Established with the aim of increasing the outreach of Florida Museum programs across the UF campus, this internship award program seeks to support undergraduate students by facilitating their work on museum-based internship projects.
Internships are to be focused on gaining experience in collections work, laboratory analysis,and/or fieldwork. Awards supporting up to 80 hours of work during one semester will be funded.
Note: This internship may count toward QUEST 3 credits for students who wish to do so, though additional program requirements must be completed to receive full credit.
Eligibility:
Undergraduate students, including graduating seniors, enrolled at the University of Florida who can demonstrate how their involvement will expand the museum’s reach.
Students should not have had previous paid museum experience* or been in this internship before. Prior voluntary service does not disqualify.
* Conducting research, field work or outreach
Application Deadline:
Application for Spring 2026 open on October 20th and will close onNovember 9th.
Internship awards will be announced in mid-December 2025.
Awardee Agreement:
Successful Awardees will meet with their mentor and agree on project activities and work schedule soon after the start of classes. A progress report and summary, including project-related photos, will due near the end of the semester. Students will also be expected to give a lightning talk presentation about their internship experience.
Please review these examples of recent project reports of students in the program.
Before applying, please review the application to familiarize with the questions and all necessary information. Student without prior museum experience and those with previous unpaid museum experience are encouraged to apply. Students will select from a list of available projects (see below).
Once you have your information ready, click “Apply here”. Please note that we only accept applications submitted via UF qualtrics at the following link PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL YOUR APPLICATION
Funding for this internship program was provided by the Department of Natural History and iDigBio.
Spring 2026 Museum Internship Projects
Project mentor: Nicolas Gauthier Lab/Collection: AI for Human Ecology Project Description:The AI for Human Ecology lab is looking for creative students who want to learn how to use supercomputers to study our species’ role in Earth’s past, present, and future. We make maps and models of how climate, environment, and society interact, focusing on topics like food production, biodiversity, pandemics, warfare, and cultural evolution. Current projects include research on past societies of the US Southwest, Mexico, Tibet, and Mediterranean, but regional focus is open to student interests. Skills needed: Creativity and an interest in archaeology, climatology, or biodiversity. No experience required. Skills to be gained: Students will gain experience working with maps and spatial data using applications like Google Earth and develop basic coding skills for analyzing and visualizing spatial data. Semester: Spring, Summer, Fall
Project mentor: Andrea Torvinen, Neill Wallis Lab/Collection: Ceramic Technology Lab Project Description: The Ceramic Technology Lab curates more than 300 clay samples from 47 counties in Florida. We are seeking a detail-oriented student to assist with the compositional analysis of these clay samples using our portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) instrument. Tasks will include systematically analyzing clay samples, organizing and analyzing the compositional data, and creating visualizations (i.e., graphs and maps) of project results. This project expands upon previous research conducted by a former museum intern as an honors thesis. When our compositional analysis of the clay samples is complete, we will submit the project results for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Skills needed: No collections experience is necessary, but a basic background in archaeology and chemistry would be helpful. Attention to detail and an ability to work independently are preferred. Skills to be gained: Hands-on experience collecting and interpreting compositional data using a portable XRF instrument, as well as analyzing and presenting statistical methods. Semester: Spring, Summer
Project mentor: Zach Randall, Andrea Torvinen Lab/Collection: Digital Imaging Project Description: The Digital Imaging Division is seeking a detail-oriented intern to assist with the creation of 3D photogrammetry models of artifacts from the Epiclassic (600–900 CE) site of La Quemada, located in Zacatecas, Mexico. These models will be included in a digital archive of project excavations within the Digital Archaeological Record (www.tdar.org). Photogrammetry uses digital 2D photographs to create 3D models with life-like external textures. Examples of photogrammetry models can be viewed on our Florida Museum Sketchfab page (https://sketchfab.com/FloridaMuseum). Skills needed: Interest in archaeological collections, photography, and 3D technology. Attention to detail and an ability to work independently are preferred. Skills to be gained: Experience in photography, 3D model reconstruction, 2D and 3D image processing software, cultural heritage curation, and data management, including dissemination of 3D models to online resources. Semester: Spring, Summer
Project Mentor: Zachary Randall Lab/Collection: Digital Imaging Project Description: Are you interested in photography, 3D tech, and museum collections? Join the Digital Imaging team to help create 3D photogrammetry models of specimens from the Florida Museum’s biological collections. These models will be used in UF courses like Wildlife of Florida and shared publicly on platforms like Sketchfab to support teaching and outreach. Photogrammetry uses 2D photographs to build highly detailed 3D models with realistic textures—combining creativity with cutting-edge technology. As an intern, you’ll work hands-on with museum specimens and learn the full process of producing and publishing 3D models. Skills Needed: An interest in museum collections, photography, and 3D modeling—no need for prior experience. Skills to be Gained: Digital photography techniques, 3D model reconstruction using photogrammetry software, 2D and 3D image processing, how to safely handle museum specimens, how to manage and share digital models online. Semester: Fall
Project Mentor: Zachary Randall Lab/Collection: Digital Imaging Project Description: Are you interested in science communication, digital media, or fish diversity? This internship offers a hands-on opportunity to help design an online gallery for the museum’s Ichthyology (fishes) Division. The gallery will highlight the incredible diversity of fish species using already created 2D and 3D media, along with informative descriptions of diagnostic features. As an intern, you’ll work closely with the museum’s communications and imaging teams to help bring this project to life. Skills Needed: No previous experience is necessary—just curiosity and attention to detail Skills to be Gained: How to build and manage a website using WordPress, skills in science outreach and digital storytelling, organizing and curating digital content for public audiences. Semester: Fall
Project Mentor: Alan Franck, Lucas Majure Lab/Collection: Herbarium (Botany) Project Description: Digitizing the plant diversity of the world – To understand plant diversity and target conservation needs, the herbarium is digitizing its collection of about a half-million specimens. Priorities include specimens from the Neotropics, Paleotropics, historic sets from the 1850s-1970s, bryophytes, and lichens. We have a very unique collection, some of which needs meticulous curatorial work. Students can focus on a particular collection, plant group, or geographic area of interest. Remote work may be possible for bryophyte or lichen projects. Skills Needed: Interest in plant diversity Skills to be Gained: Curation and digitization of plant specimens, including databasing, photography, mounting, and filing, as well as various interesting tidbits about plant species that we work with. Semester: Spring, Summer
Project mentor: Maria Vallejo, David C. Blackburn Lab/Collection: Division of Herpetology Project Description: Frogs have a conserved body plan that makes a frog look like a frog, but there is a great morphological and ecological variability that has led to a current diversity of ~7800 living species found in a wide variety of environments from tropical rainforests to deserts worldwide (except in Antarctica). We are interested in using the fossil record of frogs to understand the origin of that diversity and the morphological characteristics that are associated with it. In this project, you will help us with the study of fossil frogs from North or Central America with the goal of documenting the past diversity and improving our understanding of modern frogs’ skeletal anatomy. We will work with CT-scans, fossils, and dry skeletons, to obtain qualitative and quantitative information. This project will contribute to a larger project describing fossil assemblages from North and Central America. Skills needed: Interest in 3D data, fossils, frogs, morphology. Experience manipulating small and delicate objects is preferred. Skills to be gained: Processing, visualizing, and presenting CT scan data, learning about anatomy, morphology, and ecology of frogs, writing skills, presentation, quantitative and qualitative data acquisition. Semester: Spring, Summer
Project mentor: Zuania Colón-Piñeiro, David Blackburn Lab/Collection: Herpetology Project Description: The diversity in amphibian reproductive modes, organized by water dependency, is key for understanding vertebrate adaptation to terrestrial habitats. In species that bypass the tadpole stage, females incur the cost of water independence by providing the necessary nutrients for development without food supplementation from foraging, resulting in larger, nutrient-rich eggs. Although reproductive modes are well-documented in most amphibians, comparative research on maternal provisioning is limited, likely due to challenges in measuring nutritional compounds in small eggs. This project aims to scale down current protocols for measuring compounds such as lipids and proteins in larger egg yolks so they can be applied to amphibian eggs. The developed protocols will enable us to use museum specimens to characterize maternal provisioning across amphibian reproductive modes. Skills needed: Attention to detail, organizational skills, and interest in amphibian diversity, museum collections, and dissection. Skills to be gained: Hands-on experience in dissecting museum specimens, gathering morphological data, and sample preparation; data management; writing skills; and potentially presenting research findings. Semester: Spring, Summer
Project mentor: Maria Vallejo, Edward Stanley Lab/Collection: Herpetology/Digital Imaging Lab Project Description: Many species of living frogs are described based on their external features, some ecological characteristics, and molecular data. Rarely, the skeleton is described in detail, which means that there is a lack of understanding of the anatomical details of living frogs. With this project, we will explore in detail the axial skeleton of frogs and toads using CT-scans of multiple species across phylogeny. We will document the morphological characteristics and differences of major taxonomic groups and evaluate the applicability of our findings in the fossil record. Skills needed: Interest in 3D data, frogs, morphology. Skills to be gained: Processing, visualizing, and presenting CT scan data, learning about anatomy, morphology, and ecology of frogs, presentation skills. Semester: Spring, Summer
Project mentor: Vaughn Shirey Lab/Collection: Lepidoptera Project Description: Butterflies are best known for their diversity of color and shape, yet these patterns remain relatively understudied across and within species. The Lepidoptera collection at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity hosts one of the largest collections of butterflies and moths in the world and is primed for understanding how environmental factors shape variation within a species. Interns will assist with the photography and digitization of the collection, focusing on a target group of butterflies, Parnassius, to understand how evolution and climate shape patterns of wing melanism and size. Skills needed: Organization, enthusiasm, and curiosity. Skills to be gained: Specimen photography and digitization, computer vision, and statistical eco-evolutionary analysis. Semester: Spring, Summer
Project Mentor: Keith Willmott Lab/Collection: McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity Project Description: Butterflies are one of the best studied groups of insects, yet in a number of tropical groups the true diversity of species and their relationships remain poorly understood. This lack of understanding hinders research on broader questions about species evolution, ecology and conservation. Researchers at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity are using DNA barcoding, a method involving the sequencing of a short, usually diagnostic region of DNA, to better understand diversity in complex groups of species. Students will learn methods for extracting and amplifying DNA and analyzing the resulting sequences, and apply the data to make inferences about species diversity. Students will also gain a deeper understanding of the process of taxonomy, the science of classifying organisms. Work will be based in the molecular lab at the McGuire Center and lab procedures will require students minimally to be able to work in the lab for several hours on each of two consecutive days each week. Students will also be expected to complete several online training courses to comply with environmental health and safety requirements. Skills Needed: Responsible attitude towards working in a shared lab space, including punctuality, respecting lab rules and etiquette, ability to carefully record notes, ability to perform repeated tasks with care and precision, inquiring mind. Skills to be Gained: Experience working in a multi-user molecular laboratory; practical experience in DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods, gel electrophoresis; improved understanding of approaches to taxonomy, the science of classifying organisms and studying organismal diversity Semester: Spring, Summer, Fall
Project mentor: Jonathan Nations, Meghan Holst, Verity Mathis Lab/Collection: Mammals Project Description: Small mammals are widespread and abundant across nearly all ecosystems on the planet, but, due to their small size and nocturnal, secretive behavior, can be difficult to study. In the Mammals Lab, we study small mammals (rodents and shrews) in Florida, among other places. In Southwest Florida, there are two different species that are of interest to our lab. First, ‘Sherman’s shrew’ is currently considered a distinct species, even though it is known only from a single park in Fort Myers. Its sister species, the Peninsular shrew, is widespread. We are interested in learning whether these constitute two species, or just one. Second, island populations of the Marsh Rice Rat, a widespread semi-aquatic rodent, are considered threatened, which may lead to them being declared ‘endangered.’ However, these rodents are very hard to trap and observe, so it’s unclear whether they are decreasing or just going unnoticed. We acquired pellets from a Great Horned Owl on Pine Island, a location where both focal species may live. These pellets are full of small mammal skeletons. The intern will remove and identify the bones in the pellets, informing which species exist on Pine Island and guiding future fieldwork efforts. Skills needed: Attention to detail, organizational skills. Skills to be gained: Mammal identification, anatomy, familiarity with mammal community ecology, phylogenetics, and evolution. Semester: Spring
Project mentor: Verity Mathis Lab/Collection: Mammalogy Project Description: Student will assist with the curation of a donation of skins and skulls of mammals, learning all the steps that get a specimen formally accessioned into the mammals collection—from cataloging, labeling, organizing, and integrating new specimens into the cabinets. There may also be opportunities to practice identifying and keying out unidentified species. Students may also work on other curation projects as they arise. Skills needed: Attention to detail, good handwriting. Skills to be gained: Basic curation skills, an understanding of the taxonomy of mammals, and possibly some identification skills. Semester: Spring
Project mentor: Megan Ennes Lab/Collection: Museum Education Research Group Project Description: This project will conduct a social network analysis of museum educators’ sense of community. We will conduct a survey and interviews to identify connections across the museum education field to better understand how community is built. The student will assist with survey development, interviews, data analysis, and manuscript writing. Skills needed: Organization, self-motivation, time management Skills to be gained: survey development, interviewing, data analysis, academic writing Semester: Spring, Fall
Project mentor: Hongshan Wang, Steve Manchester Lab/Collection: Paleobotany Project Description: The John W. Hall paleobotanical collection (approximately 20,000 specimens) is an orphaned collection transferred from the University of Minnesota to the Florida Museum. Because of research focus and limitation of storage space, only 3,356 specimens have been curated. The rest of the collection is still stored in cardboard boxes or in stacked drawers, which has restricted access for scientific studies and education purposes. Thanks to newly allocated space, the rest of this collection can now be properly curated. In this project, students will learn the entire process of curating fossil plant specimens, including cleaning and organizing specimens for proper storage, archiving digital and physical records, data checking, and data entry into the Specify database. This project provides a great opportunity for students to work with plant fossils of various preservation modes (compression/impression, petrification, etc.) and different ages (from the Paleozoic, ~350 million years old, to the present). Skills needed: Attention to detail and ability to follow directions, and an interest in museum specimen curation. Skills to be gained: Hands-on experience working with both fossil and modern plant specimens, experience in specimen preparation and curation, and collection database management. Semester: Spring, Summer
Project Mentor: Hongshan Wang Lab/Collection: Paleobotany Project Description: The Eocene Claiborne Group (50–38 million years before present) from southeast Unites States yields abundant well-preserved fossil plants. Many research papers have been generated based on these fossils to investigate paleoclimate, paleo-phytogeography, diversity and evolution of various plant groups, the diversity, paleo phytogeography. These plant fossils, especially those compressed leaves, also record past plant-animal interactions through insect-damaged leaves. Studying these insect-damaged leaves can help us understand past plant-insect interactions, herbivore richness in the paleoecosystems, paleoclimate changes, and paleoclimate changes. However, no research papers studying these insect-damages leaves have been published. In the project, students will work on a selected locality to sort the fossil leaves into different morphotypes based on their morphology, describe these leaves using a guide (e.g., Manual of Leaf Architecture by Ellis et al.), describe insect damage types (DTs) using the guide developed by a group of paleobotanists/paleoentomologists from the National Museum of Natural History, and photograph these fossils. The result will be a paper documenting the diversity of plant fossils, insect damage types, and their relationships in a scientific journal. Skills Needed: Experience working with digital camera, experience using Photoshop, and background in botany/zoology are helpful, but not required. Skills to be Gained: Hands-on experience in curatorial activities museum collections. Learning about morphology, taxonomy, and systematics of fossil plants. Writing skills as a co-author on a manuscript. Presentation skills on scientific research. Semester: Spring/Fall
Project mentor: Kaitlin Gardiner, Nikhil Srinivasan Lab/Collection: Science Outreach Communication Project Description: The Florida Museum’s Public Relations department is seeking a motivated and enthusiastic Outreach Intern to support community engagement and public awareness efforts. This intern will assist in planning and executing outreach events, building relationships with community partners, and promoting the museum’s mission, programs, and services to diverse audiences. Responsibilities include collecting and analyzing participant feedback, contributing ideas to enhance outreach opportunities, and supporting event logistics. The ability to work occasional evenings or weekends, as needed, is required. This is an excellent opportunity for individuals interested in science communications and education, nonprofit work, or social impact. Skills needed: Strong verbal communication skills, organization, self-motivation, and time management. Ideal candidates will have an interest in science outreach, informal education, or community engagement, and should be energetic, reliable, and comfortable leading small groups or activities for people of all ages. Skills to be gained: Community engagement, science communication, educational facilitation, public speaking, content adaptation, and technical knowledge related to topic-focused outreach. Semester: Spring, Summer
Project Mentor: Jen Green Lab/Collection: South Florida Archaeology Project Description:Students will assist with assessing archaeological museum collections to meet NAGPRA compliance deadlines for sites located in southern Florida. Tasks will include inventorying and recording artifact collections and digitizing site documents to create site summaries for federal compliance efforts. Skills Needed: No previous experience is necessary, but the work requires respectful handling of Native American objects of cultural patrimony and various museum documents. An ideal candidate will have attention to detail and ability to follow directions. Interest in working with archaeological collections desired, but not required. Skills to be Gained: Hands-on experience working with museum archaeological collections and associated documentation, experience in identifying and describing archaeological artifacts/Indigenous cultural materials, and experience in repatriation efforts. Semester: Spring
Project mentor: Jonathan Bloch, Advait Jukar, Rachel Narducci, Jason Bourque Lab/Collection: Vertebrate Paleontology Project Description: The Division of Vertebrate Paleontology hosts annual fossil digs for public volunteers with the current one located near Williston, Florida (~40 min drive from UF; Montbrook Fossil Dig https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/montbrook/). The site has been actively excavated since 2015 with over 120 different species discovered, avout 300 public volunteers per year, is dated to 5.5-6 million years old, and is now the largest curated fossil collection from Florida. We seek a student intern who is pursuing opportunities in paleontology, archaeology, or a similar field and is interested in gaining experience with field work and fossil preparation. Skills needed: Ability to work outdoors in direct sunlight and on uneven sandy to muddy terrain. Good manual dexterity is needed. Ability for weekend work is preferred. Skills to be gained: Students will gain experience with managing an active fossil excavation, understanding the grid system, coordinating public volunteer activities, identifying fossils in the field, and excavation and preparation methods for fossils from unconsolidated sediments. Semester: Spring
Intern Testimonials
“An invaluable opportunity to familiarize yourself with careers in scientific fields that often go unnoticed, gain research experience with a supportive mentor, and overall a great way to gain new experiences you might not receive anywhere else”
“My internship experience was a valuable one. I was able to gain hands on experience in artifact preservation and the techniques and measures taken to maintain cultural artifact collections. I had fun too and was able to meet new friends and mentors that will go beyond this experience.”
“This internship gave me a chance to gain a better understanding about the processes to acquire new items for collection and the work done to care for a collection”
The Florida Museum Undergraduate Internship Program (FMUIP) Committee organizes the internship program.
The Florida Museum Undergraduate Internship Program Committee:
Shyla Davidson (iDigBio member)
Jen Green (NH member)
Steve Manchester (NH chair)
Mariela Pajuelo (NH member)
Jerald Pinson (NH member)
Alberto Lopez Torres (EPP member)
Julian Correa (NH graduate student member)
John Slapcinsky (NH member)