SBI Undergraduate Internships

Mei-Lee Lin a 2008 intern.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.

Summer 2009 Internship Program

A reception for SBI Undergraduate Interns was held Thursday, September 3, from 2:30 to 4:30 pm in Room 109 of the Memorial Union, OSU. Interns shared their research experiences through a scientific poster session Below is a list of interns, (format: intern, co-authors or other contributors to their project, project title (if available) and the student's faculty mentor):

Adlong, Michelle
Characterization of nC60 Fullerene Particles in Natural and Synthetic Waters (Adlong.pdf; 1 Mb)
Mentor: Jeff Nason, Environmental Engineering

Backlund, Coralie, Kelsey Yee, and Christine Kelly
Production of the Lignin Degrading Enzyme Recombinant Manganese Proxidease (Backlund.pdf; 195KB)
Mentor: Christine Kelly, Chemical Engineering

Bauer, Nicole, Ellen Swogger, and Lewis Semprini
Effect of Nitrosomonas europaea Growth Rate on rRNA Degradation and Phenol Inhibition (Bauer.pdf; 787KB)
Mentor: Lewis Semprini, Environmental Engineering

Bhargava, Sonal, Shoutao Xu, Hong Liu
Microbial Fuel Cell (Current Density Generation Using Multiple Substrates) (Bhargava.pdf; 451KB)
Mentor: Hong Liu, Biological and Ecological Engineering

Christensen, Celene, Roy Haggerty, and Alba Algerich
Development of a“Smart” Tracer: Microbial Respiration in Stream Sediment and the Resazurin-Resorufin System (Christensen.pdf; 761KB)
Mentor: Roy Haggerty, Geosciences

Collins, Emery
How Does Biochar Affect Soil Properties? Chapter 1:Hydrophobicity
Mentor: Markus Kleber, Crop and Soil Science

Dornath, Paul, Skip Rochefort and Nicholas Kraaz
Analysis of “BPA-free” TritanTM Copolyester Under High Stress Conditions (Dornath.pdf; 761KB)
Mentor: Skip Rochefort, Chemical Engineering

Egan, Kristin, Tyler Radniecki, and Lew Semprini
The Role of Trace Metals in Protecting Nitrosomonas europaea From Silver Ions and Silver Nanoparticles (Egan.pdf; 163KB)
Mentor: Lewis Semprini, Environmental Engineering

Elser, Calvin, Laurel Kluber, Lydia Zeglin, and David Myrold
Microbial Community Associated with Birth and Death of Ectomycorrhizal (EcM) Mats
Mentor: Dave Myrold, Crop and Soil Science

Grimwood, Victoria, Katharine Field, Jeffrey Shaman, and Hyatt Green
Patterns of Occurrence and Prevalence for Avian Fecal Markers detected by GFB, GFC, and GFD
Mentor: Kate Field, Microbiology

Hieter, Jayson, Brandon Briggs, Fredrick Colwell
Analysis of Macroscopic Biofilms in Methane Hydrate Bearing Sediment As They Relate to Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane
Mentor:Rick Colwell, COAS

Misra, Kaalindi
Electrolysis Cells - Generation of Hydrogen Gas from Different Types of Bacteria (Misra.pdf; 282KB)
Mentor: Hong Liu, Biological and Ecological Engineering

Kendig, Thomas, Dusty Berggren, Mohammad Azizian
Evaluation of Sulfate Reduction and TCE Reduction by the Evanite and Point Mugu Cultures (Kendig.pdf; 215KB)
Mentor: Lewis Semprini, Environmental Engineering
 
Land, Michelle, Neeraja Vajrala, Luis Sayavedra-Soto, and Daniel Arp
Can You Differentiate the Ammonia Oxidizers in Soil?
Mentor: Luis Sayavedra-Soto, Botany and Plant Pathology

Leondar, Betsy, Dave Myrold
Soil Processes in Restored Wetlands (Leondar.pdf; 319KB)
Mentor: Mary Santelmanm, Geosciences; Dave Myrold, Crop and Soil Science

Leslie, Mikkel, Dylan Stankus, Jeff Nason, Kate Saili and Stacey Harper
Characterization and Toxicity Results on Silver and Gold Nanoparticles Samples (Leslie.pdf; 524KB)
Mentor: Jeff Nason, Environmental Engineering

Molatore, Felicia
Soil Fractionation (Molatore.pdf; 471KB)
Mentor: Kate Lajtha, Botany and Plant Pathology

Monares, Shane
Adapting the Methylene Blue Sulfide Detection Method for use in a Microfluidic In Situ Monitoring Device (Monares.pdf; 346KB)
Mentor: James Ingle,  Chemistry

Nasholm, Nicole
Hydrophobicity Determination of Bacteria, Colloids and Surfaces (Nasholm.pdf; 761KB)
Mentor: Brian Wood, Environmental Engineering

Nguyen, Hoang, Martin Fisk, Jerry Yamamuro, David Cann, Eric Patterson, Jason Ideker, Skip Rochefort
Hawaii Giant Landslides and Their Strength (Nguyen.pdf; 913KB)
Mentor: Martin Fisk, COAS

Paterson, Kayli, Hatem Mohamed
Growth of Cyanobacterial Cells with a Carbon Source Added (Paterson.pdf; 1Mb)
Mentor: Roger Ely, Biological and Ecological Engineering

Plotkin, Jean, Hongqiang Hu and Hong Liu
The Effects of Cathode Variation on Hydrogen Production in Microbial Fuel Cells (Plotkin.pdf; 590KB)
Mentor: Hong Liu, Biological and Ecological Engineering
 
Rogers, Hilary
Engineering a Mutant Strain of Synechocystis PCC 6803 to Over-Express Cyanoglobin
Mentor: Roger Ely, Biological and Ecological Engineering

Seitz, Devin
Development of an Experimental Procedure to Determine Volatile Matter Content in Biochar (Seitz.pdf; 262KB)
Mentor: Markus Kleber, Crop and Soil Science

Shen, Kedy, Joyce E. Loper, Marcella D. Henkels
Identification of Phytotoxic Secondary Metabolites in Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5 (Shen.pdf; 835KB)
Mentor: Joyce Loper, Botany and Plant Pathology

Viéville, Cassandra
Genetic Engineering of Yeast for Manganese Peroxidase Production (Vieville.pdf; 323KB)
Mentor: Christine Kelly, Chemical Engineering

Yip, Hiu Tung, Brandon Briggs, Rick Colwell
Characterization of Microbiological Communities in the Columbia River Basalts before Carbon Dioxide Sequestration (Yip.pdf; 93KB)
Mentor:Rick Colwell, COAS

Summer 2009 interns not represented at the poster session

Arndt, Eva
The Role of the Subsurface Biosphere in Contaminant Remediation and Evaluation of Potential Interaction with Groundwater: Gresham Storm Water Discharge
Mentor: Jeff Jenkins, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology.

Lebsack, John
Green Synthesis of Boron-Doped TiO2 Nanostuctured Photocatalysts for Waste Water Treatment.
Mentor: Greg Rorrer, Chemical Engineering

Wansak, Tom
Soil Enzyme and Microbial Activities that are Related to Cycling Nitrogen in Soils
Mentor: Dave Myrold, Crop and Soil Science, OSU

 

Summer 2008 Internship Highlights

There were 16 SBI interns during Summer 2008. You can read highlights about their experiences in the August 2008 SBI research feature. The 2008 interns and their project titles are listed below along with slides from their final presentations:

  • Anaerobic Transformations of Chlorinated Ethenes: Kinetics Study of Batch Systems (Berggren.pdf; 1 Mb)
    Dusty Berggren, Environmental Engineering
    Mentor: Lewis Semprini, Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering

  • Methodologies and preliminary results of soil microbial community structure under different agricultural management treatments
    Alese Colehour, Macalester College
    Mentor: Dave Myrold, Crop and Soil Science

  • Identification of antibiotics responsible for bacterial inhibition by Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5 (Davis.pdf; 295k)
    Ed Davis, Microbiology
    Mentor: Joyce Loper, Botany and Plant Pathology

  • Inhibition of Nitrosomonas europaea by Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Linking the Inhibition on Nitrite Production to Cell Membrane Changes
    Kristin Eagan, Brigham Young University
    Mentor: Lewis Semprini, Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering

  • Enzymatic Lignin Degradation (Keenlyside.pdf; 1.8 Mb)
    Lucy Keenlyside, Chemical Engineering
    Mentor: Christine Kelly, Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering

  • Photo of Kristin Egan.
    Kristin Egan returned to intern in the environmental engineering laboratory after working there as a high school student in the Saturday Academy apprenticeship program.

    Microbial Fuel Cells (Levy.pdf; 416k)
    Brett Levy, Chemical Engineering
    Mentor: Hong Liu, Biological and Ecological Engineering

  • Cyanobacteria for Hydrogen Production (Lim.pdf; 1 Mb)
    China Lim, Chemical Engineering
    Mentor: Roger Ely, Biological and Ecological Engineering

  • PsaE knockout mutant in T. elongatus (Ling.pdf; 526k)
    Mei Lee Ling, Microbiology
    Mentor: Roger Ely, Biological and Ecological Engineering

  • Reporter Constructs Based on N. europea to identify nitrification inhibitors in Wastewater (Long.pdf; 120k)
    Stacey Long, Bioengineering
    Mentor: Luis Sayavedra-Soto, Botany and Plant Pathology

  • Leaching of Bisphenol-A From Polycarbonate Containers (Maloney.pdf; 2.7 Mb)
    Brian Maloney, Biological Engineering
    Mentor: Skip Rochefort, Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering

  • Studies on the development of a 'smart' tracer for the assessment of microbiological activity and sediment-water interaction in natural waters
    Marc Nabelek, Whitman College. In May 2009, he presented his work in a poster at the Geological Society of America meeting in Kelowna, BC.
    Mentor: Roy Haggerty, Geosciences

  • Bacterial/colloid transport in porous media
    Richard Oleksak, Chemical Engineering
    Mentor: Brian Wood, Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering

  • Effects of Sample Size on Microbial Community Diversity in Marine Sediments (Powers.pdf; 1 Mb)
    Katelyn Powers, Microbiology
    Mentor: Rick Colwell, Oceanography

  • Microbial Communities in Methane Hydrates beneath the Permafrost in Alaska (Schwartz.pdf; 351k)
    Amanda Schwartz
    Mentor: Rick Colwell, Oceanography

  • Autotrophic vs. heterotrophic nitrification in soils from the H.J. Andrews DIRT plots
    Brian Wakefield
    Mentor: Dave Myrold, Crop and Soil Science

  • Study of a Hydrophobic Soil (Woolverton.pdf; 1 Mb)
    Priscilla Woolverton, Soil Science and Natural Resource Management
    Mentors: Maria Dragila and Markus Kleber, Crop and Soil Science

 

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: