2006-2007 - The Field Museum

TRAINING PROGRAMS, 2006
Members of The Field Museum’s scientific staff contribute to a wide spectrum of formal and hands-on
training in collections-based research for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and young
professionals. Building on the Museum’s core subject matter in evolutionary and environmental biology
and anthropology/archaeology, these programs meet a variety of needs—from encouraging young
students to consider careers in the sciences, to training young scientists from other countries in research
techniques that enable them tackle environmental conservation issues at home. From suburban high
school interns to NGO scientists, from Chicago neighborhoods to the tropics, Field Museum scientists
lend their expertise to train future generations of biologists and anthropologists. The following is an
overview of the diverse array of training programs to which Field Museum scientists contribute.
UNDERGRADUATE INTERNSHIPS
Field Museum Scholarship Committee Internships. Each year The Field Museum supports threemonth
internships for undergraduate students and recent graduates to work directly with scientists at the
Museum on collections-based research projects. For summer 2006, six students worked on projects in
Anthropology (studying the impact of Christianity on the peoples of Western Kenya), Botany (working on
a revision of the Usnea strigosa group based on molecular and morphological data; gaining experience in
the taxonomy and systematics of Hymenomycetes, and learning the management of a fungi herbarium),
and Zoology (learning to systematically organize and label a collection [carabid beetles], and improving
identification skills; video recording feeding events of a coral reef fish species to analyze skull function
and compare skull anatomies; investigating the systematics of the yellow-faced horseshoe bats species
complex). The students hailed from the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of the Atlantic (Bar
Harbor, ME), University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of Toronto, University of Pennsylvania
(Philadelphia, PA), and the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.
Prince Internship. This program, funded by the Prince Charitable Trust, provides support for visiting
scientists as well as women and minority interns at the secondary and college levels. There were three
Prince interns in 2006: Celine Vaaler (Lawrence University) in CCUC created a comprehensive database
of resources related to the Lake Park Crescent project, compiling information through fieldwork in the
North Kenwood-Oakland neighborhood, interviews with relevant experts, and research on government
documents. Katherine Lauer (University of Chicago) worked in the Botany Department, assisting with
mycology research through field work, specimen processing, database entry, and other herbarium
assistance. Shannon Loomis (Northwestern University) gathered and analyzed images of fossil leaf
cuticles to measure “stomatal index,” a tool used to estimate CO2 levels in the fossil record.
Boone Scholars Internships for East Asian Studies. Supported by a bequest from the late
Commander Gilbert E. Boone and his wife Katharine Phelps Boone, the Boone Scholars Internships for
East Asian Studies allow highly qualified undergraduates the opportunity to study at The Field Museum
and research Anthropology collections from Japan, Korea, China, and elsewhere in the eastern part of
Asia. Boone Scholars engage in a wide variety of tasks, ranging from individual research to assisting
collections management teams in maintaining the collection. There were two Boone interns for 2006
under the supervision of Anne Underhill and Ben Bronson. Pendry Haines (University of Chicago)
conducted research on prints and stencils from historic Japan, and Craig Hadley (Beloit College) assisted
in preparations for the re-publication of a Fieldiana issue from 1923 (Vol. 16) about the Japanese tsuba
(sword hand guards) in the Frank W. Gunsaulus collection of sword decoration.
Anthropology Alliance Interns. This six-year old program, initiated by the “Anthropology Alliance,” the
Anthropology Department’s auxiliary “friends” group, supports undergraduate involvement in anthropology
research, including direct salary for Museum-based undergraduate collection management interns, and
travel expenses for interns assisting in archaeological or ethnographic field work. In 2006 three
Anthropology Alliance interns worked on the Department’s vast collections, and two assisted with
fieldwork. Lisa Nosek of the University of Illinois at Chicago worked on the Captain Fuller Sonaband
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