Catrina Hood of East Barre, Vt., has been selected for the 2016 NH-INBRE Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. A member of the class of 2017, Hood is a pre-med student majoring in biology.

"This is a great achievement for Catrina as there are a lot of applicants," said Professor of Natural Sciences Benjamin Steele, who noted that SURF will allow Hood "to participate in scientific research in a very real setting – in a lab with graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research assistants and a faculty leader."

SURF will provide housing, a food stipend, support for poster presentations and GRE study materials, among other opportunities.

"During my sophomore summer at Colby-Sawyer, I was selected to work as a research assistant for Professor Joshua Steffen investigating plant-herbivore interactions," said Hood. "I am grateful for the work I started in his lab, as it helped me realize that research is something I am passionate about in addition to clinical work with patients. I hope the SURF program will allow me to see how medicine and research are used together in a clinical setting."

Hood will begin the program in June and return to Colby-Sawyer for the fall 2016 semester.