Researchers from the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) welcomed sixteen summer interns from all over the country to assist with various research projects May through July.

The internships are part of the Department of Defense Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative. NMRC offers two programs for students through the office of Naval Research: The Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program (NREIP) for undergraduate and graduate students; and the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) for high school students.

The interns will be working at NMRC on their assigned research projects with their mentors, as well as focus on individual research, for 8-10 weeks. Both programs provide an opportunity for students to participate in research at NMRC, as well as other Department of the Navy (DoN) laboratories during the summer, advancing their knowledge and interest in their desired fields of study.

"NMRC student interns are currently working on a wide range of projects, including topics such as researching novel technologies that will help heal wound infections, developing methods to help reduce or prevent bone formation in muscle that occurs when troops experience traumatic blasts, and identifying new pathogens from infected ticks and mosquitoes," said Lt. Cmdr. Roxanne Burrus, deputy department head, Viral and Rickettsial Disease Department, and the summer intern coordinator at NMRC.

Each intern is assigned to a mentor from various NMRC research departments including the Wound Infections Department, the Regenerative Medicine Department, the Neurotrauma Department, the Undersea Medicine Department, the Viral and Rickettsial Diseases Department, as well as Genomics and Bioinformatics.

"Mentoring is critical for equipping and training the next generation of scientists," said Lt. Chaselynn Watters, microbiology researcher, Wound Infections Department, NMRC. "I was fortunate to have an outstanding mentor in graduate school, and it motivates me to help the summer research interns along their path in the sciences."

Along with Watters, other mentors from NMRC are Lt. Cmdr. Peter Walker, Lt. Joshua Swift, Anna Tschieffely, Biswas Biswajit, Katherine Cilwa, Usmah Kawoos, Rania Abutarboush, Erin Sanders, Aaron Hall, Chen Ching, Molly McLendon, Allen Richards, Ju Jiang, and Michael Rouse.

Students eligible for NREIP must be U.S. citizens with 31 or more college credits and enrolled at a four-year U.S. college or university accredited by the U.S. Department of Education. For SEAP, any high school student who is a U.S. citizen, has completed the ninth grade, and is 16 years of age within two weeks of the start date, is eligible to participate.

Students interested in an internship at NMRC can apply online for NREIP at http://nreip.asee.org/applyand SEAP at http://seap.asee.org/apply

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