By Dorothy Ramienski
Internet Editor
Federal News Radio

Movie producers, dolphin trainers, intelligence agents on bicycles.

Believe it or not, these are all federal jobs.

During this past week, Federal News Radio brought you a Special Report: Cool Jobs in Government.

We uncovered some of the most interesting and unorthodox ways feds spend their days:

• We talked with Chris Harris, a dolphin trainer with U.S. Navy and learned how the animals work together with their human counterparts.
• We learned what it was like to actually touch the Declaration of Independence from Catherine “Kitty” Nicholson, Supervisory Conservator in the Document Conservation Laboratory, at the National Archives and Records Administration.
• Terry McCaffrey, Manager for Stamp Development at the Postal Service, told us what it is like to create a stamp.
• We talked with Michael Arnold of the FBI Police Mountain Bike Patrol Team and learned what it’s like to ride a bike carrying a full duty belt and body armor.
• Bill Murtagh, program coordinator at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center explained how he and his team predict the weather in space, and why it’s so important for GPS technology.
• We learned about Don Ealy a field technology officer in the Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Information and Technology, who climbs communications towers that are hundreds of feet in the air to fix radar, sensors or other types of equipment.
• We got the low-down about drilling deep down into the ocean floor from Jamie Allan, program officer, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, National Science Foundation.
• We talked with Dr. Fischer, Director of the Heliophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, who’s responsible for investigating the behavior of the sun.
• We learned what it’s like to be an Animal Keeper for Great Cats and Bears at the National Zoo from Kristen Clark.
• We discovered that the GSA has a Fine Arts Program and learned about how art is selected for your office buildings from program manager Jennifer Gibson.
• We talked with Rosemary Allen, Postmaster in Hot Springs, N.C., which is along the Appalachian Trail.
• We learned about how NIST determines what weights and measurements actually are after speaking with Patrick Abbott and Dr. Richard Steiner.
• And we learned about how the Postal Service preserves stamps in a cave after talking with Khalid Hussain, manager of the Stamp Fulfillment Center.

Now, we want to hear from you. Do you know someone who has a cool or unusual job within the federal government? Email us and tell us all about this person and his/her job! Who knows? Maybe they’ll end up featured on Federal News Radio in the future.

Also, be sure to check out the Photo Gallery from our series, which gives you an inside look at these interesting federal jobs.

(Copyright 2010 by Federal News Radio. All Rights Reserved.)

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.