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Students interested in placement through the general internship program are encouraged to contact the project sponsor directly using the contact information (phone and e-mail) provided to discuss details, availability, and potential placement.
Please note, there is no formal application review or notification schedule.
Only students selected for placement will be contacted.
Research Assistance - Biological
PROJECT TITLE: Building an Interactive Digital Key for the Compositae
DESCRIPTION: In 2010 researchers from the Smithsonian and other institutions worldwide began building an interactive digital key for the largest plant family: the Compositae. The project, abbreviated VKC, attempts to provide an online tool to identify each of the 25,000+ species of the family, with photographs, maps and phylogenies.
We are currently working on the species from two geographic areas: North America and the Northern South America. Interns will help to populate the matrix of morphological characters by examining directly botanical specimens and text-mining taxonomic descriptions of species.
QUALIFICATIONS: Interns should have working knowledge of computers (especially Excel) and bases in botany/biology. A major in Biology, Agronomy or Forestry is highly desirable.
TIMETABLE: Indefinite
AWARD PACKAGE: None
Project Contact Name: Mauricio Diazgranados
Phone: 202-633-0951
E-mail: DiazgranadosM@si.edu
PROJECT TITLE: Geo-referencing historical plant photographs and collections of José Cuatrecasas
DESCRIPTION: One of the greatest botanists of the Neotropics, Don José Cuatrecasas Arumí (1903-1996), collected thousand of plants (ca. 25,000) and anthropological specimens in Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador between 1932 and 1979. He compiled an astounding photographic archive with more than 20,000 images, accompanied by detailed descriptions of the vegetation and studies of the indigenous people. He published approximately 262 papers; he is the author (or co-author) of two subtribes, 41 genera and about 3,308 new species, subspecies or varieties of plants.
The Smithsonian Institution holds the most important collection of specimens and photographs of Cuatrecasas, including most of his journals, field books and notebooks. Since 2005 we have transcribed into Spanish and translated into English his first two journals, and with the collaboration of students and volunteers we have scanned more than 5000 of his photographs.
Our current goal is to geo-reference Cuatrecasas plant photographs and collections, to make this information available online for research and for the general public.
The intern will be carrying out the following activities:
1. Scan photographs in different formats (including black and white large negatives).
2. Edit and clean digital images in Photoshop and/or Aperture.
3. Geo-reference photographs based on the information of Cuatrecasas journals of expeditions, using electronic gazetteers, physical maps and online maps (Google Earth, Google Maps, Aperture, etc.).
4. Populate metadata of photographs (keywords, photograph series and number, etc.).
5. Link photographs with plant specimens in the US National Herbarium.
6. Continue building the database of photographs.
QUALIFICATIONS: Special qualifications are not required. However, it would be desirable if the intern gets familiar with the following computing packages and online resources before coming to the Smithsonian: Excel, Access, Aperture (Mac), Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Bridge, Google Earth, Google Maps, HTML code and KML code.
TIMETABLE: Indefinite
AWARD PACKAGE: None
Project Contact Name: Mauricio Diazgranados
Phone: 202-633-0950/0951
E-mail: DiazgranadosM@si.edu
Other Links
Didn't find what you're looking for? Other individuals may be interested in hosting an intern, but are not actively recruiting for students to work on a particular project. To review our listings of people within our community, reference the following NMNH Science Department links.
The NMNH science departments maintain their own web pages, including complete community lists. To view the departments lists, visit their web sites. Here are the links:
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