Esteban with other legislative fellows at NOAA’s Silver Springs Headquarters for orientation.
Esteban Rodofili is a 2024 Florida Sea Grant Knauss Fellow placed at the Office of Representative Doris Matsui (CA-07) at the US House of Representatives. He graduated in 2023 from the Interdisciplinary Ecology Ph.D. Program at the School of Natural Resources and Environment of the University of Florida, with a concentration in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
How does one reconcile a STEM career and public service? I have wrestled with this question for the duration of my career, creating a challenging but rewarding path which I have learned to navigate enthusiastically with time.
I first found myself trying to balance these interests when I finished high school back in Argentina. Argentine universities usually have longer programs —five or six years— focused on a single major with few options for combination. While this leads to a robust career, the pressure on my choice was naturally exacerbated.
By combining biology and ecology, I could connect my STEM interests with public policy, a pressing need in the context of global crises like climate change.
Esteban at UN COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Like any untraveled path, this strategy entailed some risk as I charted the next course. Toward the end of my undergraduate program at the University of Buenos Aires, I opted for a concentration in plant ecology and discovered a useful skill: geographic information systems. I was naturally drawn to maps and analyzing patterns in space, and my thesis was a GIS study on the spread of an invasive tree species in an agroecosystem back in Argentina.
After graduating, my career path was blurry again, especially which steps would increase my policy experience. While I had the opportunity to do a thesis in plant ecology, I also knew that my next career step was going to be a graduate degree; my final chance to develop my new interest in marine ecology while building a policy background.
So I took courses to apply these interests, such as forests and fisheries management, at the Agronomy School of the University of Buenos Aires. I also volunteered as a teaching assistant for a forestry production course while volunteering at Fundación Cethus, a non-profit for research in marine mammal conservation.
I then stepped into the Public Policy Master’s Program at Torcuato Di Tella University, writing my thesis on the energy savings and public health implications of time zone policy in Argentina. I connected circadian rhythms and energy consumption, neurobiology and environmental science. This research also touched on the legislative history of time zone policy in Argentina and offered future recommendations.
While in this program, I went on an exchange at UNC Chapel Hill, where I experienced an American university for the first time. I took courses in urban design and sustainable cities and political ecology, learning to design environmental policies with consideration of communities and their livelihoods.
By combining biology and ecology, I could connect my STEM interest with public policy, a pressing need in the context of global crises like climate change.
What struck me about the American university experience was the opportunity for students to expand their specific interests through course capstone projects and participation-focused activities like sports, student government, clubs, or hobbies. All of this cemented my interest in a Ph.D. at an American university.
Naturally, I applied to the Interdisciplinary Ecology Ph.D. Program of the University of Florida’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. I applied to this program to conduct research in fisheries and aquatic sciences at the Marine Geomatics Lab with Dr. Vincent Lecours as my advisor.
Under this lab, I crafted a dissertation on the use of automated detection of marine mammals in satellite and drone images, connecting my passions for GIS and marine ecology. I explored how these images, through automated detection, can be used to complement aircraft and ship surveys to assess a population’s conservation status. I focused on whales and the Florida manatee, using GIS to detect their migration routes and create legislative frameworks for marine protected areas transverse with economic zones.
Beyond academics, I was able to conduct interviews and report on the intersection between science, international relations, and geopolitics from UN COP27 and COY17 for U.S. college students with Campus Climate Corps. I also conducted salary negotiations on behalf of fellow graduate students as Bargaining Chair of UF Graduate Assistants United. At the University of Florida is also where I found the John A. Knauss Fellowship.
Esteban at UN COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Photo credits to Michal Fidler from Campus Climate Corps.
As a 2024 Knauss Fellow, I worked in the Office of Representative Doris Matsui (CA-07) in the U.S. Congress, mentored by a remarkable team of congressional staffers. The Knauss Fellowship was the first application that I felt I fit in when explaining that I had both interests in STEM and public policy. The Legislative branch of the fellowship is a good home for those with broad interests.
I gained experience in providing policy advice on the energy, transportation and environment portfolio of the Office, engaging with stakeholders and immersing myself in their day-to-day realities, and drafting legislation. I learned about both congressional daily work (Committee hearings, appropriations, vote procedure) and new environmental science subjects, such as nature-based solutions to climate change, and decarbonization of the energy and transportation sectors.
My graduate degree has prepared me for this work; the process of learning, researching and translating science for people and policy. For example, my research in the Marine Geomatics Lab could be applied to the monitoring of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
My career path thus far has been an interdisciplinary mix of biology, ecology and policy, which I hope to nurture as I continue in public service.
To other STEM students in the pursuit of interdisciplinarity, while the path is sometimes winding, the experiences you will go through will be rewarding.
