Wendy Heiger-Bernays,  a School of Public Health associate professor of environmental health and principal investigator of the BU Superfund Research Program’s Translation Core, has been awarded a Science & Technology Policy Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Heiger-Bernays will spend the next year in the Office of Science Coordination & Policy at the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. Through August 2016, she will work on a project using computational toxicological data to identify chemicals that potentially disrupt hormone systems before the chemicals are brought to market. Heiger-Bernays will engage with scientists and policymakers with the ultimate purpose of making better laws and policies based on the science.

“The opportunity to focus on research translation for the purpose of improving the population’s health is incredibly exciting,” she says.

The aim of the AAAS fellowship is to foster scientifically informed, evidence-based policy and practice by involving scientists and engineers. Fellows use their knowledge and analytical skills while learning first-hand about policymaking and implementation at the federal level.

A version of this article was originally published on the School of Public Health website.