The Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies

Hi! My name is Riley Dunklin, and I attend Cypress College where I study Environmental Science and Biology. I had the pleasure of working with Dr. David Wiener in the Armbrust Lab on the Ecogenomics floor in Benjamin Hall. I spent my summer exploring bacteria-algae interactions and learning how to process my data using R. I performed three experiments where I led every step from designing the experiment to processing the data. I had such a wonderful time throughout the entire process. I lived what it is like to be a research scientist, and I commend my mentor for designing my experience in this way. I advanced my skills using various lab machines including, but not limited to, GuavaEasyCyte plus (a flow cytometry machine), centrifuges, biological hoods, an RFU machine, and a NanoDrop machine. I also learned the intricacies of keeping bacteria and algae alive in artificial growth media and how to adjust to the challenges of working with live cells.

One of the most valuable things I took from this internship was the insights I gained into what the laboratory research field is truly like. As interns, we attended weekly seminars where we heard people talk about their research and answer any questions we had about graduate school. Also, I was able to “peek behind the curtain” and see what life is like in a lab from a grad student’s perspective and from a post-doc or senior research scientist’s perspective. I talked to everyone I could in my lab and was even able to attend a graduate-level course where we discussed various scientific papers in the microbiology field.

This internship was such an invaluable experience that deepened my desire to attend graduate school to become a research scientist. If you want to see for yourself what graduate school is like, I highly recommend applying to this program.

Project Introduction

Research Poster