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Urheim Named AMS Congressional Fellow for 2023–2024

Ellen Urheim , a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, will be the 2023–2024 American Mathematical Society Congressional Fellow. Urheim will spend a year working on the staff of a member of Congress or that of a congressional committee, assisting in legislative and policy areas that require scientific and technical input.
Each year, the AMS sponsors a congressional fellowship in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The fellowship provides PhD mathematicians with a unique public-policy learning experience; demonstrates the value of science-government interaction; and brings a technical background and external perspective to the congressional decision-making process.
In addition to working on the staff of a member of Congress or that of a congressional committee, fellows receive an orientation on congressional and executive branch operations and participate in a yearlong seminar series on issues involving science, technology, and public policy.
During a two-week orientation in early September, AAAS (which administers the program) will provide Urheim and other fellows with a series of workshops in such areas as policy, federal government, leadership, communication, and networking and career strategies.
“This training will provide a foundation in science policy for the fellows,” said Anita Benjamin of the AMS Office of Government Relations. “After orientation, fellows meet with participating congressional offices and committees to interview and decide on placement.”
“The fellowship definitely will strengthen my communication skills, and will allow me to apply general logic and analysis skills in a different setting than what I’ve been used to,” Urheim said. “In talking to past fellows, it sounds like I might get the chance to help with drafting legislation, which would be exciting.”
Urheim said she is looking forward to learning about a variety of new topics as they come up in the work of her host office. “I think I’ll really enjoy the day-to-day variability,” she said.
She was inspired to apply for AMS’s congressional fellowship because of the specific nature of the work that the fellows accomplish. “A core component of the fellowship is helping policymakers understand complicated scientific and technical topics, which is exactly the type of work I enjoy most,” Urheim said.
“I always have enjoyed explaining things to other people,” she continued. “I really enjoy tutoring and helping small groups of students in office hours, as well as thinking about the best way to explain difficult concepts. I find it interesting to write lesson plans, thinking about the best examples or counterexamples to use.”
Urheim earned her doctorate in mathematics in 2022 from the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Philip T. Gressman. Her general research interests include harmonic analysis and the study of oscillatory integral operators. For her thesis, Urheim used a novel frequency space decomposition developed with Gressman to study a particular type of oscillatory integral operator.
Prior to pursuing her doctorate, Urheim worked from 2014 to 2017 as an analyst and associate for Dean and Company, a boutique consulting firm in Washington, DC. “One of my favorite aspects of the job was figuring out what data would best support our point and how to present it visually,” she said.
For more on the fellowship or to apply, see https://www.ams.org/ams-congressional-fellowship. Applications for the 2024–2025 fellowship are open now and may be submitted until February 1, 2024.
Credits
Photo of Ellen Urheim is courtesy of Ellen Urheim.