Calvin Students Fare Well at Pfizer

August 31, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Two Calvin students recently made an impressive showing at the annual Pfizer, Inc. poster session for summer interns.

Senior Nathan Tonlaar, a biology student from Tamaly, Ghana, and Kelly Urness, a newly graduated chemistry major from Salem, Wis., were two of the five winners for best poster presentation in the competition, which featured the work of all 34 Pfizer summer interns who worked in the pharmaceutical company's St. Louis headquarters this summer.

Both Tonlaar and Urness (now a graduate student at North Carolina State University in organic chemistry) won for posters representing their work in cardiovascular research.

"That's an impressive performance for our students, based on the fact that they were competing with students from all over the country," says biology professor John Ubels, the coordinator of Calvin’s science internships.

The poster session, a requirement of the 10-week Pfizer internship, is not as informal as it sounds, Ubels adds. Indeed it is the primary means of communication at large scientific meetings.

Pfizer, Inc. is one of 13 sites where Calvin placed 22 biology interns in summer 2006. This total reflects the growth of the biology internship program (one part of a much larger science division internship program) which placed just five students as recently as 2002.

Jacob Bode, a 2001 graduate of Calvin's very first biotechnology class, a former intern of the Van Andel Research Institute and currently a scientist at Pfizer says the Calvin student interns came prepared and ready to work from day one.

For the full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/pfizer.htm

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Received on Thu Aug 31 10:11:47 2006