GEORGE PHILLIPS, PhD
Program Director
Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Professor of Chemistry
Rice University
This program is the continuation of a National Science Foundation grant (see September 26, 2018, Rice News).
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS!! Anticipated program dates for 2022 are 5/31/22 - 8/5/22.
The priority application deadline is February 15, 2022, although applications will be accepted until March 1, 2022. Click here to apply: reuapply.rice.edu.
Rice University is part of an exciting, multi-university collaboration to develop and sustain a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center called BioXFEL (Biology with X-ray Free Electron Lasers). BioXFEL is a consortium established in 2013 of eight U.S. research universities that addresses fundamental questions in biology at the molecular level. Using a recently-invented pulsed hard X-ray laser, our researchers can capture biological molecules in atomic detail, view their functional motions by taking brief snapshots, and observe interactions in their native environment. This opens up a new world to biology, to science, and to human health.
BioXFEL is sponsoring a summer internship program to be held at Rice University. This 10-week internship is designed to incorporate undergraduate students from the surrounding greater Houston area. Special consideration will be given to students from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as well as other underrepresented groups. Students will be given the opportunity to engage in scientific research projects involving crystallography, biochemistry, protein chemistry and other XFEL-related topics.
At the end of the 10 weeks, each student has the chance to travel to the XFEL facility at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) in the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford where they may present a poster on their summer project.
Participation in the program includes the following opportunities:
- General and site-specific lab safety training
- Scientific journal club
- Weekly lunch seminars with faculty presentations on various research topics
- Ethics training
- Field trip to the brain lab at Baylor College of Medicine
- Scientific oral and poster presentation practice
For details regarding previous BioXFEL summer interns and their research, please see 2016-2019 BioXFEL Research. More photos of this program, as well as additional IBB summer undergraduate programs, can be found in the links below.
2019 IBB Poster Symposium Awards
2019 Summer Undergrad Internship Gallery
2018 IBB Poster Symposium Awards
2018 Summer Undergrad Internship Gallery
2017 Summer Undergrad Internship Gallery
2016 Summer Undergrad Internship Gallery
Join the National Science Foundation BioXFEL Science and Technology Center on Facebook!