SBI Undergraduate Internships

The Subsurface Biosphere Initiative (SBI) supports a summer undergraduate internship program. Its goal is to provide undergraduates with rewarding research experiences at Oregon State University that will stimulate their interest in the subsurface biosphere and encourage them to pursue graduate studies. The program focuses on, but is not limited to, under-represented minority and women students. Interns receive a monthly stipend and are mentored by an OSU faculty member.

Apply for a Summer 2008 Internship

SBI will support up to 15 interns this summer. Applicants are encouraged to seek out a faculty mentor and to discuss possible research topics before applying to the program. Please see the SBI faculty directory for a list of faculty interest areas.

SBI will contribute up to $1000/month and $3000 total for the hourly costs of each intern. This support can be augmented with research funds from the intern's faculty mentor. Please contact Garrett Jones at sbi@oregonstate.edu or 541-737-2751 with any questions or to request more information about the internship program.

To apply, please submit the following items: a cover letter stating your interest, a resume, and two references with contact information (address, phone and e-mail address). Please state in the cover letter whether you have contacted an OSU faculty member about a potential project.

Please send these items to Garrett Jones through one of these methods:

  • email: sbi@oregonstate.edu,
  • hand delivery to 204D Merryfield Hall, or
  • regular or campus mail:

    The Subsurface Biosphere, Undergraduate Summer Internship Program
    c/o Garrett Jones
    103 Gleeson
    Oregon State University
    Corvallis, OR 97331-2702

Applications are now being accepted and will be reviewed on receipt. Approval is contingent on the availability of an appropriate faculty mentor and a suitable research project. Because of the limited number of internships available, please apply early.

 

Summer 2007 Internship Highlights

Seven students participated in the 2007 summer internship program. They worked on a diverse set of projects with faculty members in the colleges of Agricultural Science, Engineering, and Science. The interns presented short talks on their research at a reception held in September.

Kendra Brown gives her presentation at the 2007 SBI internship luncheon.
Kendra Brown gives a presentation about her summer 2007 SBI internship.

 

2007 interns and their project titles are listed below along with slides or an abstract from their final presentation:

  • Water Wet - Building a Hydrophilic, Two-dimensional, Micro-scale Flow Cell (brown.pdf; 600k)
    Kendra Brown, Environmental Engineering
    Mentor: Dorthe Wildenschild, Environmental Engineering

  • Chemical Inhibition of Nitrosomonas europaea (gilroy.pdf; 133k)
    Caslin Gilroy, Bioengineering
    Mentors: Lewis Semprini, Environmental Engineering

  • Physical Mechanisms Governing the Coating of Droplets by Particles on Hydrophobic Soil
    Tuan Cong Huynh, Bioresource Research
    Mentor: Maria Dragila, Crop and Soil Science

  • Amphibian Exposure to Pesticides through Lake Sediment (huber.pdf; 154k)
    Rachel Huber, Chemistry
    Mentor: Staci Simonich, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology

  • Measurement of Thin Film Characteristics In Porous Media (thornley.pdf; 321k)
    Emily Thornley, Environmental Engineering
    Mentor: Dorthe Wildenschild

  • A Means for Biophotosynthesis that Directly Converts Light and Water to Hydrogen Gas (sexton.pdf; 528k)
    Colin Sexton, Chemical Engineering
    Mentors: Roger Ely, Biological and Ecological Engineering

  • Comparing Oxidation Efficiency in Large and Small Samples of High and Low Carbon Content Soils (taylor.pdf; 12k)
    Darren Taylor, Physiology and Developmental Biology, Brigham Young Universitry
    Mentor: Markus Kleber, Crop and Soil Science

 

Summer 2006 Internship Highlights

Eleven students participated in the 2006 summer internship program. They came from seven different departments and worked on a diverse set of projects with faculty members in the colleges of Agricultural Science, Engineering, Forestry, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, and Science.

Samantha Lewis presents her poster.
Samantha Lewis presents a poster about her summer 2006 SBI intership.

In early September, a reception and poster session gave the interns a chance to showcase their work. Ten SBI interns presented posters and about 35 faculty members, researchers, parents and students attended the event. Below is a list of the posters presented - some can be viewed as pdf files: