State Department Names 2006 Science Fellows

The State Department's Jefferson Science Fellow program, launched in 2003, has just named its third group of six fellows, including chemist Katherine Seley-Radtke. After security checks for secret clearances and an orientation period, the six will begin serving in August.

Named after the first secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, the program aims to bring in tenured professors of science and engineering to advise State Department officials on the science undergirding current and emerging policy issues.

The Jefferson fellows program is the brainchild of George H. Atkinson, the second science adviser to the secretary of state. "We are exceptionally proud of the progress the Jefferson Science Fellow program has made and of the remarkably positive impact Jefferson fellows have made within the Department of State," Atkinson tells C&EN.

Seley-Radtke, 48, is an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research focuses on the discovery and development of anticancer, antiviral, and antiparasitic drugs. Her current research projects aim to design and synthesize nucleoside inhibitors of enzymes key to replication, and to use modified nucleosides and heterocycles to probe the structure and function of DNA and other biological systems.

In addition to her scientific pursuits, Seley-Radtke has also been involved with the Defense Department's nonproliferation efforts. For the past five years she has been working with the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency on collaborative efforts with Russia to halt the spread of biological weapons.

Neither she nor the other five fellows have selected their assignments at the State Department and won't until August. Still, Seley-Radtke tells C&EN that her "background in antiviral and medicinal chemistry and collaborative nonproliferation projects with Russia on smallpox" give her wide latitude to select an assignment from among "several regional bureaus or offices concerned with issues of nonproliferation or emerging infectious diseases."

Seley-Radtke is a member of the American Chemical Society and a former chairman of its Georgia chapter.

The other fellows are Osama O. Awadelkarim, professor of engineering and mechanics at Pennsylvania State University; Kim Boyer, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State University; Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, professor of computational social science at George Mason University; Paul Davis, dean of interdisciplinary and global studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute; and Michael Mauel, professor of applied physics at Columbia University.