90 | Night Science at the DOE – Katy Huff

Prof. Kathryn Huff from the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently spent three years as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the US Department of Energy. Katy shares how ideas emerge and develop within the hierarchies of government, and she reveals the secret to getting confirmed by the US Senate. We discuss how leaders can foster creativity by removing organizational constraints and why building relationships across institutional boundaries is so important, both in government and in academia.

Worth a look: 50×50: Science Across America – 50 creators, 50 scientists, 50 states, 50 videos over ten weeks in 2026, from the Independent Media Initiative. It goes where science actually happens, with the people who actually do it – which is the part we're always most curious about. https://www.5050science.com/

The Night Science Podcast is produced by the Night Science Institute. For more information on Night Science, visit night-science.org .