Jerry McNerney, an alumnus of the University of New Mexico Department of Mathematics and Statistics who earned his PhD in mathematics in 1981 under Alex Stone, has been elected as a California State Senator, beginning his term in January 2025. He previously represented California in the U.S. Congress from 2007 to 2023, focusing on science, energy, and clean energy policies. Before his political career, McNerney worked at Sandia National Laboratories and became an entrepreneur in wind energy technology. Since leaving Congress, he has served as a Fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and as a Senior Policy Advisor, while continuing to contribute to the AMS Committee on Science Policy.