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> 1999
> April
> April 23, 1999:
Hour One: A Physicist in Congress
| In the classic 1939 movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," Jimmy Stewart plays an idealistic youth group leader who goes to Washington to finish out a Senator's term. In real-life 1999, Rush Holt (D-NJ) is a physicist who's gone to Washington as a first-term member of the House of Representatives. |  | But Holt, a former assistant director at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, is not as much of a political newcomer as Stewart's character Jefferson Smith. He's worked in Washington before, both as a science fellow in the office of Rep. Bob Edgar (D-PA), and as the leader of a group of science and technology analysts at the State Department. He also has genetics on his side -- his mother was Secretary of State for the State of Virginia, and his father was elected to the U.S. Senate at the record-setting age of 29. Still, after a long stint dealing with campus and laboratory politics, Washington politics may take some getting used to.
Holt joins a rather small science club in the House, which includes several medical doctors, plus Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), a physicist; Brian Baird (D-WA), a psychologist; Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD),a physiologist; and John Olver (D-MA), a chemist. On this hour of Science Friday, we'll talk to Representative Holt about making the transition from science to government, and about what he sees in store on the science policy front.
Guests:
Rush Holt
U.S. Representative (D-NJ)
Former Assistant Director
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Hopewell, New Jersey
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)
Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)
Rep. John Olver (D-MA)
U.S. House of Representatives
House Science Committee
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
This segment produced by:
Karin Vergoth
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
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