Summer Intern Program
Research Experiences for Undergraduates
L-R: Anisa Sellers, Zophia Galvan, Tiffany Hwang, Sara Sara Vahdatshoar, James Lu, Alexandria Pomroy, Garrison Bullard, Grace Levins, Cole Miller, Lindsey Smith, and Eli Whitehead-Zimmers.
REU 2021 L-R: Amanda Salmoiraghi (Purchase College, SUNY), Amanda Pysher (Old Dominion University), Sophia Chirico (College of William & Mary), Annabel Gorman (Gettysburg College), Maya Casey (Haverford College), Alexis Putney (Old Dominion University), Nihal Guennouni (Christopher Newport University), and Duncan Campbell (College of William & Mary), In Frame: Kai Galvan-Dubois (Cornell University).
REU 2020 From L (top row): Tom Sacco (Middlebury College), Jonah Horowitz (Amherst College), Sarah Hanrock (Davidson College); 2nd row from top: Sarah Grace Lott (William & Mary), Peggy Ferguson (Quest University Canada), Emily Suchonic (Western Carolina University); 3rd row from top: Kelsey Barber (Westminster College), Valerie Acosta-Rodriguez (University of Puerto Rico Campus Humacao), Chris Snyder (William & Mary); bottom row: Victoria Moreira (Delaware Valley University), Colleen Norton (William & Mary), Anna Poslednik (Cornell University). © Rochelle Seitz.
REU 2019 From L: Thalia Wallace (Community College of Philadelphia), Mary McGuiness (NJ Inst. of Technology), Anna Bi Ledwin (William & Mary), Cristobal (Tobi) Yañez (University of Virginia), Kayla Rutherford (James Madison Univ.), Josephine Hall (Univ. of Arkansas), Magaleate Kostelnik (Univ. of Tampa), Sarah Monica (Vanderbilt University), Coral O’Brien (Virginia State University), Chante? Lively (Nova Southeastern University), Brittany Baker (Oakland University), Nicholas Coleman (Coastal Carolina University), and Jacob Wacht (W&M). © J. Dreyer/VIMS.
REU 2018 Left to right, front row: Rochelle Seitz (REU Program Director), Nathaniel Carter, Emma Hicks, Serina Moheed, Katherine Longmire (REU Teaching Assistant), Jenny Dreyer (REU Program Coordinator). Middle Row: Marta Faulkner, Soely Luyando-Flusa, Teresa Lin, Jill Ashey, Nicole Killen, Quazetta Brown. Back row: Isiah Sanders, Maya Thomas, Colleen Scott. Photo by Chris Katella
REU 2017 Left to right, back row: Emily Mushlitz, Walker Calhoun, Jeremy Mak, Derek Richardson, Noa Randall, Jane Sedlak, Gray Ryan; Font row: Viola Yu, Jen Gonzalez, Emily Chei, Josh Sacks, Colleen Naeger. Photo by David Malmquist
REU 2016 The 2016 REU students are - Back row left to right: Kylie Smith, Stephanie Wilson, Michelle Onofrio, Leigha Stahl, Lev Looney, Josh Himmelstein, Alex Kramer. Bottom row left to right: Kathrene Lo, Rebecca Whitney, Samantha Askin, Cynthia Harris, and Cristin Wright. Photo by Chris Katella
REU 2015 The 2015 REU Interns L to R: Keiko Nomura, Corelle Rokicki, Shannon Jones, Haley Baker, Diana Lutz, Ben Fowler, Katherine Longmire, Kristen Bachand, Nate Hua, Spencer Weinstein, Justin Shawler, and James Brown. Photo by Erin Fryer
REU 2014 The 2014 REU interns (left to right): David Matthews, Matthew Schliep, Yishen Li, Jinwei Song, Jennifer Fredley, Elizabeth Wallace, Paige Bippus, Richard He, Julia Carroll, Robert Boyd, and Brianna Stanley. Not pictured: Rebecca Kolkmeyer. Photo by David Malmquist
Summer Intern Class of 2013 REU 2013: REU students at VIMS. From L: Martin Wong, Hannah Ehrmann, Peter Sweetser, Brittany Peachey, Chris Lynum, Nina Jackson, Nicol Parker, Mary Chang, Marc Hammond, Lauren Kelly, John DeRosa, Caitlin Seppi, Alma Ramirez Velez. Photo by David Malmquist Photo by David Malmquist.
Summer Intern Class of 2012 rom L: Alex Kellum, Pearce Cooper, Joey Matt, Caitlin Fikes, Lydia Bienlien, Jessica Braunstein, Laura Tait, Margaret Walker, Sean Lusk, Madeline Karp, Sabrina Ramirez, Natalie Ross. Photo by David Malmquist.
Summer Intern Class of 2011 From L: Dylan O'Connell, Seth Theuerkauf, Daniel O'Hara, Drew Howard, Julianne Decker, Nicholas Hernandez, Akela Kuwahara, Alexandra Badia,Jessica Sahu Teli, and Emily Wei. Missing from the picture are Heather Richardson and Sara Wilson. Photo by David Malmquist.
Summer Intern Class of 2010 Front row: Angelina Haines, Courtney Wickel, Leslie Bland, Zoe Almeida, Elizabeth Gomez, David Fryxell, co-director Rochelle Seitz, and Director Linda Schaffner. Back Row: Nyanza Rothman, Molly Martin, William Bennett, and Robert Isdell. Photo by Susan Stein.
Summer Intern Class of 2009 Against the window, back to front: Lance Dixon (Temple Univ.), Austin Allen (W&M), Genevieve Ho (Univ. of Michigan), Courtney Wickel (W&M), Hadley McIntosh (College of St. Benedict), and Stacy Aguilera (Stanford Univ.). Middle row, back to front: Alex Brett (College of the Atlantic), Sammy Allen (Presbyterian College), Monica Poteat (Elon Univ.), Sara Walkup (UC Berkeley), Program Director Linda Schaffner, and Caitlin Adams (Swarthmore College). Photo by David Malmquist.
Summer Intern Class of 2008 From L: Elizabeth Hamman, Juan Alvarez-Rosario, Sarah Donelan, Natasha Gownaris, Ben Lawson, Julia Moriarty, Jonathan Lefcheck, Samone Brockett, Leandra Darden, Bhae-Jin Peemoeller, Ryan Scott, Jenna Luek, and Caitlin Bovery. Photo by David Malmquist.
Summer Intern Class of 2007 Front Row (L to R): VIMS REU Coordinator Linda Schaffner, Margaret Simon (Haverford College), Dominique Franson (Univ of Maryland), Queen Akwari (Claflin Univ), Diana Chin (Boston Univ), and Payal Dharia (VIMS graduate student). Back Row (L to R): Laura Mulvey (Case Western Reserve Univ), Hilary Griffin (Elmira College), Cora Johnston (Hampshire College), and Stephanie Henderson (Ottawa Univ). Not pictured: Carolyn Ewers. Photo by David Malmquist.
Summer Intern Class of 2006 Front row: Barbara Salgado. 2nd row (from L): Talia Fletcher, Paul Littreal (a Mellon Intern), Cara Babineaux, Andria Salas, Katherine Kokotky, and Adrienne Wiggin. 3rd row (from L): Carolina Funkey, Emilee Mroz, Miranda Westphal, David James, Philip Matich, Sara Tappan, and Dan Naly. Photo by David Malmquist.
Summer Intern Class of 2005 From L: Heather Nees (Muskingum College), Curtis Freund (St. Cloud State University), Melanie Schultz Peters (University of Miami), Laura Twichell (Swarthmore College), Andrew Kowalczk (Texas A&M University at Galveston), and Cielomar Rodriguez (University of Puerto Rico). Photo by David Malmquist.
Each year the Summer Intern Program - Research Experiences for Undergraduates at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) places 12 undergraduates with faculty mentors for a summer research experience. Internships are available in many areas of marine science, including marine biology and ecology; biological, geological, chemical, and physical oceanography; environmental science; fisheries; and resource management.
The program is funded by the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, VIMS, William & Mary (W&M), private donors, and grants to individual faculty. The NSF contact for this program is Lisa Rom, elrom@NSF.gov or 703-292-7709. NSF does not handle REU applications; please contact each REU site directly for application information (visit "How To Apply" for the VIMS REU application).
All students, including those traditionally under-represented in the marine sciences, are encouraged to apply. In general, rising juniors and seniors are preferred for the traditional REU because of their better course preparation, but we will also consider rising sophomores who have enough science and math background (e.g., AP or other advanced courses in high school) to benefit from an earlier research experience. Some advanced placement courses will show up on your college transcript. If they do not, please be sure to mention what you've taken in the "other comments" section of the application.
We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive community of marine scientists. We want people from all cultures and all backgrounds to feel welcome at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Undergraduate student participants supported with NSF funds in either REU Supplements or REU Sites must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents of the United States.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science, located in Gloucester Point, Virginia, is one of the largest coastal and estuarine science institutions in the world, with more than 50 faculty and a graduate student body of more than 75. VIMS houses state-of-the-art oceanographic instrumentation and analytical facilities, a large fleet of coastal research vessels, a world-class marine science library, and is close to a variety of habitats ranging from freshwater tributaries to the coastal ocean. The School of Marine Science is a part of William & Mary, one of the most highly rated public universities emphasizing undergraduate education in the United States.
Are you a former intern visiting the website? If so, please send us an update! Also, find us on Facebook - VIMS Summer Intern REU Alumni.
Anti-racism statement
All forms of racism, explicit and implicit, have no place at VIMS, and we believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion are critical for achieving and maintaining excellence. We recognize that we, as the VIMS community and as individuals, must work to be actively anti-racist. It is therefore incumbent that we all work towards an institution that has racially diverse faculty, staff, and student bodies, and also to proactively dismantle the historic and institutional blockades to a diverse field of marine science. This is fundamental to a just, resilient, and innovative society, which ultimately will enhance the research, education, and advisory missions of VIMS. We commit to being anti-racist through institutional change, education, engagement, and activism. Looking forward, we are committed to moving toward an anti-racist culture at VIMS through many large and small efforts.