Make UR MARC Summer Fellowship

The Make UR MARC Fellowship has been designed to address the imbalance of underrepresented professionals in scientific professions by providing an in-depth, hands-on opportunity for these students to study alongside scientists well-established in their fields.This is a 10-week full-time paid fellowship within a UCSD laboratory for students who have completed at least one year of college. With guidance from a laboratory principal investigator and other staff members, the fellow will carry out a research project, which entails performing experiments, presenting their findings at a conference, and participating in discussions to determine the project’s scientific direction. 

 Program Requirements

  • The application must be submitted by March 17, 2023 at 5 pm PST.
    • The fellow must commit to a full-time position (40 hours/week) in the laboratory for the 10-week period. Dates can be adjusted based on the student's spring and fall start and end dates. Summer classes will not be permitted.
    • For UCSD students: June 26, 2023 - Sept 1, 2023
    • For non-UCSD students: June 12, 2023 - August 18, 2023
  • The fellow will be required to participate in laboratory and SRP activities, which may include journal clubs, weekly meetings with staff, seminars, etc.
  • The fellow will be required to present their work at the UCSD Summer Research Conference on August 17-18.

 Benefits

  • The fellow will be awarded a $5,000 stipend contingent on completing the program requirements.
  • The fellow will be able to work alongside and learn from professionals who are at various stages in their careers.
  • By the end of the program, the fellow will be able to perform a variety of basic and advanced laboratory techniques.

Applicant Eligibility

  • Applicants must have completed at least one full year of college prior to the program start date.
  • Applicants must be pursuing a STEM major with a focus in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, or related field.
  • A minimum GPA of 3.0 is required.
  • Applicants must be willing to commit to full-time program participation (40 hours/week for 10 weeks).

Considerations in Applicant Selection

  • Belonging to an underrepresented group in the scientific workforce (according to NIH definitions).
  • Expressed interest in pursuing a long-term career in scientific teaching or research.
  • Students with no or little prior lab research experience preferred.

Application Process

     Apply

To apply, you will submit an application using the link above. Top candidates will attend an interview before the fellowship awardee is announced. 

For any issues with accessing the application, please contact marcadmin@health.ucsd.edu.

In your application you will be able to provide us with your preference on a lab. Please refer to the descriptions below when answering the question in the application. While we cannot guarentee that you will be placed in the lab of your choice, but we will do our best to accomodate your preference. You can also refer to bios of our past fellowship awardees to see their experiences.

Dr. Miguel Lopez-Ramirez - The student will participate wet lab research pertaining to neurobiology.

Dr. Adam Engler - The student will participate in wet lab cancer research.

Dr. Sameer Shah - The research will be primarily imaging/image analysis and possibly some wet lab.

Dr. Saeed Jerban - The research will be primarily imaging-based. It may include acquiring medical imaging data from musculoskeletal tissues, measuring the mechanical properties of the tissues, and analyzing the data using available codes in Matlab software. The student will also be performing experiments.

Dr. Monica Guma - The student will participate wet lab research.

The fellowship awardee will be announced the week of April 14th.