Thursday, July 30, 2015
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Monday was the Capital Hill Tour led by Drew and Elias. Starting in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, we toured exhibition hall, the Library of Congress, and the Capitol rotunda. Like the many memorials and monuments on the National Mall, the U.S. Capitol is awe-inspiring. The Roman architecture with massive pillars, marble staircases, and high archways make for an impressive experience.
While on Capitol Hill, our tour also visited the hearing rooms of both our Capitol Hill interns’ House committees. We ended the tour with a quick visit to Drew’s workstation in the Ford House Office. During the tour we learned the importance of the Hill staff in framing the arguments of congressman on the House floor. It was interesting to find out that besides a few pet projects congressional representatives often knew little about what they were speaking about and relied entirely on staff to come up with questions and relevant statistics. We also learned there is a dearth of science knowledge among congressman and House staffers. Maybe some of the 2015 interns will be a part of changing that.
The program that generates transmission spectra from transformation matrices is working nicely so I’ve finished my main project for the summer. This last full week of work was comprised of improving usability of my codes and making a scientific poster for the 2015 Poster Session at NASA next Thursday. Just one week left!
Max Torke