Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Position: Valentine Lab – 2017 Internship
Category: Internship
Application Deadline: March 24, 2017
Details:
The Valentine Lab is looking for three interns to help conduct research on ecosystem resilience as a part of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) and Alabama Center for Ecological Resilience’s (ACER) ongoing efforts to evaluate impacts of oil-spills and other disturbances on coastal ecosystems. Research will be based out of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab located on Dauphin Island, Alabama at the mouth of Mobile Bay. Interns will primarily work on oil spill resistance and habitat diversity projects with potential exposure to other methods and techniques applied by other labs.
We are looking for three full-time interns (~40 hr/week) to start late April. Tentatively, internships will begin no later than early May and terminate around September 30, 2017.
Duties and responsibilities:
Interns will be required to participate heavily in field collection with some lab based activities. The projects that interns will be working on will focus on predator-prey interactions and effects of habitat diversity as well as impacts of crude oil exposure on behavior and survival in lab mesocosms. Duties will include fish and crustacean collection and care, mesocosm and equipment maintenance, handling of crude oil, and analysis of video footage from behavioral experiments.
Interns will receive training in experimental design, marine animal husbandry, collection techniques (e.g. use of traps, trawling, collection plates, etc.), estuarine fish and invertebrate identification, and analytical methods (analysis of animal behavior). There may also be opportunities to learn other ecological field sampling techniques in a variety of marine environments. In addition, interns are encouraged to attend seminars on current topics in marine science hosted at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and at the University of South Alabama.
Stipend:
Interns will be given a stipend of $1575 per month. Housing is NOT provided.
Requirements:
Undergraduate juniors and seniors (at time of application) enrolled in marine programs or with marine experience are preferred. Recent graduates (
We are seeking people who are committed and enthusiastic about marine science and may be considering marine ecology as a career. Experience with marine animal care, boating, and marsh animal collection is preferred though not required. This job will require precise and efficient completion of tasks and long hours of analysis. Thus a strong work ethic and the ability to keep to a timeline are pivotal. This is a great opportunity for hands-on training in experimental and ecosystem ecology.
Please contact Scott Alford (salford@disl.org) if you have any questions regarding the project or your eligibility.
Application Requirements:
1. Submit a 1 page letter of interest highlighting relevant previous experience, experience that you desire to gain, and career goals,
2. You may also submit a 2 page C.V. to be reviewed with your application. Please email C.V. to salford@disl.org before the application deadline. Materials submitted after the deadline will not be considered.
** Please note you will not need to have 2 letters of recommendation sent in for the 2017 application. You will only need to provide contact information for two (2) references that we can contact if needed. Please do not have any letters sent in unless asked to do so.
Please submit all materials in PDFs via email to salford@disl.org by March 24, 2017; 11:59pm CST
CONTACT INFORMATION:
If at any time during the application process, you have questions or problems, you may contact Scott Alford via email (preferred) at salford@disl.org or via phone (251) 861-2141, ext. 2294.
Visit our web pages to learn about the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (http://www.disl.org) and ACER’s projects (http://acer.disl.org/research/consumers/).
The Dauphin Island Sea Lab is an Equal Opportunity Employer