After wildfires threatened her hometown, APS Congressional Science Fellow pivoted to climate policy

In the summer of 2020, Sophia Chan was in Manhattan, working toward her doctorate in chemical engineering at Columbia University — but her attention was on her California hometown. Record-breaking wildfires were sweeping the state, and her family was facing the threat of evacuation.

Chan did what she could from 2,500 miles away, sharing emergency checklists and urging them to wear N95 masks to prevent smoke inhalation, but she felt helpless.

Ultimately, Chan’s family did not have to evacuate, but the situation served as a clarion call. “It really woke me up to the reality that climate change is happening right now,” recalls Chan.

She decided to shift her focus from energy research to policy. “There are so many scientists working on research and not enough on the policy side,” she says.

Fast forward to 2023, when Chan was named the APS Congressional Science Fellow and headed to Washington, D.C. APS sponsors the fellowship under the umbrella of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science and Technology fellowships. The fellowship makes individuals with scientific knowledge and skills available to members of Congress, few of whom have technical backgrounds. In turn, the program enables scientists to broaden their experience through direct involvement with the policymaking process.

For a year, Chan worked on Capitol Hill in the office of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), where she contributed to materials for Senate hearings and helped develop legislative proposals, among other responsibilities. Her work on a bipartisan Budget Committee hearing on electric vehicles was among her top accomplishments during the fellowship, says Ed Higgins, a legislative assistant in Whitehouse’s office who mentored Chan.

“The hearing was a success, thanks in no small part to Sophia’s writing, research, and preparation,” he says. “Sophia is smart and extremely passionate, particularly about transportation policy. Her work was always thoroughly researched and thoughtful, and it showed.”

Chan attributes her success, in part, to her ability “to talk across the aisle and embrace bipartisanship," and she considers herself an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. She also brought to the fellowship years of experience researching batteries and carbon capture, both in academia and industry.

For Chan, the fellowship helped catapult a long-time interest in climate policy. After the 2020 wildfires, Chan began advocating for climate change legislation and taking environmental policy and law classes. She also attended a symposium sponsored by the American Meteorological Society on climate change policy that hosted lawmakers and their staff.

The policy classes and colloquium inspired her to apply for science policy fellowships across the country. As a result, Chan served as a California Council of Science and Technology policy fellow with the California Environmental Protection Agency. There, she wrote bill analyses for the governor's office, organized meetings for community leaders, and heard diverse perspectives from constituents.

Chan says her APS Congressional Science Fellowship was a life-changing experience, where she had the chance to explore her many ideas for transportation policy. “Developing the right transportation policies, like investments in large-scale infrastructure, will be key to combating climate change,” she says. “With this fellowship jumpstarting my career in transportation policy, I want to be a leading transportation and infrastructure policy adviser.”