Undergraduate student researchers and volunteers contribute significantly to research conducted in the Department of Natural History. Each year, several hundred undergraduate students work on projects, including fieldwork, laboratory experiments, curatorial activities in the museum collections, and exhibit development.
These opportunities allow students to gain experience working with research collections and analyzing and interpreting data alongside a team of professional scholars. In being part of the discovery process, students are encouraged to ask questions and develop research projects to suit their own interests and build a foundation for potential future investigations after graduation.
Undergraduate Research & Volunteer Opportunities
Students interested in volunteering, doing an internship, performing research for a senior thesis or class-based project, or registering for research credit, should start by reviewing the Undergraduate Opportunities (see below) available at the museum. This list provides a variety of potential projects. After exploring these opportunities, students should contact the potential project advisor. This list is not exhaustive, so students are also encouraged to consult other museum faculty and staff in their area of focus.
Note: UF offers a training module, Mentee 101, on how to be a successful undergraduate researcher
Biodiversity Informatics Project Mentor: Robert Guralnick, Erin Grady – rguralnick@flmnh.ufl.edu Lab/Collection: Guralnick Lab Project Description: We are looking for an intern interested in citizen science, plant biology and phenology to help us with some great science questions related to the timing of flowering, fruiting and leaf out in relation to extreme weather and to help us create new data resources for the larger community of plant biologists. You will learn great skills like using citizen science tools, how to code in R and how to do some simple analyses. Skills Needed: Curiosity and a love of nature Skills to be Gained: R skills, using citizen science data, downloading data, some simple analyses Semester: Spring
BioVision Lab/Mammalogy Project Mentor: Arthur Porto, Jonathan Nations, Verity Mathis – arthur.porto@floridamuseum.ufl.edu Lab/Collection: BioVision Lab/Mammalogy Project Description:We are looking for a museum intern to curate 576 opossum skeletons currently housed in the Porto Lab, along with their associated genetic data, for integration into the Florida Museum’s mammal collections. This curation effort will involve detailed specimen cataloging, data digitization, and management of genetic records to ensure their availability for future research. By engaging interns, we aim to provide hands-on experience in museum curation while enhancing the accessibility and utility of the opossum specimens within the museum’s broader biodiversity collections. The student will also assist in the 3D digitization of specimens using light-scanning technology. Skills Needed: Enthusiasm for research. Skills to be Gained: Imaging, digitization, curation, collections-based research, genetic research. Semester: Spring, Summer, Fall
Digital Imaging Project Mentor: Edward Stanley, Hyo Kang, Zach Randall – elstanley@flmnh.ufl.edu Lab/Collection: Digital Imaging Project Description: Mentees will help us develop, build, refine and test a series of Virtual Reality games based around Florida Museum digital specimens. These games will be be hosted on the FLMNH website and help maintain the museum’s educational output during the temporary closure of the public museum. Mentees will also be trained in a range of 3D Digital Imaging techniques including light scanning, Photogrammetry and lidar imaging. Skills Needed: Familiarity with VR (having taken DIG4540 Production of Immersive Environment is ideal). Skills to be Gained: 3D model reconstruction, light scanning, building environments in Unity, modeling in Blender. Semester: Spring, Summer, Fall
Digital Imaging & South Florida Archaeology Project Mentor: Zach Randall, Jen Green, Michelle LeFebvre – zrandall@flmnh.ufl.edu Lab/Collection: Digital Imaging & South Florida Archaeology Project Description: Through the Digital Imaging Division, create 3D photogrammetry models of Florida cultural heritage objects curated in the Florida Ethnographic Collections — a group of collections with objects from the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. This project will focus on photogrammetry of the Seminole and Miccosukee doll collection. Photogrammetry uses digital 2D photographs to create 3D models with life-like external textures. Example of photogrammetry models can be viewed on our Florida Museum Sketchfab page. Skills Needed: Attention to detail, interest in learning about cultural heritage curation. Skills to be Gained: 3D model reconstruction, 2D and 3D imaging processing software, cultural heritage curation, digital data management. Semester: Spring
Florida Archaeology Project Mentor: Amanda Hall – ahall@floridamuseum.ufl.edu Lab/Collection: Florida Archaeology Project Description:This project is a continuation of the current project, repatriating ancestors. Artifacts stored at the Florida Musuem need to be digitally cataloged, not only for the digital archives of the museum but to comply with NAGPRA and return any possible ancestors. This is to complete the archiving of past archaeological projects, as well as to return ancestors back to their tribes, to be put to rest. Skills Needed: General understanding of Excel, artifact differentiation, osteology knowledge. Skills to be Gained: Ceramic differentiation, NAGPRA procedure, cataloging, artifact interpretation. Semester: Spring
Herbarium DNA Tissue Collection Project Mentor: Lucas Majure – lmajure@floridamuseum.ufl.edu Lab/Collection: Herbarium (Botany) Project Description: Databasing and organizing the Herbarium DNA Tissue Collection. Herbarium collections are a major resource for plant research worldwide. Silica gel collections consisting of plant tissues and a silica gel desiccant are often collected in the field while herbarium specimens are being generated, and these tissues are used to extract DNA for molecular genetic work, including for phylogenetics. The University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS) has a substantial silica gel collection that is being databased and organized. Students would help organize, relabel, and database the collection, enhancing both its accessibility and their understanding of plant biology. Skills Needed: Attention to detail. Ability to understand and read cursive handwriting is desired. Skills to be Gained: Students will learn how to use herbarium databases, work in collections, and will become familiar with many major plant families. Semester: Spring, Fall
Paleobotany – Fossil Pollen Project Mentor: Steven R. Manchester, Julian Correa – j.correanarvaez@ufl.edu Lab/Collection: Paleobotany Project Description: Eocene fossil pollen survey. We will study the diversity of plants represented by their fossil pollen and spores retrieved from Eocene sediments, about 47 million years old from Wyoming for comparison with the information coming from fossil leaves and fruits from the same sites. This will require studying and photographing individual pollen grains using a transmitted light microscope, and possibly also using the scanning electron microscope and comparison with previously published pollen surveys. Skills Needed: Concentration at the microscope with smartphone turned off. Skills to be Gained: Photomicroscopy, Adobe Photoshop. Semester: Spring, Fall
Paleobotany – Plant Community Project Mentor: Francisco Nares – fnares@ufl.edu Lab/Collection: Paleobotany Project Description: Students will photograph and taxonomically describe conifer, cycad, and fern fossils from the John Day Gulch collection (Oregon fossil site, ~40 million years old). Tasks will involve fossil cleaning/preparation, digital photography, and inventorying/organization of specimens within the newly expanded Paleobotany collections space. This project is a component of my graduate research on plant communities in the Pacific Northwest during the ancient and dramatic climate change of the middle-late Eocene epoch. Students will have the opportunity to assist in formal documentation of previously identified species and description/naming of new species as a co-author for a taxonomic paper on the John Day Gulch flora for a scientific journal. Skills Needed: No previous experience needed, but work will involve the respectful handling and preparation of somewhat delicate fossils. Background in botany and taxonomy/systematics is helpful, but not required. Skills to be Gained: Hands-on experience in curation of museum collections. Learning about morphology, taxonomy, and systematics of fossil plants. Writing skills as a co-author on a manuscript. Presentation skills on scientific research. Semester: Spring
Vertebrate Paleontology – Megafaunal extinction Project mentor: Advait Jukar – advaitjukar@floridamuseum.ufl.edu Lab/Collection: Vertebrate Paleontology Project Description: Assessing the geography of the ice age megafaunal extinction in North America. Long been touted as one of the best records in the world to study the megafaunal extinction, it has become apparently recently, that there are several biases, most notably, geographic when it comes to the extinction of megafauna. Good quality dated megafaunal remains are not uniformly distributed across the continent. Furthermore, many taxa do not have many dates for us to be able to estimate extinction timing, or the geographic pattern of extinction. In this project, the intern will use a new data compilation of carbon dates from the lower 48 states (Kelly et al. 2022 American Antiquity), and supplement it with data from the last 4 years. The intern, in conjunction with the mentor will also develop a ranking scheme for the dates based on the available information in the database. The intern will also plot these data onto a map using ArcGIS and conduct basic analyses of range size collapse. This data compilation will be used to assess the quality of the fossil record for extinct megafauna in North America, and will serve as a spring board for future studies that will date and document this extinction. Skills needed: Microsoft office; Literature searches; logical reasoning; independent thinking Skills to be gained: Data management; data quality assessment; paleoecology; analytical extinction estimation; basic R; basic ArcGIS Semester: Spring, Summer, Fall
Once students identify a specific area of research, they may also consider applying to one of the two competitive UF programs, which provide stipends to fund their museum research experience.
The Emerging Scholars Program provides a stipend to undergraduate students involved in research projects with UF mentors. It is open to students in their freshman or sophomore year, with no prior formal research experience. Applications for the next round of funding are due November 22nd, 2024, and research will take place in the following Spring and Summer or Fall semesters. Students should submit their applications directly to the Center for Undergraduate Research as described at the above link. If there are more applications than the Florida Museum of Natural History is able to support, the museum’s University Teaching Committee will select the most meritorious
The University Scholars Program provides a stipend to more advanced undergraduate students involved in research projects with UF mentors. Research will take place during Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, and students cannot be graduating before May 2026. See the above link for more details.
The Florida Museum of Natural History expects to submit the applications of up to 5 students who are working with museum mentors. The museum’s University Teaching Committee (UTC) will therefore review applications and submit the most competitive for consideration by the USP program. Please email applications to the UTC Chair, Dr. Mariela Pajuelo (mpajuelo@ufl.edu), by February 14th, 2025, so that the UTC will have time to review them before the USP deadline of March 1. Applications should include:
1. The 2025-2026 USP application form, available here.
2. A one-page research summary.
3. Letter of support from FLMNH mentor, stating that the mentor will agree to supervise this project and providing any other information to support the student’s application.
If you have additional questions about undergraduate research opportunities or museum-related projects for undergraduates, please contact Dr. Mariela Pajuelo (mpajuelo@ufl.edu).