Sonia Alcantar selected for internship with Department of Energy

2017 Feb 17

Sonia Alcantar of Gainesville, Georgia, is one of three recent graduates of the University of North Georgia awarded internships with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to study at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington.

Alcantar is working as an intern at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Alcantar, one of four children, is the first member of her family to graduate from a university. She has been involved with undergraduate research since her sophomore year, and graduated in December 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in biology.

"In addition to the spring 2017 SULI opportunity at PNNL, I was also selected as an intern for summer 2017," Alcantar said. "My current research is being conducted in a boreal peatland forest in northern Minnesota made up of black spruce. There are multiple sections which are "encased" by their own individual greenhouses which allow the scientist to control the environment, specifically that of the temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which vary by location."

As part of the DOE, a cabinet-level department of the national government that oversees policies regarding energy and safety on nuclear material, the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) provides research experience at DOE laboratories to college students on current programs or ones chosen by the intern.

SULI interns are provided a salary for their work in the laboratories as well as expenses during their stay. Each intern receives $500 per 40-hour workweek for the duration of the 16-week program.

"The DOE SULI program is very competitive and highly respected. I am exceedingly proud of the hard work these students have put into their undergraduate research over the years. They have clearly received impeccable mentorship from many in the biology department," said Dr. Anastasia Lin, assistant dean of research and scholarship at UNG.