We're hiring undergraduate research interns
An opportunity for U of Arizona undergraduates early in their scientific career
The Carini lab is looking for two undergraduate interns to assist our researchers with lab maintenance and research! This is a paid position that requires you to be enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona. We’ll be accepting applications until October 24th, 2025, with a start date in early January. This is an exciting opportunity to join our growing team.
About the Job
We are hiring for two distinct positions in the Carini lab to provide specialized support for our California Institute for Biodiversity (CIB) Soil Microbe Cultivation Project and cross-project support in microbial growth media preparation for all ongoing Carini Lab projects. The first position is to assist with the California Institute for Biodiversity project, where we’re working to culture as many new bacterial species from California soils as possible. You’ll learn to process soil samples, cultivate soil microbes on different growth media, pick colonies, extract DNA, and prepare DNA for sequencing. The second position is a microbiological growth media preparation specialist. The media specialist will be responsible for media preparation across all our projects, including agar plate preparation, broth preparation, and anaerobic medium preparation. In either role, you’ll begin working on these topics gradually—we require no prior experience. We’ll teach you everything you need to know so you can grow into the position.
Your training will begin with acclimating to how our lab functions: washing dishes, receiving and shelving orders, preparing occasional outbound shipments, and other general lab upkeep. You’ll also have infrequent administrative duties related to lab inventory and safety requirements. These responsibilities will lay the foundation for you to become an active contributor to the research in our lab group and give you time to adjust to our daily operations. Ultimately, we want to teach you how to perform experiments, collect data, and contribute to our publications.
As you progress, you’ll learn a variety of lab skills as needed for your role and how to troubleshoot problems as they arise. Note that we don’t expect you to do all these things without supervision right away—you’ll be paired with someone to oversee your work, and your responsibilities (and confidence!) will grow over time.
What are we looking for?
Ideally, you’ll be early in your collegiate career (freshman or sophomore) and interested in gaining laboratory research experience. You might not have worked in a lab before. We’re ready to take someone with little or no research experience and help them find their footing as they begin their research career. We’ll set your direction and let you take ownership, ask questions, make decisions, fail, learn from mistakes, and see things through. We know you are here to learn, and we expect that you’ll make mistakes. You’ll be able to communicate clearly with your colleagues, work across several different projects, and lend a helping hand when needed. You’ll love doing research and will be excited to check on your experiments (even when results are hard-fought and experiments don’t always work). You understand that research requires attention to detail and meticulous, organized note-taking. You understand the details matter as much as the result of the experiment. Your ability to communicate clearly and a strong track record of meticulous, considerate work speaks volumes.
Our lab is in the Keating building on the north side of campus. The work for this position requires that you work in-person in a large lab space shared with four other research groups. You’ll be supervised through a combination of in-person, asynchronous, and/or remote communication. You’ll need reliable transportation to and from the building. We’re located right at the end of the streetcar line.
As an undergraduate, your primary responsibility is your coursework—full stop. We understand that and offer flexibility around your schedule. To start, you’ll be able to work up to 10 hours per week at $14.70 per hour. As you take on more responsibility and grow confident in your new position, we’ll extend your hours and pay accordingly on a semester-by-semester basis. Summers are opportunities for progress on our projects, and we expect your availability during the summer to help reach our research goals. We strongly encourage candidates of all different backgrounds and identities to apply.
How to Apply
Please submit a resume and cover letter that directly addresses your interest in one or both positions. Tell us about yourself, your favorite classes, about what you can bring to our group, and about our role in your future. Tell us about what you’ve done and what excites you. We’ll also happily accept a traditional, well-constructed cover letter full of personal touches and that shows us how much you want this job.
We’re accepting applications until Friday, October 24th, 2025. Email your application materials as a single .pdf attachment to Dr. Vivianna Sanchez at viviannasanchez@arizona.edu. You’ll get a reply from Dr. Sanchez when your application is received.
What happens after you submit?
We expect to take a few weeks to review all applications. Here is how we review applications. You’ll hear from us by the week of November 24th about advancement to the interview stage. Expect up to two interviews (one via zoom and one in-person), up to 30 minutes long, with your future colleagues. We’ll send you our questions in advance so there are no surprises.
We appreciate you giving us that consideration, and we promise to give you our full attention in return. We look forward to hearing from you!