Education: Junior in Microbiology at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
Most Recent Project: Vanessa is currently collaborating with Dr. Harold W. Keller at BRIT on a paper about corticolous myxomycetes, a type of slime mold found on Texas American elm trees. Vanessa started this project during her 2017 summer internship and has continued the project in the year since.
Favorite Memory of Summer 2017 BRIT internship: “Helping with the NLU collection acquisition in the herbarium, which led to lots of fun and laughter. The most memorable part of the whole experience for me was each intern getting a dinosaur-based nickname. Mine is Vanessasaurus Rex.”
Education: Senior in Ecology at the University of Texas at Dallas
Most Recent Project: Over the summer of 2018, Natch helped with BRIT summer camps as well as the James H. Peck Arkansas fern collection for the herbarium. Natch is also creating illustrations for a comic book featuring BRIT’s unofficial mascot Bella the Begonia.
Favorite Memory of Summer 2017 BRIT internship: “Getting to bond with the other interns in the herbarium. We got to make work fun by racing the dollies around once the day was over, as well as listening to music together while we helped move cabinets around.”
Education: Senior in Environmental Studies with minors in English and Chinese at Austin College
Most Recent Project: During the summer of 2018, Sydney worked as a Research Associate at the Kellogg Biological Research Station for Michigan State University. She worked in Dr. Will Witzel’s lab under the mentorship of Dr. Moria Robinson, studying the sub variance of traits in domesticated and wild alfalfa plants.
Favorite Memory of Summer 2017 BRIT internship: “Kart racing across the empty herbarium during the NLU acquisition was one of my fondest memories. Of course, me being about as graceful as a newborn fawn on ice, I fell off my scooter in the middle of the race. There is video evidence of that somewhere, but hopefully that has been packed away somewhere in those piles of specimens in the BRIT herbarium.”
Education: Senior in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a minor in Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Most Recent Project: Serina and Natch, two interns who returned for a second summer at BRIT, together continued their project with the James H. Peck Arkansas fern collection. She also created informative displays for the Herbarium halls, helped create social media content, and wrote articles about science and BRIT.
Favorite Memory of Summer 2017 BRIT internship: “Getting to know everyone at BRIT was the best part. Getting work done never felt like ‘working’ because it was so much fun to learn from all the people I met.”
