CCST Newsroom

  In January of 2022, I took my very first work trip as a CCST S&T Policy Fellow at the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) to observe a wildfire-impacted disaster site. After a three-hour drive—weaving through winding roads toward the Sierra Nevada mountains—I stepped out of the car in my uniform (a […]

SACRAMENTO, CA—We are excited to introduce the 2023 Class of CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellows. Now celebrating its 14th year, the program places PhD level scientists, engineers, and social scientists in Legislative and Executive Branch offices, training them for careers in public policy while helping to equip California’s decision makers with science-savvy staff. APPLY NOW: We are currently […]

CCST S&T Policy Fellowship Alums to Discuss the Application and Interview Process Learn about an opportunity to transform your PhD expertise into an impactful science policy career in California. Download Fellowship Flyer | Poster CCST employs a multi-step process to evaluate each candidate based on their potential success in the Fellowship. Watch this webinar to hear […]

Tick tock, tick tock. It’s been a year since I moved to Sacramento from Colorado, eager to transform my career, bask in the mild winter of California, and somehow contribute to state policy. I was uncertain and nervous. Whereas many of the other CCST S&T Policy Fellows are from California or California institutions, I couldn’t […]

CCST S&T Policy Fellowship Alums to Discuss the Day-to-Day Life of a Fellow Learn about an opportunity to transform your PhD expertise into an impactful science policy career in California. Download Fellowship Flyer Moving to Sacramento. Adjusting from lab to office. Working in policy. There’s a lot of new experiences and opportunities as a CCST […]

Work at CCST California’s most pressing public policy issues require solutions that engage the State’s extraordinary research and innovation enterprise.  CCST is a nonpartisan nonprofit created via the California Legislature in 1988 to provide objective advice from California’s leading scientists and research institutions on policy issues involving science and technology (S&T). Despite California’s rich intellectual […]

As a flowing river runs into a larger, standing body of water like a lake or the sea, it deposits sediment into a triangular shaped wetland known as a delta—most often with a narrow tip at the river opening into the broader end of the open water. Occasionally, this formation can happen in the reverse, […]

The San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) has announced the appointment of CCST’s CEO Amber Mace, PhD, to their Board of Directors. An environmental science research institute and a non-profit, non-advocacy environmental science consulting firm, SFEI provides independent, objective science and/or science tools or studies to support landscape-scale land use, water quality and environmental monitoring, planning or […]

Why Choose the CCST S&T Policy Fellowship? Held Mon. Oct. 3, 2022 In this first of three informational webinars, hear directly from current and former CCST S&T Policy Fellows about the ins and outs of the CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellows program, the impact that the program has had on their careers, and the […]

Toward a Disaster Resilient California: Cultivating Data Security Practices in Precision Agriculture To feed a growing population affordably and in a way that minimizes greenhouse gas production, the farming industry will need to rely on innovative technologies such as precision agriculture. Watch this Expert Briefing to broadly explore the benefits of precision agriculture and the […]

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program at the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research in partnership with the California Council on Science & Technology (CCST) hosted a series of 6 public roundtables to discuss California-specific information and knowledge gaps that will help inform the scope of climate change research conducted as part of California’s Fifth Climate […]

What did you study in grad school and why did you decide to go into policy? As part of my biostatistics PhD program at the University of Washington, I investigated ways to use nutritional information from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis—designed to research predictors of cardiovascular disease—to identify heart-healthy diet patterns. I considered ways to […]

Toward a Disaster Resilient California: Decarbonizing Transportation with Hydrogen   How can hydrogen help to decarbonize long haul trucking and transit? Watch our CCST Expert Briefing to learn how hydrogen fuel cells work, how they are being improved, and how hydrogen safety is being evaluated for use in transportation. Held September 8, 2022. Moderator: Gia Vacin […]

Stephen Cutie, PhD is a 2022 CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellow placed with the Office of Senator Richard Pan. He earned his PhD in Bioengineering from UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley studying the hormonal switches that regulate heart regeneration across evolution and development. From Miami, Florida, Stephen earned his BS in Biology from […]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) is seeking nominations for experts from across the public and private health sectors, as well as academia, who would be interested in participating in an interactive virtual workshop on overcoming the challenges to data sharing presented by stringent privacy standards. Participants will explore solutions for […]

Update: This call is now closed. SACRAMENTO, Calif. — CCST is seeking nominations of health and other economists and related experts who would be interested in participating in a working group to explore the economics of alternative venues and personnel, such as community based organizations (CBOs) for services delivery across different phases of the pandemic cycle, such […]

California Invests in CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellows Program, Placing PhD-level Scientists, Engineers, and Social Scientists in the Legislature, State Agencies, and Offices of the Governor. SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Approved by the Legislature and signed by Governor Newsom this week, the 2022 California State Budget allocates $10 million for the California Council on Science and Technology’s […]

  SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) hosted a workshop with leading public health experts on June 14th and 17th to identify opportunities to strengthen California’s public health system.  Participants were challenged with producing actionable, holistic, and equitable recommendations for policymakers. The workshop was part of the CCST Disaster Resilience Initiative COVID-19 […]

The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) and Blue Forest Conservation are seeking nominations of public health experts for a peer-reviewed report on the connections between forest health, wildfire smoke, and public health. CCST’s Costs of Wildfire in California study assessed the economic impacts of wildfire smoke to public and private health systems in the billions […]

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Dr. Ishwar K. Puri, Vice President of Research and Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at University of Southern California, has been appointed to the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) Board of Directors by University of California President Michael V. Drake, MD. “Today is a big day for CCST and for California,” […]

  The last few months have introduced a lot of new things into my life. I moved from the Midwest, where I had lived most of my life, to California with my partner and our menagerie of animals. I began working nine to five instead of the sporadic hours of an academic. Most notably I […]