{"id":173,"date":"2017-05-17T13:37:22","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T13:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/?p=173"},"modified":"2017-06-17T15:57:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-17T15:57:30","slug":"is-there-science-in-the-house-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/2017\/05\/17\/is-there-science-in-the-house-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there science in the House? Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

In November of 2016, not only did we elect a new president, but many House and Senate seats were filled, some with incumbents, some with so-called Freshman.<\/a><\/p>\n

I always wonder about congressional members\u2019 training and interests in science, so I started asking the question \u201cHow many congressional members have post-secondary degrees in a scientific field?\u201d Well, this question is not as well-formed as one might hope. Am I asking for bachelor\u2019s degrees? Does a medical degree count? What about engineering degrees? You get the point. So, I asked a new question, which was easier to answer (though still had some ambiguities to work through). The new question: \u201cHow many congressional members have a doctorate degree of any type, and in what fields?\u201d<\/p>\n

An important question would be: why would one care? My first answer is that I just find it plain interesting. Perhaps a better answer revolves around the abilities of lawmakers to pass effective legislation. Along these lines, Craig Volden (University of Virginia), Jonathan Wai (Duke University), and Alan E. Wiseman (Vanderbilt University) show, in a forthcoming paper, that Representatives with degrees from more elite institutions are more effective at lawmaking, especially in producing the most substantive and significant laws.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, there are 22 members of the House of Representatives of this 115th<\/sup> Congress who hold a Ph.D., Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) or Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree. They are:<\/p>\n

Alma Adams (NC-12) \u2013 Art Education & Multicultural Education
\nDave Brat (VA-7) \u2013 Economics
\n\u200bJudy Chu (CA-27) \u2013 Clinical Psychology
\nTom Cole (OK-4) \u2013 19th Century British History
\nHenry Cuellar (TX-28) \u2013 Government
\nDanny Davis (IL-7) \u2013 Public Administration
\nBill Foster (IL-11) \u2013 Physics
\nVirginia Foxx (NC-5) \u2013 Curriculum & Teaching\/Higher Ed (Ed.D.)
\nMike Gallagher (WI-8) \u2013 International Relations
\nJody Hice (GA-10) \u2013 Ministry
\nRobin Kelly (IL-2) \u2013 Political Science
\nDerek Kilmer (WA-6) \u2013 Comparative Social Policy (DPhil, Oxford\u2013Marshall Scholar)
\nDan Lipinski (IL-3) \u2013 Political Science
\nDavid Loebsack (IA-2) \u2013 Political Science
\nAlan Lowenthal (CA-47) \u2013 Psychology
\nJerry McNerney (CA-9) \u2013 Mathematics
\nTim Murphy (PA-18) \u2013 Psychology
\nDavid Price (NC-4) \u2013 Political Science
\nIleana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27) \u2013 Education
\nKyrsten Sinema (AZ-9) \u2013 Justice Studies
\nDina Titus (NV-1) \u2013 Political Science
\nRobert Wittman (VA-1) \u2013 Public Policy & Administration<\/p>\n

\u200bSenate-side, there are only two holders of Ph.Ds.: Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth has a Ph.D. in Human Services, and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse has a Ph.D. in American History.<\/p>\n

Notably, there is one mathematician, and one physicist in Congress right now. Representative Bill Foster (IL-11) was<\/p>\n

a high-energy physicist and particle accelerator designer at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). Bill was a member of the team that discovered the top quark, the heaviest known form of matter. He also led the teams that designed and built several scientific facilities and detectors still in use today, including the Recycler Ring, the latest of Fermilab\u2019s giant particle accelerators. When Bill first ran for Congress, his campaign was endorsed by 31 Nobel Prize Winners.[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Representative Jerry McNerney (CA-9) has a Ph.D. in mathematics, and worked for several years at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. He is a very good friend to the math community, and has made appearances at the Joint Mathematics Meetings. Indeed,<\/p>\n

McNerney returned from the\u00a02014 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, for example, jazzed about headway mathematicians had made in settling a long-open question. Less than a month later, on February 11, McNerney took to the microphone in the House chamber. \u201cMadam Speaker,\u201d he said. \u201cI would like to talk about twin prime numbers.\u201d[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Of course, science has many supporters in Congress, and some of our allies have strong scientific backgrounds. For example, Representative Louise Slaughter (NY-5) has a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology and a Master of Science degree in Public Health. And, a great supporter of science and STEM education on the Senate side is Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, who has an undergraduate degree in mathematics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> http:\/\/foster.house.gov\/about\/full-biography<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> http:\/\/mathcomm.org\/math-by-the-minute-on-capitol-hill\/<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In November of 2016, not only did we elect a new president, but many House and Senate seats were filled, some with incumbents, some with so-called Freshman. I always wonder about congressional members\u2019 training and interests in science, so I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16],"tags":[13,7],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress","category-higher-education","tag-congress","tag-washington-office"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8sfLS-2N","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}