We are accepting applications for summer 2025!
The Echinacea Project is looking for enthusiastic graduates or soon-to-be graduates for paid internships starting in June 2025 and running for 5-12 months. We are looking to assemble a team with diverse skills and interests, and we encourage individuals with a bachelor’s degree in biology, botany, entomology, statistics, computer science, or a related major to apply. We especially encourage applications from individuals belonging to groups underrepresented in science. All levels of experience are encouraged to apply.
This internship is a great opportunity for aspiring ecologists, conservation biologists, and evolutionary biologists to gain research experience and learn about the ecology and evolution of plants and insects in fragmented prairies. Read more general information about our field season!
Job description
Abby (research intern 2023-2024) records the spatial location of an Echinacea plant using a GPS unit
As a research intern, you will play a key role in supporting and contributing to ongoing research on the conservation genetics, reproductive biology, and demography of the prairie plant Echinacea angustifolia. Summer fieldwork occurs in western Minnesota, and greenhouse and lab activities are at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Interns will also have the opportunity to conduct an independent research project. This project may involve field research, lab activities, data management and analysis, developing computer software, or other activities depending on the intern’s goals and interests. Potential project topics include: fire ecology, mating compatibility, rare plant conservation, plant-aphid-ant interactions, plant quantitative genetics, hybridization, software development, restoration ecology, and plant-pollinator interactions.
As an intern, you will engage in many aspects of scientific research, outreach, and mentoring. Tasks during the summer include database management, experimental plot management, supervising data collection, and discussing science with other interns. At the Chicago Botanic Garden, you will participate in a variety of research and conservation-related activities, attend seminars, and interact closely with conservation scientists, graduate students, interns, researchers, and volunteers associated with Plant Conservation Science at the Chicago Botanic Garden and the graduate program in Plant Biology and Conservation at Northwestern. Interns will spend time managing Echinacea Project volunteers and mentoring students. Tasks with volunteers include teaching protocols and answering science-related questions. In collaboration with the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Echinacea Project hosts a number of high school and undergraduate students over the fall, winter, and spring. Interns will mentor these visiting students on independent projects and engage them in lab activities.
Desired skills and experience include completing tasks independently & on time, communicating clearly in writing, paying attention to detail, and working effectively with people from diverse backgrounds. We seek interns with experience using R or the desire to learn. Other valuable interests or experience include but are not limited to: performing outdoor physical work in adverse conditions, computer programming, supervising community scientists, mentoring students, conducting artificial crosses, organizing and curating specimens, automating systems, conducting outreach, growing plants, and identifying insects. If you are interested, please apply and let us know what you can contribute and what you hope to learn!
Applications will be reviewed starting on February 18th, 2024 at 11:59 pm CST and filled on a rolling basis. Salary is commensurate with experience. Housing in Minnesota during the summer is included.
Mia (research intern 2020-2022) harvests porcupine grass (Hesperostipa spartea)
How to apply
- Please fill out the online application form.
- Send a cover letter, your resume, and a transcript (unofficial OK) in one email to echinaceaProject@gmail.com. Use the subject line: “research intern application” and format your cover letter, resume, and transcript as pdf files. Begin each file name with your surname.
- In your cover letter, please include:
- why you are interested in this position
- what are your future plans
- what you hope to gain from the experience
- when you can start and end
- your email and phone number
- In your cover letter, please include:
- Please ask one of your references to send a letter of recommendation to echinaceaProject@gmail.com.
Review of applications will begin on February 18th, 2024 at 11:59 pm CST. We’ll accept applications until the position is filled. Be sure to include an email address and phone number where you can be reached in February.
Members of groups underrepresented in science and those who have had few to no experiences with research are particularly encouraged to apply. Depending on funding, to be eligible for one position you must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or permanent resident of the United States.
More information
First, read about our field season! If you have any questions, contact a team member via e-mail. Read about our lab and field activities on the flog and more about the project’s background. To learn more about fire and prairie plants, check out this video that we made.
Wyatt (intern 2023-2025, center left) and Maddie (intern 2024-2025, upper right) discuss Echinacea pollen and nectar collection with other team members in a prairie remnant
