Work Schedule Type:

Internships may be on-site, hybrid, or virtual.

Student Requirements:

Students must be 16 years old before the start of the internship. They must have a driver’s license and their own transportation to the internship.

Mission

To optimize military operational readiness through cutting-edge research on warfighter, veteran, and family health.

About the Lab

NHRC was established in June 1959 as the U.S. Navy Medical Neuropsychiatric Research Unit (NMNPRU). The first formal longitudinal research study started in spring 1960. In 1974, by authority of the Chief of Naval Operations, NMNPRU was redesignated as NHRC, with the mission to study military medical and psychological aspects of health and performance. We are one of the eight laboratories within the Navy Medicine Research & Development Enterprise. Together, we support military mission readiness with research and development that delivers high-value, high-impact solutions to the health and readiness challenges our service men and women. NHRC’s team comprises researchers and scientists whose areas of expertise include physiology, microbiology, biomedical engineering, psychology, epidemiology, and software engineering. Our staff is a mix of active-duty service members, federal civil service employees, and contractors who are dedicated to our vision of being DoD’s premier operational health research center.

What is unique about this lab?

NHRC is comprised of a worldclass team of over 350 researchers dedicated to improving the lives of our service members and their families. The command is strategically located on Naval Base Point Loma near downtown San Diego. It houses infectious diseases laboratories, warfighter performance testing spaces, and on-site servers for epidemiological research. Highlights of some of NHRC's efforts include Theater Medical Planning, the Millenium Cohort Program, Rapid Response assessment of mental and behavioral health, sleep and fatigue management, effects of extreme environments, physical and cognitive research, and virtual reality and other novel technologies for monitoring, sustaining and improving warfighter health.

About the Internship

We are seeking motivated individuals with an interest in expanding their knowledge and developing their hands-on experience in applied science related to warfighter health. This could include studying physical health and wellness, behavioral and psychological health; injury prevention and rehabilitation; physical and cognitive performance; medical modeling and decision support; health systems research; operational infectious diseases; and medical informatics and longitudinal epidemiology studies.

What will I do any given day as an intern at this lab?

Assisting mentors with guided research projects, attending seminars or conferences, attending technical meetings, job and project shadowing with professional researchers, participating at outreach events, professional development activities, team and leadership development, and touring labs. Presenting a final oral presentation and poster display.

What majors and disciplines are a good fit for interning at this lab?

• Behavioral Science
• Computer Science
• Medicine/Health
• Physics
• Physiology
• Programming
• Psychology
• Statistics and Probability

What will I learn as an intern at this lab?

Summer interns may have hands-on data collection experiences in the lab or in the field, use their analytical skills for processing and understanding data, or use their creative skills to promote and disseminate research. They may work in any aspects of the research project - from idea development, protocol submission, execution of research methodology, and/or analysis and dissemination of findings. They will gain experience in a unique and professional workplace that has a meaningful mission.

What kinds of projects do interns at this lab participate in?

1. Holistic monitoring of musculoskeletal injuries in US Marines
2. Development of an Enhanced Heat Tolerance Test and Database to Improve Clinician Return-to-Duty Decision Making Following Operational Heat Injuries
3. Developing faster, more robust, and validated data collection and processing algorithms for measuring and monitoring physical and physiological performance of warfighters in a field environment
4. Development and validation of wearables for human performance, injury, and return to duty monitoring
5. Use of advanced analytics on large-scale databases for development of algorithms and models of physical and cognitive aspects of warfighter performance (digital twinning)
6. Examining the prevalence, correlates, and outcomes of traumatic brain injury
7. Studying psychological health conditions and their impact on operational readiness
8. Analyzing key aspects of musculoskeletal injuries in the military to include incidence, healthcare burden, predictive factors, cost, and rehabilitative outcomes
9. Long-term quality of life among military personnel injured during deployment
10. Health disparities within demographic subgroups (e.g., women/men)
11. The study of shipboard populations and the epidemiological patterns of illness/injury that most impact fleet health
12. Assessing the short- and long-term outcomes of combat injury
13. Exploring the impact of military-related factors on the auditory health of service members
14. Examining the co-occurrence of two or more medical conditions (i.e., multimorbidity) and what impact this has on overall health and individual readiness
15. The use of advanced analytics (e.g., machine learning, artificial intelligence) to improve the healthcare of military personnel
16. Surveillance for operational infectious diseases
17. Assessing the impact of deployment and various aspects of military service on military readiness and health outcomes