Zach Lewis is a 2025 WISCIENCE STEM Public Service Fellow and a graduate student in astronomy. Before moving to Wisconsin to get his PhD in astronomy, he went to the University of Pittsburgh for an undergraduate degree in physics. Outside of his work, he enjoys cooking, baking, reading, and being horizontal in any location, but especially outside.
What are some of your career goals and how do you think this program will help you achieve them?
It’s really important to me that science is responsive to, and serves, the public that funds it and is affected by it. I have an obligation as an astronomer—that most accessible, public facing science—to engage with the public at all levels. This program is instrumental in developing a sustainable, equitable way to do exactly that.
What is one of the most valuable things you have learned as a Fellow?
The wheel cannot, and most definitely should not, be reinvented. Myriad people who have come before me have built successful public service programs, and learning from them—more accurately, learning HOW to learn from them—has been instrumental.
What is something surprising or unexpected that you’ve experienced as a Fellow?
Definitely the overlap between the different pathways. I’m in the Direct Service path, but the communities that I engage with are strongly affected by the politics that surround me and the decisions that legislators make, and the way that I engage with those communities is informed by teaching practices and developments. Community partnerships are a vast web of which each pathway is a strand.
Learn more about STEM Public Service Fellows.