Grant S. Hisao (PhD, '17, Rienstra) has been selected as a 2021 California Council on Science & Technology Policy Fellow.
Established by the California State Legislature in 1988, CCST is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides objective advice from California's scientists and research institutions on policy issues involving science. The program annually recruits and trains a cohort of 15 PhD scientists and engineers to spend one year working at the California capital, Sacramento, directly serving decision makers within the state's legislature and executive branch, evaluating complex scientific issues and interpreting data, while tackling the responsibilities of full-time staffers.
Hisao was assigned to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, housed under the California Environmental Protection Agency.
As a PhD student at Illinois, Hisao studied biological molecules associated with infectious diseases. After earning his doctorate in 2017, his postdoctoral research was in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a member of the National Science Policy Network and an associate editor at the Journal of Science Policy and Governance.