Announcement of the 2009-2010 Jefferson Science Fellows

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially honored the 2009-2010 Jefferson Science Fellows on July 8, 2010 in a ceremony at the U.S. Department of State. Following the ceremony with Secretary Clinton, Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development, and Dr. Kerri-Ann Jones, Assistant Secretary for Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, spoke to the Jefferson Science Fellows, family members and guests of the Fellows, and distinguished guests from the U.S. Department of State, Embassies, and The National Academies. In their remarks Drs. Shah and Jones acknowledged the important contributions made by the Jefferson Science Fellows to the U.S. Department of State and USAID over the course of their term as Fellows.

The 2009-2010 Jefferson Science Fellows are the sixth group of Fellows selected since the Jefferson program was established in 2003 as an initiative of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State to further build capacity for science, technology and engineering expertise within the Department.

The Fellowship program is based on the premise that science and technology make fundamental contributions to the security, economic, health, and cultural foundations of modern societies, and are integral to the development and implementation of foreign policy. It was established to create opportunities for substantial engagement of tenured scientists and engineers from U.S. academic institutions in the work of the Department. Fellows serve one-year assignments working full time in the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development, then remain available to the Department as consultants after returning to their academic careers.

From 2003 to 2008, the Jefferson Science Fellows program was funded by generous grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2008, funding for the JSF program was institutionalized within the Department of State. The JSF program remains a partnership between the Department of State and U.S. academic institutions. The home universities continue to pay the salary and benefits of their respective faculty members during their service as Fellows, while the Department of State funds local living expenses and program related travel. The Jefferson Science Fellows program is administered on behalf of the Department of State by the Fellowships Office of the National Academies.

The 2009-2010 Jefferson Science Fellows are:

Cynthia Baldwin, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Jerome Dobson, University of Kansas

Diana Farkas, Virginia Tech

Paul Kintner, Cornell University

Deborah Lawrence, University of Virginia

Najmedin Meshkati, University of Southern California

Wayne Pennington, Michigan Technological University

John Savage, Brown University

James Stone, Boston University

Kenneth Verosub, University of California, Davis