A Day in the Life of Metcalf Intern: Vinessa Fressola

Vinessa Fressola is an environmental science major at the University of Chicago (Class of 2026).

She's spending the summer at the Marine Biological Laboratory as a Metcalf Intern. The Jeff Metcalf SURF Program is an opportunity exposing University of Chicago students to the world-class science conducted at the MBL.

As a Metcalf intern, Vinessa working in the MBL Ecosystems Center with Assistant Scientist Ketil Koop-Jakobsen is researching the relationship between nutrient dynamics and infauna, small invertebrate organisms found living in sediments on the ocean floor. Using sediment samples, Vinessa is analyzing what infaunal populations can tell us about nutrient flux trends within the ecosystem.

Watch this video to see a "day in the life" of a Metcalf intern at the MBL!