FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 19, 2019

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) congratulates Raleigh Martin on his selection as the 2019-2020 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow. The Fisher Fellowship offers geoscientists the unique opportunity to spend a year in Washington, D.C., working as a staff member in the office of a member of Congress or with a congressional committee.

Martin is an Earth-surface process geoscientist interested in enabling open knowledge, data, and policy in the geosciences. Prior to serving as the 2019-20 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow, he is completing an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellowship in the Directorate for Geosciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). At NSF, Martin is helping to allocate infrastructure investments and to refine public access policies to advance geoscience research discovery through improved data access and reuse.

"As America faces seemingly overwhelming issues like climate change and resource sustainability, the expertise of geoscientists is now more important than ever," said Martin. "Through the Fisher Fellowship, I will be in a position to strengthen the role of the geosciences in addressing these societal challenges, by increasing the productivity of the geoscience research enterprise and by building pipelines that put scientific knowledge into practice."

"Our understanding of science policy is often focused on what science can tell decisionmakers to make them better informed," said AGI Executive Director Allyson Anderson Book. "Raleigh's emphasis on optimizing the way the science enterprise works offers a refreshing perspective that you don't hear as often."

Previously, Martin was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied how wind-driven sediment transport shapes coastal and desert sand dunes and generates atmospheric dust.

Martin earned a B.S.E. in Geological Engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Pennsylvania, where his doctoral research focused on understanding the statistical variability of sediment transport and geomorphology in rivers.

Each year, AGI's Fisher Fellow joins more than two dozen other scientists and engineers for an intensive orientation program on the legislative and executive branches, organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which also guides the placement process and provides educational and collegial programs throughout the year. Learn more at https://bit.ly/AGI-CSF.

About AGI
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is a nonprofit federation of more than 50 scientific and professional associations that represents over a quarter-million geoscientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides geoscientists with access to scholarly information, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and health of the environment.

AGI is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to serving the geoscience community and addressing the needs of society. AGI headquarters are in Alexandria, Virginia.

The American Geosciences Institute represents and serves the geoscience community by providing collaborative leadership and information to connect Earth, science, and people.

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AGI Contact:
Geoff Camphire, Associate Director of Strategic Communications
gac@americangeosciences.org
703.379.2480 ext. 216