Education and outreach are central to MBARI’s mission of advancing marine science and engineering to understand our changing ocean. Our Summer Internship Program introduces students to careers in marine science, engineering, and education through an immersive internship with an MBARI mentor and networking with local science organizations.

On July 23, MBARI hosted research interns from the Summer Systematics Institute program at the California Academy of Sciences, giving our summer interns the opportunity to meet fellow undergraduate students researching topics like anthropology, botany, geology, invertebrate zoology, and scientific illustration. Five Summer Systematics Institute interns and four California Academy of Sciences staff toured MBARI’s research facilities to learn about advanced underwater robotics, applying artificial intelligence to ocean exploration, and operations aboard a state-of-the-art research vessel. This was the third summer MBARI has hosted interns from the Summer Systematics Institute program.

On July 29, MBARI’s 13 summer interns visited the California Academy of Sciences to tour their research collections and museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, learning about opportunities in museum-based research.

Launched in 1996, MBARI’s Summer Internship Program is more than a traditional research experience. Open to undergraduate, graduate, and early-career professionals—including international candidates and educators—the 10-week paid internship is designed to help the next generation of marine researchers discover their passions, from marine biology and robotics to data science and communications.

For more than 30 years, the California Academy of Sciences’ Summer Systematics Institute has addressed critical topics at the intersection of science and society, such as threats to biodiversity, the origins and diversification of life, phylogenetic systematics, and evolutionary biology. This 10-week paid research internship offers students important insights into the contributions that museum-based research can make to issues facing society today.

MBARI and the California Academy of Sciences have a long history of collaboration that extends beyond our internship programs. MBARI scientists frequently engage expert taxonomists from the California Academy of Sciences to identify deep-sea animals, and many of the specimens documenting MBARI’s species discoveries are housed in the museum’s scientific collections.