Current Fellow
Laura Szymanski
Laura Szymanski is serving as the 2018–2019 GSA Science Policy Fellow in Washington, D.C.
As the GSA Science Policy Fellow, Szymanski is serving as the "in-house" fellow, working with GSA's Director for
Geoscience Policy to bring science and scientists into the policy process. This position acts as a science policy
liaison, keeping GSA members informed, involved, and represented in national policy on topics including research
funding, energy and natural resource assessments, climate change policy, and natural hazard mitigation and response.
Concurrently, Szymanski is a Ph.D. candidate in the Geography Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison,
where she studies the potential of carbon in buried soils to contribute to atmospheric carbon dioxide with land
disturbance and changes in climate. Laura has extensive expertise in the field of geoscience and previously taught
Earth system science courses at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and University of Wisconsin–Platteville.
Szymanski completed a master of science in geography, where she studied the effects of alternative biofuel cropping
systems on soil carbon dynamics to contribute to assessing the sustainability of renewable fuels and products, and a
bachelor of science in biology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.