Audrey Ellerbee has been selected as a AAAS Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow for 2007-08.

The fellowship program aims to introduce scientists and engineers to the intricacies of federal policymaking and to provide technological expertise and analysis to congressional leaders. Fellows conduct legislative and oversight work, assist in hearings and debates, and write briefs and speeches. Ellerbee’s official title will be Arthur H. Guenther Congressional Fellow; her fellowship is sponsored by the Optical Society of America.

Ellerbee also is one of thirteen recipients of the 2007 Golden Torch Awards, presented by the National Society of Black Engineers to those “who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community.” The Black Graduate and Professional Student Association at Duke recently named her “2007 Student Leader of the Year.”

Ellerbee received her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Princeton in 2001. She returned to campus in April campus as a panelist at Leading Change in Science and Technology: A Princeton Engineering Conference for Black Alumni. She currently is a Ph.D. student at Duke in biomedical engineering and will defend her dissertation, titled “Spectral Domain Phase Microscopy: a Novel Investigative Tool for Cellular Dynamics,” in early August.