BTI Welcomes Summer Student Interns

On May 31, Boyce Thompson Institute welcomed 41 of the country’s brightest undergraduate students from universities around the country to experience the life of a researcher for 10 weeks. Ten more research interns from local area high schools will join the Institute for six weeks beginning June 28, and about 14 high schoolers will join BTI for seven weeks as part of the Workforce Advantage (WFA) program.

Now in its 22^nd year, BTI’s Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) Research Experience for Undergrads (REU) focuses on training and inspiring the next generation of scientists to help feed a growing population, while protecting the environment and enhancing human health.

Throughout the summer, student researchers will gain valuable research skills in BTI and Cornell University labs, attend seminars and workshops to learn from leaders in plant science research, bioinformatics, science communications and technology transfer.

Because collaboration is a key aspect of modern science, every intern will be partnered with a mentor in their respective research lab. Together, each mentor will lead the mentee in creating an independent project that best utilizes the student’s curiosity and drive while also contributing to the lab’s research goals. This project will be each intern’s focus during the program, culminating with a poster or a presentation at a scientific symposium.

Five of the REU students will be in labs that are part of the new Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS), which aims to integrate plant sciences, engineering and computer science to improve crops and the sustainability of agricultural management practices.

For many of the students, this is their first immersive research experience outside their university. Learning the fundamentals of lab life from their mentors and developing their professional networks will be a crucial experience to kickstart their research careers.

When research interns aren’t working on their projects, they will attend weekly seminars by BTI and Cornell faculty, participate in a five-week Bioinformatics course, and engage with faculty, graduate students, and communications and scientific professionals. Throughout the summer, they will have a chance to explore Ithaca and take group trips to Niagara Falls and Corning Museum of Glass.

The summer research internship programs will culminate in the annual George and Helen Kohut Summer Research Symposium on Thursday, August 4, from 9am-4:30pm at BTI. The symposium will be livestreamed for the public.

WFA interns are paired with mentors to gain hands-on experience working in a world-class research institute while exploring the departments that make scientific discoveries possible, such as administration, finance, technology transfer, communications, development, information technology, facilities, computational biology and plant biotechnology.

This year’s internship programs are made possible thanks to the generous support of Carolyn W. Sampson, Tompkins Trust Company, Legacy Foundation of Tompkins County, Rheonix, Inc., John Ben Snow Foundation, Triad Foundation, National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program, United States Department of Agriculture, and many other generous individuals.

Stay tuned to our website and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok) for more updates throughout the summer!

 

Interns: Who They Are

BTI is proud to welcome the following undergraduate and high school interns:

Undergraduate Students

 

Name	Institution	Faculty/Lab
Tori Adigun	Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University	Scott McArt/Dyce Lab
Trey Ansani*	University of Arizona	Abraham Strooke and Georg Jander
Caroline Artymowicz	The College of New Jersey	Georg Jander
Daniel Bacher	Oregon State University	Maureen Hanson
Iselle Barrios	MIT	Adrienne Roeder
Jasmin Buffenn	Huntington University	Jim Giovannoni
Adam Cason	Samford University	Zhangjun Fei
Lauren Carneal	Clemson University	Greg Martin
Maddie Ceminsky	St Olaf College	David Stern
Alexis Chun	Loyola Marymount University	Maria Harrison
Sherlyn Contreras	Ball State University	Stephane Bentolila
Collin DeMan	William Paterson University	Li Li
Alexis Garbarczyk	University of Arizona	Jian Hua
Regan Griffin	Centenary College of Louisiana	Andrew Nelson
Joanna Idrovo	Amherst College	Eric Richards
Megan Johnston	University of Kentucky	Klaas Van Wijk
Joe Ku	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Aleksandra Skirycz
Anna Lipari	Grinnell College	Fay-Wei Li
Olive LoGrasso	Colorado State University	BTI Computational Biology Center
Kaitlin Marry	New Mexico State University	Clare Casteel
Isabella Marshall*	Rowan University	Jenny Kao-Kniffin & Amit Lal
Hanifah Muhammad	Arizona State University	Scott McArt
Holly Myers	Washington College	Katja Andrea Poveda
Yalmarie Numan Vazquez	University of Puerto Rico Recinto Rio Piedras Campus	Magdalena Julkowska
Eliza O’Donnell*	St. Lawrence University	Bruce Lewenstein
Anamaría Páez Capador	Universidad de los Andes	Georg Jander
Kobe Phillips	University of South Florida	Jennifer Thaler
Marge Poma Alarcon	Smith College	Olena Vatamaniuk
Charis Qi	Davidson College	Zhangjun Fei
Umer Sha	The College of New Jersey	Georg Jander
Maddie Shaklee	University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth	Zhangjun Fei
Mali Simmons	Centenary College of Louisiana	Andrew Nelson
Jenna Sins	Gannon University	Fey-Wei Li
Amick Sollenberger*	Brown University	Michael Gore and Robert Shepard
Harsha Somaya	Colby College	Michael Gore
Victoria Swiler	Ohio University	Joyce Van Eck
Angely Toro Casiano	University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus	Andre Kessler
Kylie Weis	Auburn University	Margaret Frank
JJ Wheeler	Tufts University	Wojtek Pawlowski
Sam Young	Amherst College	Miguel Pineros
David Zimmerman*	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Margaret Frank
*CROPPS

 

High School Research Interns

Benjamin Beer	Ithaca High School
Ella Blomfield-Brown	Dryden High School
Ting Fei	Ithaca High School
Anna Fulbright	Ithaca High School
Avni Gokarn	Lexington High School
Palzom Lhamo	Ithaca High School
Noor Maghaydah	Lansing High School
Ariel Maroney	Trumansburg High School
Lily Yang	Ithaca High School
Stephen Yang	Ithaca High School

 

Workforce Advantage Interns

Ayla Khosropour	Human Resources
Lucas Darling	Mechanical
Sabina Jenkins-Ortolano	LS/Procurement
Kaidi Hu	Schroder
Rachel Tay	BCBC
Abigail Sill	Operations
Linnaea Kelly	Research Administration
Valerie Wansink	Comms/CPBR
LeAnn Zhu	Advancement
Andrew Tomak	IT
Anya Packard	Presidents Office
Lazim Jarif	Alliance for Science
Evan James	Communications
Sophie Wei	Nelson Lab
Alicia Long	Greenhouse
Ethan Yan	BCBC