North Star STEM Alliance & MnDRIVE Partnership

This summer, University of Minnesota junior Kovic Odhiambo has been poring over computational data on bacteria, searching for a few genes that could set the stage for more eco-friendly fertilizers.

“We’re looking at the specific sequences within the bacteria,” he said. “We’re looking to see the abundance of these genes in each different phylum, and what environments they exist in.”

Odhiambo, a statistics major from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, is one of 14 students participating in a summer research internship offered through a collaboration between the North Star STEM Alliance and the state-funded MnDRIVE program. North Star STEM, part of a network of similar programs funded by the National Science Foundation, provides academic support, undergraduate research, and professional development to underrepresented minorities in Minnesota working toward bachelor’s degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) fields.

Read the full story on the Inquiry Blog.