NEI Summer Intern Program

The NIH Summer Internship Program (SIP) provides opportunities for students to spend the summer working with some of the world's leading scientists in an environment devoted to biomedical research. Students from across the country come to the NIH to obtain knowledge and mentoring from scientists and physicians across the 27 Institutes and Centers who study a broad range of questions in biology and medicine.

The National Eye Institute (NEI), established in 1968, conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, mechanisms of visual function, preservation of sight, and the special health problems of individuals who are visually impaired or blind. Summer interns come to the NEI to participate in research projects that include but are not limited to age-related macular degeneration, ophthalmic genetics, retinal cell biology, the neurobiology of vision, and the immunology of the eye. Learn about individual NEI labs.

Interns typically work 8-12 weeks at the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD or at the Twinbrook facility at Fishers Lane in Rockville, MD. Internship start dates are May 21, June 4, and June 18, 2012; interns can begin on other dates with the permission of the Summer Intern Program Coordinator. Interns, with the permission of their mentors, can present at the NIH Summer Intern Poster Day on August 9th, 2012. They also have the opportunity to attend seminars and workshops hosted by both the NEI and the NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE).

To be eligible for the program, a student must be at least sixteen years of age by the internship start date and either a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Additionally, applicants must either be currently enrolled at least half-time in high school, or have been accepted or currently enrolled in an accredited U.S. college, university, or medical/dental school.

Students are selected by the principal investigator of each lab. Potential interns are strongly encouraged to contact an investigator to get more insight on his or her research and see if there are positions available. However, they cannot directly negotiate an internship in a laboratory; students must submit an application through the SIP web site to be considered for the program and to be eligible for a stipend.

For more information on the NIH program and to apply, please visit the OITE Student Internship Program website. Also, NEI has the Diversity In Vision Research and Ophthalmology (DIVRO) summer internship program for students from traditionally underrepresented groups in biology and medicine; more information can be found here at the DIVRO site.

For additional information on the NEI, please contact:

Dr. Cesar Perez-Gonzalez
Summer Intern Program Coordinator
cesarp@nei.nih.gov
Phone: 301-451-6763

Annual Program Highlights

• NEI Summer Intern Program 2009
• NEI Summer Intern Program 2010
• NEI Summer Intern Program 2011
• Read about one Student's experience.

Last Updated: December 2011