Dr. Jamie Gardner (U.S. Department of State, Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism)

"Technically not Technical: Government Policy with a Physics PhD"

Abstract: PhDs open many doors—some of them unexpected. I will describe my path from the UT Physics Department to a rewarding career in national security policy. I will outline my current work countering chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terrorism, including illustrations of how science supports counter-proliferation objectives. I will discuss my reasons for exploring jobs outside of academia and summarize the (sometimes scary) process of changing fields after nearly 10 years in the lab. I will offer my personal take on which science skills are highly valued in the policy world—and on which policy skills many scientists neglect. I will leave ample time for questions.

Bio: Dr. Gardner is a Physical Scientist at the U.S. Department of State, where he focuses on science responses to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terrorism threats. Before joining the State Department, he was a Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the U.S. Senate. He completed his PhD at UT-Austin in 2016 under Prof. Mark Raizen with a dissertation entitled: Neutral Atom Imaging Using a Pulsed Electromagnetic Lens. After his PhD, Jamie was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD.