Undergraduate internships at the Annis Water Resources Institute
James N. McNair
Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute, Muskegon, Michigan
Announcement
I expect to have an available internship for a Grand Valley State University (GVSU) undergraduate during Spring/Summer 2025 or Fall 2025. GVSU undergrads in the natural sciences, natural resource management, engineering, mathematics, or statistics with interest in one of my current research areas, as presented on this website, are encouraged to contact me to discuss possible research projects.
Overview of AWRI undergraduate internships
Each year, the Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute (AWRI) offers undergraduate internships to current GVSU undergrads. These internships are based at AWRI and require students to put in a full day's work Monday through Friday and to provide their own transportation to and from the Institute. They include a stipend and research funds. Working with their mentors, students participate in the design of their research projects and play major roles in conducting them. In the past, some of these research projects have led to publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, with GVSU undergraduates as authors.
AWRI maintains modern analytical and GIS laboratories, as well as several boats (including an electrofishing boat) and ample field equipment for stream ecosystem research, fisheries research, and various other types of research in the aquatic sciences. Field equipment for stream ecosystem research includes numerous multiprobe sondes with built-in data loggers, state-of-the-art velocity meters, numerous light and temperature loggers, various conservative tracers, and standard hydrology equipment for characterizing stream channels. Also of interest are theoretical studies involving mathematics, statistics, and/or computer programming, for which our laboratory and field equipment are of course irrelevant.
Additional information about the various AWRI undergraduate internships, including how and when to apply, can be found here. Students interested in these assistantships are strongly encouraged to contact the AWRI faculty member(s) with whom they are interested in working to discuss potential research projecsts; this should be done well in advance of the application deadline for the particular assistantship of interest. .
AWRI is located in Muskegon, Michigan, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The Institute is situated on Muskegon Lake, which is a river-mouth lake that is fed by the Muskegon River and empties into Lake Michigan. We are about 40 miles by interstate from Grand Rapids, the second-largest city in Michigan, and about 30 miles from the main GVSU campus in Allendale, Michigan.