Undergraduate Intern Computational Biology

Position: Undergraduate Intern for Computational Biology
Overview

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate (EBSD) leads critical research in four areas:
Atmospheric, Climate & Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Environmental Molecular Sciences, and Global Change. Our vision is to develop a predictive understanding of biological and Earth systems in transition. We aim to understand energy and material flows within the integrated Earth system; to understand, predict, and control the response of biosystems to environmental and/or genomic changes; and to model the Earth system from the subsurface to the atmosphere.

The Biological Sciences Division has 17 collaborative, interdisciplinary biology-based teams to tackle major challenges in ecosystem sustainability, bioenergy, human health, and national security. Teams use unique field sites, advanced instrumentation, and integrated computational approaches to explore molecular-scale processes. Strategic efforts focus on advancing molecular measurement capabilities, uncovering the structure and function of molecular dark matter, identifying control points in complex systems, and developing domain-aware AI to accelerate discovery and hypothesis-driven research.

Responsibilities

The Computational Biology group in Biological Sciences Division is seeking summer undergraduate interns to develop their computational skills by participating in a variety of projects in computational biology. Interns should expect to work in multidisciplinary teams on computing and data analytics tasks across the spectrum of omics applications. Interns will be supported and guided by project and management mentors, and build their network of colleagues through team-based project work.

Candidates will contribute to analysis, development of software technologies and algorithms, and publications such as manuscripts and presentations.

Successful candidates will be responsible for learning software and algorithm techniques under supervision of mentors to support ongoing multidisciplinary projects. Tasks may include modeling and simulation, data analytics, graph theory and analysis, statistics and machine learning/AI, or other relevant techniques to support project goals. Some candidates may additionally qualify to observe work in wet lab locations.

This position will be located onsite at our Richland, WA campus.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

* Candidates must have a high school diploma /GED or higher

* Candidates must be degree-seeking undergraduate students enrolled at an accredited college or university

* Candidates must be taking at least 6 credit hours and have an overall cumulative GPA of 2.50

Preferred Qualifications:

* Some familiarity with mathematics and a willingness to apply these principles to computational biology

* Experience with Python, R, and/or other common programming languages and analysis tools

* Some background in biological sciences with special emphasis on omics and/or bioinformatics

Hazardous Working Conditions/Environment

Not applicable.

Testing Designated Position

This is not a Testing Designated Position (TDP).

About PNNL

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a world-class research institution powered by a highly educated, diverse workforce committed to the values of Integrity, Creativity, Collaboration, Impact, and Courage. Every year, scores of dynamic, driven people come to PNNL to work with renowned researchers on meaningful science, innovations and outcomes for the U.S. Department of Energy and other sponsors; here is your chance to be one of them!

At PNNL, you will find an exciting research environment and excellent benefits including health insurance, and…