Summers of Discovery

Summers of Discovery at NIEHS

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is one of 20 institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Unlike most of the other institutes in the NIH, the NIEHS is located in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. NIEHS takes a leadership role in science education outreach. Scientists at NIEHS are committed to sharing with students and educators the intensity, excitement, sense of discipline, and tremendous satisfaction that careers in science can impart to those who pursue them.

To this end, the Division of Intramural Research (DIR) has established the Summers of Discovery Program for which Intramural Research Training Awards (IRTAs) are given to outstanding high school, college undergraduate and graduates students interested in pursuing careers in the biomedical/ biological sciences. Scientific disciplines within the DIR include neurosciences, biophysics, genetics, carcinogenesis, reproductive and developmental biology, chemistry, pharmacology, pulmonary pathobiology, classical and functional toxicology, clinical research, statistics, biomathematics, epidemiology, computer modeling and risk assessment.

Participants are selected by scientific mentors from the Intramural program and are expected to spend between 8 to 12 weeks (during May through September) working on a research project that entails exposure to the latest biochemical, molecular, and analytical techniques in that field. The research mentoring experience is supplemented by a series of seminars featuring some of the Institute's leading researchers. Collectively, the seminars give the summer participants a good overview of environmental health sciences as practiced at NIEHS.

There is also a poster session at the end of the summer where participants display the results of their research efforts and respond to questions as though they were participating in a national scientific society meeting.