Founded in 1987 by the late David Packard, MBARI is a nonprofit oceanographic research center advancing marine science and engineering to understand our changing ocean. Located in Moss Landing, California, the heart of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, MBARI offers ready access to the open ocean and deep sea. Ongoing research programs range across autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicle systems, control technologies, ocean physics, chemistry, geology, biology, ocean instrumentation, and information management. MBARI hosts approximately 200 employees, with shore facilities that include state-of-the-art science and engineering laboratories, manufacturing and electrical fabrication shops, and dock facilities for MBARI vessels.

The Carbon Flux Ecology Lab at MBARI is seeking a Science Illustration Intern. Our team studies the ecological mechanisms that control how the ocean takes up carbon dioxide, and regulates climate. We study the organisms that produce organic carbon in the surface, the sinking particles (i.e. “marine snow”) that transport that carbon into the deep ocean, and the deep-sea organisms that control whether that sinking carbon makes it to the deep ocean where it is sequestered for long time periods.

We are seeking an illustrator intern to join our team, and to help us communicate the complex ecosystem interactions that lead to deep sea carbon sequestration. The intern will also help us visualize how our scientific instrumentation makes deep sea observations. The intern will work closely with a team of scientists and engineers working on several projects with overlapping goals. The intern will be expected to produce two types of illustrations in the medium of their choice. One product type will be used to help us communicate the big- picture importance of the complex ecological and biogeochemical topics of our work. The second product type will visualize how our instruments are deployed and the environment in which they are collecting observations. These illustrations should visualize complex processes that are difficult to explain concisely, and visualize remote deep-sea environments that are difficult to capture through traditional photography.

This position is funded with support from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation and includes a total of 4 months of salary at $20 /hr. Interns do not receive employee benefits beyond workers compensation insurance. The period over which work is performed is negotiable, but must be completed by December 2025, on a schedule mutually agreed upon by the intern and the Carbon Flux Ecology lab. The intern will be encouraged to participate in day-long research cruises aboard the R/V Rachel Carson in Monterey Bay in July 2025. At that time, we will be deploying new instruments on the seafloor using ROV Ventana.

Desired qualifications:
• Graduate of the CSUMB Science Illustration Program
• Curiosity about marine ecosystems and ocean engineering
• Ability to distill complex concepts into readily understandable graphics
• Excellent communicator
• Ability to seek out feedback on their work
• Desire to make observations at sea
• Demonstrated ability to work and collaborate with an interdisciplinary team
• Ability to complete all 4 months of the internship by December 2025