Summer Internship Program - 2007

The 2007 National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) at CMOP program ran 10 weeks, from June 11 through August 17. Four interns were selected to participate in the first year of our internship program.

Meet the Interns

Nick Hagerty
Bio: Brown University
Project: "Incorporating Scientific Judgment into Workflows at an Ocean Observatory
Frontline Mentor: Bill Howe
Senior Advisors: David Maier

Pete Kahn
Bio: Willamette University
Project: 18S rRNA Clone Library of Phytoplankton in the Columbia River and its Coastal Margin
Frontline Mentor: Lydie Herfort
Senior Advisor: Peter Zuber

Kira Kranzler
Bio: The Evergreen State College
Project: Microbial Manganese Oxidizers and Reducers in the Columbia River
Frontline Mentor: Suzanna Brauer
Senior Advisor: Brad Tebo

Solomon Reisberg
Bio: Reed College
Project: Physical Study of Estuarine Turbidity Maxima in Columbia River Estuary using Models
Frontline Mentor: Joseph Zhang Senior Advisor: Antonio Baptista
 

WRITING SEMINAR
Sandra Oster, a discourse linguist with a specialty in scientific and technical writing, offered four seminars to REU interns on how to write scientific and technical grant proposals and research papers. These seminars were designed to give the interns an understanding of the kinds of documents that researchers in science and technology are expected to write and the style of English used in them. Interns wrote a 2-page grant proposal on their summer research project and passages of a research paper that gives results from their summer projects.
 

RESEARCH CRUISES
The interns participated in two research cruises aboard the M/V Forerunner, in the Columbia River in Astoria, Oregon.

The cruise of June 14, 2007 went very well. The main goal was to find and sample water in the Estuary Turbidity Maximum (ETM). Despite some unexpected last-minute changes to the cruise plans, nearly everything went according to expectations. The REU interns got firsthand experience in fieldwork and a better picture of how our work fits into the larger world.

The goals of the July 17 cruise were to refine and test the protocol for chasing the ETM and salinity intrusion and to collect more samples for REU student research projects.
 

BROWN BAG SEMINAR SERIES
Each Friday at noon, interns participated in a Brown Bag Seminar, allowing them to explore a variety of topics related to the life of a scientist.

Margo Haygood: A Woman in Science: Two Decades of Perspective

Paul Tratnyek: From the Environment to the Laboratory and Back: A Career Path to Environmental Chemistry

Fred Prahl: A Cliffnote History of a Professor of Chemical Oceanography

Francis Chang: Exploring virtual worlds in Second Life

Presentations: Summer research work by Environmental and Biomolecular Systems Interns Sophia Cai, Ann-Chee Cheng and Taryn Pestalozzi

Byron Crump: Chasing the ETM: How do you find it?

Priti Mody: Intern Focus Group

David Martin: Science and Research Careers Outside of Academia