The expo included poster presentations by NMRC summer interns from the Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program (NREIP) and Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP). Posters summarized projects which interns conducted in multiple research areas, including infectious disease, undersea medicine, and neurotrauma.

The NMRC summer intern program offers an opportunity for students to experience the daily flow of research work, and to apply their skills to the unique challenges of Navy Medicine.

“In the short term, interns are able to help advance ongoing projects and research,” said Dr. Hans Linsenbardt, an NMRC research psychologist and intern mentor. “In the long run, these students not only get positive research experience that you don’t necessarily get in high school or college, but also get experience with DoD research, which there isn’t that much awareness of.”


NMRC hosts interns annually for eight weeks each summer, pairing students from high school and college with mentors who instruct them in research and laboratory techniques. Interns are assigned a project which they work on over the course of eight weeks, and have the opportunity to learn from NMRC staff across multiple laboratories.

“Getting to know mentors who can guide us in the field has been great,” said Katie Ripley (a recent graduate from Butler University), who interned with NMRC’s Operational Undersea Medicine Directorate. “Everyone here is very eager to teach, and really passionate about what they’re teaching. You don’t usually get the sort of one-on-one mentorship with multiple people that I’ve gotten here.”

This year marks the first iteration of the summer intern program since 2019, after it went on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Maj. Amy Carlson, who manages the summer intern program for NMRC, spoke highly of the impact of the program’s return on students and staff.

“The mentors all tell me the students are so proud of the work they’ve done,” said Carlson. “There’s a lot of analysis required in the work our staff do, and the students are a big help in carrying on important research.”

This year’s intern program saw six students intern at NMRC through NREIP, and three through SEAP. Nine staff members with NMRC took part in the program as direct mentors to interns.

NMRC's eight research commands are engaged in a broad spectrum of activity from basic science in the laboratory to field studies in austere and remote areas of the world to investigations in operational environments. In support of the Navy, Marine Corps, and joint U.S. warfighters, researchers study infectious diseases, biological warfare detection and defense, combat casualty care, environmental health concerns, aerospace and undersea medicine, medical modeling, simulation, operational mission support, epidemiology, and behavioral sciences.