Student interns presented their summer research in marine biology at the annual symposium held at UMBI’s Center of Marine Biology (COMB) on August 8. The internship program, headed by Dr. Rosemary Jagus, is one of several programs offered by the Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center (LMRCSC). The 2008 summer interns ranged from high school to college students. Dr. Jagus, an associate professor at UMBI-COMB, said about the students: “Although working in different labs, they worked well as a group and helped each other. Two of them received GRE training here and one of them took a calculus class at Baltimore City Community College (BCCC)."

LMRCSC student interns and their mentors gather
after presenting their summer research at UMBI-COMB.

This year’s research projects covered several topics that are relevant to preservation and restoration of the marine life in the Chesapeake Bay, as well as basic studies of the biology, genetics and reproduction of local marine species.

At the presentations, Dr. Yonathan Zohar, Director of the UMBI-COMB, emphasized the scientists’ commitment to their students, and their goal of training the next generation of marine scientists. Since the beginning of the program, the UMBI-COMB/LMRCSC summer internship program has trained over 80 undergraduate students, in addition to numerous graduate students.

Dr. Jagus notes “One of last year's summer interns, Jeanette Davis from Hampton University, has now joined us for graduate school. Another intern, Ammar Hafiz, will be joining us for graduate school in January. This is a wonderful outcome for us since it is so hard to attract minority students into grad school”. Program administrators and scientists hope that this opportunity will not only allow students to become better researchers, but will also help them to learn more about their capabilities and interests, throughout their research experience.

LMRCSC was established in 2001 by a cooperative agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s (NOAA) educational partnership program with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. LMRCSC is funded by NOAA in collaboration with UMBI’s Center of Marine Biology (COMB). COMB’s main role in the program is to not just train students, but to enable them to interact with colleagues from other participating institutions. The ten-week long internship at COMB offers minority students the opportunity to be mentored by world-class scientists. The data from these projects represent an important contribution to marine biology and biotechnology.

One of the main goals of the program is to prepare and advance the training of students and collaborative research in NOAA related sciences. By performing research that is of interest to NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service, the participating students have an advantage when applying for jobs and continuing their research. Many of the students who intern with UMBI-COMB choose to continue their graduate studies in COMB laboratories, often choosing to continue work with their internship mentors.