The Policy Internship Program is administered by the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Department within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at the University of Virginia.  Below are the members of our administration and support staff.  Please feel free to contact us.

■ Edmund P. Russell, Director
■ James C. Turner, Washington Coordinator
■ Marin Odioso, Assistant to the Director

Edmund P. Russell, Director

Edmund Russell is a historian of science, technology, and the environment.  His interest in the intersection of policy and technology began when, as a volunteer in the rural Philippines, he worked with village groups to develop technologies suited to local resources and finances.  In a ten-year project begun in graduate school, Dr. Russell analyzed government science and technology policy on chemical weapons and pest control.  That project culminated in a book titled War and Nature:  Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (Cambridge University Press, 2001).  Mr. Russell held an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellowship at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, for which he wrote a history of "ecological protection" (regulating to protect non-human species) at the agency.  The agency used his report to help train state and local leaders across the country.  Mr. Russell is associate professor of Science, Technology, and Society and History at the University of Virginia.

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James C. Turner, Washington Coordinator

James Turner is chief counsel to the United States House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology.  Mr. Turner studied mathematics at Westminster College, social ethics at Yale Divinity School, and law at Georgetown University.  He completed the Senior Managers in Government Program at Harvard and is on the board of the Carnegie Mellon Heinz School of Public Policy.  Recognizing the need to link technical expertise with federal policy, he set up a Washington internship program for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).   Later, he and Dean Richard Miksad expanded the program to include the University of Virginia.  Mr. Turner advises the program, helps interns find placements, and organizes a summer speaker series.  He serves on the advisory boards of the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science and of the Department of Science, Technology and Society.

Mr. Turner has commented,  "I was at age 20 in the same position as many of these students, as were many of the people they will meet over the summer.  I was one of the top math and science students at my college, and most of my coursework was in these areas, but I felt the need to explore other directions.  And I had a lot of opportunities to go in different directions when I graduated.  I ended going in several of them before I landed a job that I have kept most of my career but which I did not know existed when I was 20.  We spend the summers exploring together, and I think each and every one of the students who is willing to journey with us comes out understanding both Washington and where they might fit into the work world much better than they did ten weeks earlier."

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Marin Odioso, Assistant to the Director

Marin Odioso, a third-year major in systems engineering and minor in engineering business, interned in 2006 at the National Capital Planning Commission. She contributed to many planning initiatives focusing on urban design and transportation systems. For her summer research, Marin studied the benefits of freight rail transport and funding for railroad improvement projects in cooperation with the District Department of Transportation and the National Capital Planning Commission's Railroad Realignment Feasibility Study.

Marin grew up in Tampa, Fl and graduated from the Academy of the Holy Names. At the University of Virginia, she participates in the University Guide Service, the University Judiciary Committee as a SEAS Representative, a mentoring program for first-year girls, the Transfer Student Peer Advisor program, and the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

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