Speaker: Dr. Gifford Wong, Research Staff Member at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI)
Topic: Polar Opposites, Policy Neighbors: America's History in the Arctic and Antarctica
Bio: Dr. Gifford Wong is a Research Staff Member (RSM) at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) in Washington, D.C. STPI is a federally funded research and development center established by Congress to inform the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. His portfolio includes climate change, energy and the environment, and Polar research and development. He teaches in the Dornsife Washington DC Program with the University of Southern California, serves on advisory committees with the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) and the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO), and is part of the Science and Society Section leadership team within the American Geophysical Union.
Before joining STPI, Wong served as a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State through a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, where his portfolio included Polar issues, maritime security, energy, and public health. He also served as climate and environment adviser to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse while on the AGI Congressional Science Fellowship.
He earned a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College, an Honours in Antarctic Studies from the University of Tasmania at Hobart, and a B.A. in Asian American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. He also teaches science communication and performs long-form improv with the Washington Improv Theatre.
