In 2008, ASTM International will again join six other societies as a sponsor of the Washington Internships for Students of Engineering program. Through this program, interns learn how engineers can contribute to legislative and regulatory public policy issues over nine weeks in Washington, D.C. Each intern is also required to develop a policy paper on a topic of mutual interest to themselves and their sponsoring organization.

ASTM's intern for 2008 is James M. Bryce. Bryce is a senior studying civil engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and his emphasis will be on the geotechnical applications of recycled materials and industrial byproducts. During the internship, Bryce will be working with members from new Subcommittee D18.14 on Geotechnics of Sustainable Construction and with the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The chair of new Subcommittee D18.14, Tuncer Edil, helps to lead the research efforts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Recycled Materials Research Center. Bryce's WISE intern project falls right in line with part of the RMRC's mission, which is "to work cooperatively with federal and state officials to reduce the institutional barriers that limit widespread use of recycled materials and to ensure that such increased use is consistent with the sustained environmental and physical integrity."

For more information about the WISE program or ASTM's student outreach activities, please contact James Olshefsky, director, external relations (phone: 610-832-9714).