About the Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center
We are a biological resource collection of about one million non-living, dried plant specimens that document plant diversity. Our coverage is global, but our emphasis is on the southern U.S. and Mexico. Our oldest specimens date back to the 1760s and we annually accession 8000-10000 new ones. These specimens act as documentation for scientific studies by faculty, students, biologists at other agencies and organizations, and citizen scientists. They also are the starting point for various kinds of collections-based research. Note that this kind of collection has a very minimal public exhibit component and mostly serves to support research and education opportunities for its community. For more information, please visit https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/collections/plants.
Internship Details
Interns learn the various tasks involved in running our facility, including specimen handling and preparation, records-keeping, shipping and receiving, label transcription into our database, and imaging, among other things. Then the internship focuses on a specific activity (project) for the remainder of the semester.
We would expect 10-12 hours per week to total about 160 hours for the semester.
We can pay our students $9.50/hour ($9.90 for seniors).
The internship does not require prerequisite classes in biology (or even a biology major), but it does require attention to detail and the ability to perform repetitive tasks accurately.
COVID-19 Information
It should be noted that this internship has to be in-person and cannot be performed remotely because of the hands-on nature of the activities. To that extent, scheduling will be needed to minimize the number of persons in our facility at any given time during the pandemic.
Application Process
To apply, please email your resume to Dr. George Yatskievych, the Center Curator, at george.yatskievych@austin.utexas.edu.
If this is your first employment at UT Austin, new employee paperwork involves an I-9 certification. This requires an in-person visit to the Office of Human Resources to submit your citizenship or visa documents. Intern must also agree to a standard background check.