Yale Community

Project Description:
The Yale Ancient Pharmacology Program (YAPP), in partnership with the Peabody Museum’s Botany Division and the Yale Herbarium, seeks an intern interested in understanding firsthand how scientific field research and museum collections inform and support one another. YAPP’s ongoing investigation of the past includes understanding the role particular plants, especially those commonly known today as hellebores, played in the highly developed medical and ritual practices of Ancient Greece.  

The city of Antikyra was famous in antiquity for the quality and application of its local hellebore species in the treatment of illnesses ranging from gout and melancholy to epilepsy and insanity. Last summer, the YAPP research team uncovered rare, surviving wild stands of hellebore on and near Mount Helicon, just 15 miles from Antikyra in Central Greece. In May of 2025, we will be returning to the region with botanist and collections manager Patrick Sweeney to continue our ethnobotanical research, including the collection of hellebore samples for phytochemical analysis. Dried and prepared plant specimens will be contributed to the collections of the Yale and University of Patras herbaria.  

Our summer intern would be mentored daily by both museum scientist Andrew Koh, principal investigator of YAPP, and Patrick Sweeney during their 6 weeks with the program. They would travel with the team to learn the permitting process, meet with our local partners, and receive training in and opportunities to practice specimen field collecting and documentation techniques, including methods for drying and preparing museum-quality samples. Upon return from the field season, they will be guided through the formal cataloguing and accession process in the Yale Herbarium. They would then spend the final weeks in the YAPP Lab on West Campus receiving guidance on ethnobotanical textual research/analysis and the development of material for a potential exhibition. The project will culminate with an essay on their experience and the development of exhibit labels, supplemental digital materials, and a proposal for a small-scale exhibition for potential inclusion in the Peabody Museum’s public galleries in the future.  

Timeline: 
Weeks 1-2  

• Fieldwork and plant collection in Greece w/ YAPP field team 
• Perform initial plant survey  
• Plant specimen collection and processing 
• Photo documentation 
• Assisting as needed with other aspects of YAPP fieldwork 

Week 3  

• Cataloguing and accession in the Yale Herbarium w/ Patrick Sweeney 
• Herbarium training and orientation 
• Specimen processing and preparation for the collection  

Weeks 4-6 

• Textual analysis and ethnobotanical research in the YAPP Lab w/ Andrew Koh 
• Reading and synthesizing ancient and contemporary texts that mention hellebore  
• Exhibition development and essay writing  
• Creation of digital supporting materials and exhibit labels 
• Completion of a final essay

Advisors:
Andrew Koh (Peabody Museum Scientist and YAPP PI)
Patrick Sweeney (Peabody Museum Collections Manager)
Chris Renton (YAPP Program Manager ) 

Length: 6 weeks

Stipend: $3,750

Project Description:
In 1961, The Birds of Guilford, Connecticut was published by the Yale Peabody Museum. It was an annotated list of the bird species found in Guilford, CT, collected by Dr. Locke Mackenzie. Many of these birds were observed by Dr. Mackenzie from 1920-1961, however, the author also reviewed published literature and corresponded with experts to build a list. In the forward, Roger Torey Peterson writes “Connecticut is changing. Woodlands and marshes have been drenched with DDT and other pesticides. Even familiar birds may be profoundly affected at times.” Though DDT has long been regulated, Connecticut birds face new and persistent threats that risk their habitat – climate change, urbanization, shoreline armoring, pesticide use, and microplastic pollution, to name a few, all pose a risk to CT’s avian wildlife.   

We propose a summer internship in which the selected student will generate a new list of the birds of Guilford, CT, to better understand the changing avian fauna since the last comprehensive assessment in 1961. Dr. Mackenzie was an amateur, but prolific: he observed these birds across every season to ensure a comprehensive list. In his words: “An attempt has been made to cover each portion of the area at every season, and this has varied from a few days to a few weeks at a time, the major portion of each day being spent in the field.” We cannot expect a summer intern to replicate 40 years of observation data in an 8-week period, so we will use a combination of methods to compile our list, including direct observations, recent publications, and community observations via iNaturalist.

Timeline:
The first week, we will introduce the student to iNaturalist, and best practices in literature review. We will also work in the collections to familiarize the student with the common birds in the area. In weeks 2-5, the student will work one day a week in the field, one day a week in the collection, and the remaining time working on reviewing literature and iNaturalist observations. In weeks 6-8, they will work on compiling the various datasets to create a comprehensive assessment, and analyze their data.  

Advisors:
Dr. Natalie Mastick (Student Programs Postdoctoral Associate at the Peabody)
Piper Stepule (Museum Assistant, Vertebrate Zoology)

Mentorship plan:  
This internship will be supervised by Postdoctoral Associate and ecologist Natalie Mastick, and Museum Assistant and ornithologist Piper Stepule. The student will accompany Natalie and Piper in the field for excursions to the main habitat types in Guilford, CT, to photograph and identify different bird species. To supplement, the student will work with data on the Peabody’s ornithology collections from Guilford, and research-grade community observations from iNaturalist to develop a list of the bird species of Guilford, CT for 2025. The student will then conduct an analysis to determine the percent change in biodiversity, which species have been lost from this region, and which have moved in. Natalie will work most closely with the intern on research and analysis, while Piper will work more closely on bird identification in the field and collections best practices. They can expect to meet with their mentors once a week. 

Potential outcomes:
This research could culminate in a report published by the Peabody Museum. 

Length: 8 weeks

Stipend: $5,000

Project Description:
Caribbean rain frogs (genus Eleutherodactylus) are highly diverse, with dozens of endemic species found across the Caribbean. The Caribbean island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) is home to 67 species of rain frogs that occupy a diverse range of macrohabitats (such as trees, rock, water, and ground) and microhabitats (arboreal, semiarboreal, petricolous, bromelicolous, riparian, terrestrial, and fossorial). Each micro and macrohabitat is associated with different opportunities, setting up the possibility for morphological and ecological specialization. This diversity in the ecological niches allowed for morphological disparities in limb, cranial, and toe morphology. The goal of this project will be to collect and analyze skeletal data and compare differences in morphology to better understand the evolution of rain frogs’ ecomorphology. 

The YPM intern will learn how to collect morphological data from museum specimens available in the YPM and other collections. Interns will have the opportunity to prepare specimens to be micro-CT scanned for 3-D visualization. Scanning will be conducted by Henry Camarillo, but the intern may observe and assist with the process. Interns will have the opportunity to post-process micro-CT scans and collect morphometric data (cranial, limb, and toe morphology). This will include: the segmentation of structures of interest and generation of 3D mesh files, landmarking of mesh files to quantify skeletal shape, and implementation of statistical and evolutionary methods utilizing the R programming language. Specifically, the intern will use morphological data they collect and learn how to do comparative evolutionary analyses between Eleutherodactylus species. This project has the potential to lead to a continued undergraduate research position in the Fall semester, senior thesis project, presentation at conferences, and/or publication in peer-reviewed journals. 

Timeline:  

• Week 1: Introduction to the Eleutherodactylus group; introduction to scanning, segmentation, and landmarking methods. 
• Week 2-6: Data collection period. 
• Week 7: Final steps to data collection, conduct evolutionary analyses, and begin preparing for the final presentation. 
• Week 8: Final internship presentation and document draft.  

Advisors:
Dr. Martha Muñoz (Assistant Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History) 
Henry Camarillo (Graduate Student of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) 
Isabela Hernández Rodríguez (Graduate Student of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) 

Mentorship Plan:  
The intern will receive direct mentoring from two graduate students, Isabela Hernández Rodríguez and Henry Camarillo. Isabela will mentor the intern in understanding the evolution of Eleutherodactylus, presentation preparation, and potential manuscript writing. She will meet biweekly (digitally) with the intern to discuss updates during the internship. Henry will mentor the intern on the methodology and data collection process and will be available in person to answer any methodological questions during the internship. He will meet weekly (although will be available to help with methodological questions throughout the entire course of the internship). As an outcome, the intern will be taught the specimen preparation and scanning processes, as well as data collection methods.  

Outcomes:
The intern will be encouraged to publish a peer-reviewed paper in a scientific journal. In addition, the intern will have the opportunity to present work at the 2025 northeast regional and/or national meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB 2026 in Portland, OR).

Length: 8 weeks

Stipend: $5,000

Project Description:
We invite undergraduates to participate in a skeletal morphology research project during the summer of 2025, working with a curator and postdoctoral fellow from the Yale Peabody Museum (YPM). This project will focus on a diverse group of African monkeys, the guenons, and in particular on two genera Chlorocebus and Cercopithecus. Although molecular evidence indicates these are distinct groups that diverged millions of years ago, they are skeletally very similar and difficult to distinguish based on their skeletal anatomy alone. This has implications for determining the taxonomic status of a specific taxon, the poorly known Chlorocebus dryas.  

Chlorocebus dryas is known from only a handful of specimens (many of which are housed here at the YPM). Although it is included in the genus Chlorocebus based on molecular phylogenetic analyses, it shares some morphological similarities with Cercopithecus. It also has some unique features that are not found in either genus. Thus, whether Chlorocebus dryas is a true member of Chlorocebus, or whether it represents a new genus, is still an open question. This project will quantify craniodental variation within and between Cercopithecus and Chlorocebus to ultimately help determine the taxonomic position of Chlorocebus dryas.  

The undergraduate researcher will contribute to this important question by investigating the comparative anatomy of Cercopithecus and Chlorocebus specimens housed at the YPM. They will learn cranial anatomy of Old World monkeys and collect linear measurements on available specimens, and then statistically analyze these quantitative data for taxonomic signal. The effect of body size on these measurements will also be investigated by testing for allometric scaling patterns. The undergraduate researcher will therefore learn comparative craniodental anatomy, morphometric data collection, and statistical analyses in R.  

Timeline:
Approximately two weeks are allocated to learn cranial morphology and the measurement protocol, three weeks for data collection and comparative study, and one week for data analysis. This timeline is flexible and may be revised as needed. This project can be expanded to a senior thesis, presentation at a professional conference, and/or publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Advisors: 
Professor Eric Sargis (YPM Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology and Vertebrate Zoology)
Postdoctoral Associate Julia Arenson (Anthropology and YIBS)

Length: 6 weeks

Stipend: $3,750

Project Description:
Digenean flatworm parasites have a complex life cycle that involves multiple hosts. Some of these parasites have a three-host aquatic lifecycle that involves a free-living stage, aquatic snail and fish intermediate hosts, and a bird definitive host. Infection in fish hosts is indicated by black spots, or metacercaria cysts, on the skin and fins of fishes both in marine and freshwater environments. These black spots are used as a diagnostic tool to identify “black spot disease.” While these metacercaria result in only minor pathology on the fish host when accumulated over the duration of the fish’s life (Lemly and Esch 1984, Lagrue and Poulin 2015), they may be able to serve as an indicator for environmental quality (Taglioretti et al 2018; Huspeni et al. 2004; Stout et al. 2022). Trematode abundance can be influenced by several factors, including definitive host abundance, temperature, and nutrients (Altman and Byers 2014, Resetartis and Byers 2023). A study comparing infection rates across several sites along a river in Northern California showed a correlation between black spot infection and temperature (Schaaf et al. 2017). Metacercaria have also shown a negative correlation with pollutants (Flores-Lopes et al. 2011). One of the most prominent trends detected is the abundance of trematodes corresponding to the abundance of definitive bird hosts (Beyers et al. 2015; Resetartis and Byers 2023). However, infection has also been observed to vary at small spatial scales (Beyers et al. 2015; Resetartis and Byers 2023), therefore different fish species may exhibit the disease depending on their pattern of overlap with the other biotic and abiotic factors that impact parasite and intermediate host survival. If metacercaria are similarly influenced by biotic and abiotic factors at small spatial scales, the presence of this disease in fish may indicate high environmental quality and ecological health.  

Black spot disease is detectable in fluid-preserved fish (McAllister et al. 2013), which presents a unique opportunity to detect changes in infection from a species collected from the same water body over time. Minnows are especially well-represented in the Peabody’s ichthyology collection, are repeatedly sampled from the same drainages, and are common carriers of black spot disease. As some of these freshwater bodies harbor protected species, studying change in an ecological indicator species over time could reveal changes in previously undetected threats to protected species.  

In Fall 2024, Jones Kim, a student from the Collections of the Peabody course, worked to determine which common species in the collection are infected by black spot disease. Jones counted infection in true minnows (Notropis spp.) and found that Notropis telescopus is the most commonly infected species. This was an essential step to determine which species are candidates for monitoring environmental and ecosystem health over time and laid the foundation for a temporal study of change in infection over time with relation to environmental factors and definitive host abundance.  

In this project, a student researcher will determine if there are differences in infection in the fish in the Peabody collection that can be attributed to one of the known factors influencing trematode abundance. They will survey the collection of Notropis telescopus, as well as two other common minnow genera in the area, Campostoma spp. and Pimephales spp., and count cysts in a representative sample, spanning one drainage system in Kentucky and Tennessee. They will then search for open-source data on temperature, bird abundance, and pollutants to include in their analysis. The student will analyze the data and determine which variables influence black spot disease the most in this system: year, season, temperature, bird abundance, site, and pollutants.

Timeline: 
Week 1-2: learn to identify black spot disease, conduct a preliminary review of Campostoma spp. and Pimephales spp. to determine which have the disease. 

Week 3-6: select specimens of all three species to examine for black spot disease, examine for and quantify cysts. 

Week 7-8: find open-source data on potential drivers and incorporate them into a linear model. 

Advisors:
Dr. Natalie Mastick (Student Programs Postdoctoral Associate at the Peabody)
Dr. Greg Watkins-Cowell (Senior Collections Manager, Vertebrate Zoology, Herpetology, Ichthyology)

Mentorship plan:
Natalie and Greg will help the student select specimens for their project. Greg will teach them appropriate collection handling. Natalie will train them to identify black spot disease, to find open-source data, and to conduct linear model analyses. They can expect to meet with their mentors once a week, with the expectation that they will meet more frequently at the beginning of the summer.

Potential outcomes: This research could culminate in a peer-reviewed article. 

Length: 8 weeks

Stipend: $5,000

Project Description:
Strepsiptera is an order of parasitic insects that parasitize a wide range of insect hosts, including wasps, bees, leafhoppers, crickets, and cockroaches, among others. However, the extent of host species is unknown, especially in North America. Strepsipterans have a life cycle atypical among insects, and extreme sexual dimorphism. Larvae have legs and seek out new hosts, and once inside the new host, they develop into either a male or a female. The males are free-living, resembling small flies, with short lifespans. Because they only live a short amount of time, male strepsipterans are rarely observed. Females of many species are completely dependent on their host, lacking wings, legs, and eyes and living their entire lives within their host. They produce eggs that hatch inside of them, and then the larvae eat the mother from the inside. Female strepsipterans inhabit the underside of the segments of the host insect’s abdomen and are often visible in both living and dead host specimens. Strepsipterans have a long evolutionary history and appear in the fossil record. Specifically, male strepsipterans have been observed in fossils from the Green River Formation from the Eocene, but no research has been done on why they appear at such a high frequency, relative to the infrequent detection of male strepsipterans in the wild today.  

Currently, the prevalence of strepsipteran specimens in the Peabody collections is unknown. In this project, the summer intern will investigate the extent of modern strepsipteran hosts and the prevalence of strepsipterans in the fossil record in the Entomology and Invertebrate Paleontology divisions. This project will require reviewing scientific literature to learn about strepsipteran hosts and developing a list of possible hosts in the Entomology collection. The intern will then spend time in the Entomology collection surveying known host species and suspected hosts for strepsipteran infections. They will also spend time reading through literature on prehistoric strepsipterans, followed by spending time in the Invertebrate Paleontology collections assessing Green River fossils for both male and female strepsipterans. The intern will then write up their findings, which will shed light on the possibility of research on strepsipterans in existing museum collections, and may lead to findings on previously unknown strepsipteran hosts.

General timeline:  
Weeks 1-2:  

• Learn literature review methods 
• Learn how to navigate EMU 
• Review literature 
• Develop a list of possible host species 
• Learn how to identify strepsipterans in the Entomology collection 

Week 3-5:  

• Look for strepsipterans in possible host species in the Entomology Division collection 
• Enter data into EMu 
• Write up Entomology Division findings  

Week 6-7:  

• Search through the Invertebrate Paleontology collection, with a focus on Green River Formation material, for strepsipterans 
• Work with Invertebrate Paleontology staff to ensure data is put into EMu 
• Write up Invertebrate Zoology Division findings 

Week 8:  

• Finish writing up results 
• Make presentation for Internship Symposium 

Advisors:
Dr. Natalie Mastick (Student Programs Postdoctoral Associate at the Peabody)
Dr. Nicole Palffy-Muhoray (Student Programs Associate Director at the Peabody) 

Mentorship plan: 
Nicole and Natalie will work directly with the intern to teach them how to find strepsipterans in insect hosts. Nicole will teach them how to identify male strepsipterans in fossil specimens, and Natalie will work with them on learning effective literature review methods. They can expect to meet with their mentors once a week, though they will likely meet more often at the beginning of the summer. 

Potential outcomes:  
This project could culminate in a presentation at a professional society conference like the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, and possibly a peer-reviewed publication in the Peabody Bulletin. 

Length: 8 weeks

Stipend: $5,000

Project Description:
The deep sea is now being recognized as a cradle of vertebrate diversity. Yet, very little is still known about the skeletal morphology of deep sea fishes. Whalefishes (Cetomimidae) are a lineage of at least 20 species of mostly large-bodied fishes that appear to be an important component of large predator guilds in the bathypelagic and abyssopelagic zones (> 1000 meters depth). Intriguingly, whalefishes also show a variety of morphological features, including numerous small teeth and very large, elongated mouths, that are reminiscent of putative extinct filter-feeding fishes in the clade †Pachyormidae, which includes the largest ray-finned fishes known. As such, whalefishes might provide an important point of comparison for understanding the ecology of pachyormids and testing whether these and other putative extinct filter-feeding lineages actually exhibited that specialization. In this Peabody Internship Project, the student will become familiar with using high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scan data to examine the comparative anatomy of vertebrates. Using CT scans made using Peabody specimens and from public repositories (morphosource.org), the student will examine the skeletal osteology of whalefishes and form a hypothesis for the evolution of the distinctive anatomy of the skull in this clade. The project will involve computational work on campus in the Near Lab and Peabody Museum Ichthyology Collections (both in ESC), as well as one or two possible collections visits to nearby museums (American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY; Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC) if needed.  

Advisors:
Thomas J. Near (Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Bingham Oceanographic Curator of Ichthyology, Peabody Museum) 
Chase D. Brownstein (Graduate Student, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) 

Length: 8 weeks

Stipend: $5,000 

Project Description:
Provenance is an important and quickly growing field vital to the existence of any institution which houses antiquities, artifacts, and/or art. The Yale Babylonian Collection of the Yale Peabody Museum, home to roughly 40,000 objects from the ancient Middle East, provides an expansive repository for provenance research. Accompanying the collection’s objects are a robust archive of curatorial correspondence, photographs, photo negatives, academic notes, and other document types, which record the provenance of the collection.  

This internship will teach the participant how to conduct provenance research on ancient Middle Eastern objects, handle archival materials, as well as interact with ancient objects themselves. In working with the Yale Babylonian Collection Provenance Initiative, the participant will learn how to identify, search for, investigate, and document provenance information in a set standard format used at the Yale Babylonian Collection. In addition to learning how to work with provenance data, the intern will contribute to ongoing provenance research at the collection and help to collect new data on objects. By the completion of the internship, the participant will have documented the provenance for a set group of objects and drafted, with the aid of mentors, a final provenance report on said objects.  

Themes and topics touched upon throughout the internship will include:  

• Ethics vs. legalities of collecting 
• Investigation and research  
• Antiquities laws: change, shift, and impact in Iraq 
• Cultural heritage  
• Object handling  
• Archival research  
• Provenance documentation and recording practices  

Timeline: 
Phase 1 (Week 1): Introduction to the Yale Babylonian Collection and Provenance Research  
In phase one of the internship, the participant will be introduced to three groups of knowledge: historical background of the Yale Babylonian Collection as it relates to provenance research, object and archival materials handling skills, and provenance research methods and recording procedures. In learning these skills, the participant will begin to document the provenance of objects at the collection to practice research and recording skills.  

Phase 2 (Weeks 2-6): Provenance Research at the Yale Babylonian Collection 
Phase two of the internship will consist entirely of archival and investigative research to document and identify the provenance of a selected group of objects from the Yale Babylonian Collection. Working alongside the Yale Babylonian Collection’s provenance researcher, the participant will compile provenance entries, digitize evidentiary materials, photograph objects (if needed), and record information necessary for the final provenance report. The participant will also learn how to research and write dealer biographies, an important element of provenance research which utilizes genealogical research.   

Phase 3 (Weeks 7-8): Final Provenance Report Drafting  
Phase three of the internship, the final two weeks, will consist of final report drafting during which time the participant will learn through hands on experience how to compile and write a provenance report on the group of objects selected for provenance research. The participant will include all compiled provenance entries from phase two in the report and work with Lassen and the YBC Provenance Researcher to ensure the final report meets collection standards.  

Advisors:
Agnete Lassen (Associate Curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection)
Sophie Slotwiner-Nie (Yale Babylonian Collection’s Provenance Researcher)

Mentorship Plan:
The intern will work with Agnete Lassen and Sophia Slotwiner-Nie for the duration of the internship. Lassen is the Associate Curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection. Slotwiner-Nie is the Yale Babylonian Collection’s Provenance Researcher. Most of the intern’s time will be spent learning methods, historical content, and gaining hands on experience with Slotwiner-Nie at the Yale Babylonian Collection on the third floor of Sterling Memorial Library.

Length: 8 weeks

Stipend: $5,000

Project Description:
What can a 200-year-old box of plants tell us about New England’s changing flora over the past two centuries? 

In the first decade of the 19th century, Roswell Moore, a resident of Stonington, Connecticut collected, pressed and dried, and identified hundreds of plant specimens, which were recently donated to the Yale Peabody Museum Division of Botany. These specimens are among the very earliest records of many plant species occurring in New England and are thus invaluable sources of scientific data for ecological research and biodiversity conservation efforts. In order to be maximally useful for research, these specimens are in dire need of curation and conservation. 

This project will have a conservation/collection curation component that includes researching the provenance of the specimens, rehousing the specimens, and confirming the identifications of the included species. Additionally, there will be a strong research-oriented component that will focus on utilizing data from this collection and other sources to help better understand floristic change in Connecticut and New England. 

Advisor:
Mariana Di Giacomo (Natural History Conservator at the Peabody Museum)
Patrick Sweeney (Senior Collections Manager in the Peabody’s Division of Botany).

Mentorship Plan: 
Mentoring of the student will be split between Patrick Sweeney in the Division of Botany and Mariana Di Giacomo in Conservation. The amount of time spent in each unit will be dictated by the type of work required. During the internship at least one mentor will be available to meet/work with the student. Skills and techniques will be taught by Sweeney and Di Giacomo. In addition to routine, daily face-to-face interactions that occur as part of training/teaching/research, at least one weekly one hour ‘office hour’ type meeting will occur. 

Outcomes:
Immediate outcomes are well-curated specimens and data for research. Potential outcomes include a short paper, conference talk, and deeper understanding of spatiotemporal plant distribution patterns in New England. 

Length: 6 weeks, with a beginning date of June 2 and an end date of July 11

Stipend: $3,750