Undergraduate Summer Interns 2023

Alex Choiniere

Alex Choiniere is a rising senior at the University of Maryland majoring in Music Performance and minoring in Sustainability Studies. His personal research interests include climate change adaptation, environmental justice, and biodiversity conservation. His supervisors this summer are Dr. Rachel Goldstein and Dr. Leena Malayil. He is currently working on a scoping review of the water quality in Nepal, developing a needs-assessment survey for the Maryland FEWtures alliance, and working in the Water Quality, Outreach, and Wellness laboratory. He hopes to gain valuable research and networking skills in this internship program.

Sreeja Puthumana

Sreeja Puthumana, a first-year graduate student in the computer science program at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Her own research interests include the potential applications of machine learning in human health care. During her DAWN internship, she worked on a project with Dr. Megan L. Matthews that studied the impact of combining crop modeling elements into machine learning models. Through the CONSERVE/DAWN program she aimed to learn more about the research process and increase her knowledge of the challenges that researchers attempt to resolve.

Reema Mohamed

Reema Mohamed is a junior at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities majoring in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management with a focus on Policy, Planning, Law and Society. Her research interests are agricultural practices in drought-ridden areas and environmental justice regarding water quality and how it disproportionately affects minority communities. This summer she is working with the DAWN Extension team at the Institute on the Environment. Her work focuses on end-user engagement and providing improvements to web usability, which include creating user guides, editing web content, reviewing industry standards for web usability, and collaborating across teams to promote proactive communication within the project. This summer she hopes to strengthen her networking and communication skills and to gain more experience in the communications field

Patrick Wang

Patrick Wang, a rising sophomore at the University of Michigan pursuing a Data Science major. I have a keen interest in the health field, as well as machine learning and AI. Currently, I am thrilled to be working on an exciting research project in collaboration with Dr. Kaiguang Zhao and Dr. Xuesong Zhang. Our aim is to explore the potential of deep learning techniques in predicting soil properties using spectroscopy. Through this internship, I am eager to gain valuable research experience and generate significant results that can be shared with the community.

Changwen Ding

Changwen Ding is a sophomore at the University of Maryland studying Public Health Science. She is interested in environmental health, toxicology, and microbiology. She is working with Dr. Malayil and Dr. Murray on the Maryland Safe Drinking WATER project this summer. She hopes to gain lab skills, experience with all sides of academia, and a better understanding of the topics that fall under "environmental health" as a whole.

Marleigh Nicholas

Marleigh Nicholas is a senior at the University of Arizona studying hydrology and Atmospheric sciences. I am interested in the effect that development and use of land have on water supplies. I am working at UNL with Dr. Laila Puntel and Laura Thompson doing on-farm research centered on nitrogen fertilizer management in corn. My goal for this internship is to learn more about how other areas of the country manage their water supply and some of the new technologies being used to advance farming practices.

Rachel Hillman

Rachel Hillman is a rising senior at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is pursuing a degree in Environmental Science and Technology, with a concentration in Soil & Watershed Science. This summer, she is working in Dr. Rachel Goldstein’s Water Quality, Outreach, and Wellness Lab, where she is helping with the Rainwater Harvesting in Urban Agriculture Project, among others. Through CONSERVE, she is excited to experience environmental microbiology from a public health perspective, specifically by helping farmers utilize collected rainwater safely. In her free time, you can find Rachel crocheting, spending time with friends, and enjoying the outdoors!

Melina Petenatti Muñoz

Melina Petenatti Muñoz, is a student from the National University of Río Cuarto, in Córdoba province, Argentina. My major is Agronomic Engineering, I'm in my last year of study, senior. My personal research interests are based on optimizing resources, like in this moment, water use. Dr. Christopher Neale is my supervisor here at the Daugherty Water for Food Institute, University of Nebraska. In my internship I’m helping to test the spatial evapotranspiration modeling interface (SETMI). I hope to gain experience about farming in Nebraska, and get training on the use of modeling for my future professional career.

Miranda Mathews

Miranda Mathews is a recent graduate with a degree in Public Health Science from the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland. I am interested in exploring how the effects of climate change impact different cultures and socioeconomic groups, with the hope to make the impacts of climate change more equitable in the future. I am currently involved in the CONSERVE summer internship with Dr. Leena Malayil and Dr. Rianna Murray, focusing specifically on The Safe Drinking Water Project. Through working in a laboratory environment, I hope to gain a better understanding of different laboratory techniques, especially how it applies to ecological systems such as the ocean, air, water, and living organisms.

Felipe Gomes

Felipe Gomes is from Brazil and is a senior student of Agronomic Engineering at the University of São Paulo (ESALQ – USP). His interests are focused on precision agriculture in corn, soybean and wheat. His mentors are Dr. Laila Puntel and Dr. Guillermo Balboa from the University of Nebraska. Felipe joined the NRATE project which aims to improve nitrogen management in corn. His activities mainly involved the collection and processing of research data. His goal is to improve his technical, practical, and personal knowledge for more sustainable food production, and he believes he can achieve this through his participation in the CONSERVE/DAWN project.

Aide Gaitan

Aide Gaitan liked to be called Hazel is from Dallas Texas and is currently going to Kalamazoo College. I am a rising senior; my major is Environmental Studies with a math minor. My personal research interest is how maize agriculture production is affected by climate change. I am currently working for DAWN with Dr. Nupur Joshi and Dr. Elizabeth Abraham. My research project is a literature review on user stories and think-aloud and how they impact agriculture. What I hope to gain from participating in the DAWN summer internship program is having to understand how the research field works within the agriculture industry and how climate change impacts agriculture today.

Guenevere Baierle

Guenevere Baierle, originally from Chicago, and is currently go to Kalamazoo College as a senior this upcoming year. My major is Biology with a concentration in Environmental Science and a minor in Studio Art. I hold an interest in researching animal behavior and how animals interact with their environment. For this internship, I'm working with Dr. Nupur Joshi at Kalamazoo College. Our research includes the methodology of user stories and think alouds within climate surveys. From this research, I hope to gain a better understanding of how climate change has not only affected the agriculture, but the overall well being of the environment, which goes in line with conservation research that I want to do post-grad. With the research I am doing, I hope to go further and develop better techniques for research, and to improve my writing and presentation skills which will help in future research.