This summer and fall I have been working as an intern with the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI) under the mentorship of Dr. Heather Lintz and Dr. Allen Milligan. I have been studying phytoplankton to chart the relationship between the dynamics of their populations and variations in their environment. In particular, I have been culturing a diatom species and testing it against a theoretical model of stochastic disturbance. Essentially, this entails connecting an abrupt change in the model output with a small change in the frequency and intensity of the input.
The benefits I have received through this internship include utilization of lab equipment to perform tests on diatom species, MATLAB programming skills, and a better understanding of how to develop and test a theoretical, stochastic model in climate change science. The scholarship money I received from the Honors College allowed me to focus on my internship and classes rather than spend all of my time working to pay for school.
In the future, I plan on completing an Honors BS in Environmental Engineering, using this project as part of my Honors thesis, and continuing on to graduate school in a related discipline. My goal is to have this work published in a peer-reviewed, scientific journal before graduation.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.