureates) STEP has addressed questions of trade, tax, human resources, intellectual property, research and development, information, and statistical policy.

The STEP Board then, was created by a federally-funded organization (NAS) to ensure America's economic competitiveness in the 21st century. My research interests could be summarized as “how do governments use their resources and apparatus to encourage economic development and competitiveness through technological development”, and so the STEP Board is almost the best fit imaginable. While there I would be working as a research assistant to the Board's permanent Director, researching and writing reports on immigration, patent reform, and whatever other work commences in my time here."

So that's a little bit about what I'll be doing, it should be fun. Here's the website of my group: http://ping.fm/Y2ZQJ

I'm in a hotel for the next few nights (semi-affordable thanks to priceline.com's name-your-price feature), then some BnB/couch-surfing until I can move into my new place in Columbia Heights on June 7: http://tinyurl.com/2k74kr

Thanks to Fulbright New Zealand's Sir Wallace Rowling Award for funding my stay here! http://ping.fm/lKzxG

Photos from recent parental visit

Mum, Dad and my Aunt Lindy visited for the past few weeks. We went to Chicago, Ann Arbor, DC and New York.

Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77154&id=703999762&l=3059dc788a

More photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78695&id=703999762&l=936c736d4c