KU researcher Kevin Cooke selected as AAAS Science & Technology Fellow

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas postdoctoral researcher Kevin Cooke has been awarded a yearlong Science & Technology Policy Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Cooke, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, is among 284 scientists and engineers who will spend a year serving professionally in federal agencies and congressional offices as a Science & Technology Policy Fellow. With a placement at the National Science Foundation, Cooke will conduct program assessment and help guide a strategic visioning process for the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), part of NSF’s Office of Integrative Activities.

The fellowship program has been part of the AAAS mission to advance science and serve society for nearly 50 years and aims to support evidence-based policymaking through science and engineering experts.

"I'm excited to begin working with the NSF toward making the scientific endeavor — and science funding — more accessible across the country," Cooke said.

Cooke has been a researcher at KU since graduating from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2019 with a doctorate in astrophysical sciences and technology.

At KU, Cooke works with Allison Kirkpatrick, assistant professor of physics & astronomy, on the co-evolution of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes. Specifically, Cooke investigates the evolution of the most massive galaxies in the universe and the role of active galactic nuclei in their host galaxies.