The 2010 Class of NEI Summer Interns and their Mentors: Back row: (left to right) Megan Casady, Dr. Christian Antolik, Dr. Lance Optican, Ragha Suresh, Kian Kamgar-Parsi, Michael Mobaraki, Michael Ayele, Gill Guo, Dr. Nataly Strunnikova, Dr. Yuri Sergeev, and Matt Rapp. Second row: Dr. Xinjing Wang, Kerry Goetz, Jaime Temple, Abitha William, Candice Craig, Dr. Jun Chen, Andrew Zureick, Dr. Santa Tumminia, Haoxing Chen, Alecia Gibson, Neena Passi, Dr. Patricia Becerra, Stephane Guerrier, Raidel Redondo, and Dr. Jung Wha Lee. Third row: Stephanie Kuo, Dr. Reiko Horai, Dr. Rachel Caspi, Dr. Sheldon Miller (Scientific Director), Dr. Michael Redmond, Krysten Chapa, Lauren Dalvin, Dr. Chandra Nagineni, Nader Ganjbaksh, and Anand Bhatt. Front row: John Tran, Angel Jiao, Dreka Williams, Dr. Sarah Sohraby (Deputy Scientific Director), Rima Kikani, Dr. Wei Li, Dr. Sharon Milgram (Director, NIH OITE), and Dr. Cesar Perez (SIP Coordinator).
Thirty summer interns and special volunteers joined to the NEI in the summer of 2010 to conduct research in different areas of ophthalmology and vision research. These students, from a number of high schools, colleges, and universities around the country, spent eight to twelve weeks working in various labs across the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD, and the NIH Twinbrook Campus in Rockville, MD.
In addition to their time in the laboratory, students participated in a lunch with NEI Scientific Director Sheldon Miller, Deputy Scientific Director Sarah Sohraby, Dr. Sharon Milgram of the NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE) , and their mentors to welcome them to the institute and provide an opportunity to discuss career development and the science occurring at the NEI. Additionally, students visited the NEI Eye Clinic and heard lectures by Dr. Jodie Pope, a postdoctoral fellow in the NEI’s Unit on Retinal Neurophysiology and by Dr. Dhanu Meleth, a clinical fellow in the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications. They also had the opportunity to attend workshops, seminars, and journal clubs hosted by OITE.