For my practicum, I volunteered during the summer of 2025 in Dr. Karen Osborn’s lab in the department of Invertebrate Zoology at the Smithsonian NMNH. My main project centered around species delimitation of hyperiids. I didn’t get to the actual species delimitation methods, but I did the precursor work, which included building phylogenetic trees and organizing specimen data. The goal was to determine the relationships between hyperiid species and build a strong reference point that can be used in future research. My secondary project involved building a 3D model of a polychaete worm. This was for a researcher at Penn State, Dr. Michelle Quigley, who uses online models to make super cool hyperrealistic animations for polychaete worms. The goal of this was to make the worms more accessible to other scientists for study, since transporting specimens for research can be difficult. Additionally, the videos are excellent resources for the general public to learn more about polychaete worms.
I arrived at around 9:15 am and started by signing in. During the first few weeks, my time was spent on my main project, and all of my work was done on computers. I gathered sequences from GenBank, BOLD database, and existing NMNH records in Geneious. This usually involved making a FASTA (plain text) file with BBEdit for all the sequences I wanted to import into Geneious. After importing them, I aligned them so every sequence started in the correct position. To ensure uniformity, I had to trim off any extra bases at the beginning or end. I then selected the genetic code (invertebrate mitochondrial) and played around with the reading frames to find the best one. Trees were made using the FastTree feature. In this view, it was easier to see any sequences that stuck out. It was also interesting to look at the genetic distances between sequences from the same genus to determine how closely related species were in that genus. Trees were rooted using other hyperiids. The bigger trees I built with all the hyperiid sequences I could find were more time-consuming but very interesting to look at. The second part of this project was organizing Excel spreadsheets for specimen information. This included filling in the genus and species name, collection location, collector, USNM ID number, and if a CO1 sequence was available.
After the first couple of weeks, my primary focus shifted to my secondary project. This had a steeper learning curve, but I eventually learned how to use Dragonfly correctly to fill in the slices of the scan. My daily tasks included loading my previous work on a computer in the imaging lab, highlighting a rough estimate of what I wanted to fill in, and then outlining the estimate. I used the “fill inner areas” tool to fill in the body, then I skipped a few slices, repeated the same process, and interpolated between the slices. I then scrolled through and corrected each interpolated slice as needed. I ended up spending more time on this project because of technical delays, but I was extremely happy with the final result. The best part of my day was eating lunch with my fellow volunteers and the lab tech Anna Clark. I signed out and went home at around 5:15 pm. My volunteer schedule depended on my schedule for my part-time job, so I usually came in 3-5 times a during the week.
By performing this hands-on work, some of the concepts I learned in my introductory biology classes helped in my project. From Principles of Ecology and Evolution, I learned the basics of understanding phylogenetic trees. This was useful in determining monophyletic, paraphyletic, and polyphyletic groups. From Principles of Cellular and Molecular Biology, I learned the basics about genes, nucleotides, and reading frames. SGC Colloqium taught me that science isn’t linear and research can have many different aspects. Dr. Osborn wore many hats, which included mentoring us volunteers, collecting specimens in the field, writing papers, and preparing presentations for financial donors.
This experience has solidified my passion for a career in research and academia. I’m more interested in biology concerning human health and diseases, but learning about the ecology and evolution field was very interesting. I didn’t have any specific skills in mind at the beginning of my practicum, but I think I achieved my goal of soaking up as much knowledge as I could. I don’t think I’ll need to use any of this software in the future, but learning how to use them and experiencing roadblocks helped develop my computational and problem-solving skills. I feel more confident in my abilities to adapt to new software in the future. I would recommend this opportunity to future SGC students who are interested in evolutionary biology or building models in Dragonfly. Dr. Osborn created a lovely work environment, and there was never a boring day. Everyone in the department was very welcoming, and you can also learn about the research of other members.
Last modified: 8 March 2026