Kristy Hentchel, a postdoc at the University of Chicago, writes at Science Careers that her postdoc's science policy committee had been floundering until recent political events thrust science policy back into the spotlight. She further offers ways early-career researchers can become involved in policy.
"[O]ur committee is reinvigorated with a new purpose: to broadly advocate for science, which really should have been our purpose all along," she writes. "It was like a light switch turned on after the election and our advocacy efforts kicked into high gear."
Hentchel adds that there are number of ways early-career researchers can advocate for science. For instance, her committee is hosting science policy seminars and a science advocacy workshop that will also help connect researchers to local science nonprofits looking for volunteers.
But there are other ways to be engaged as well. She says that graduate students and postdocs could meet with their elected official — either at the official's office or invite the lawmaker on a lab tour — host a science café, or even increase their science policy- and advocacy-related Twitter output.