My name is Paul Kovacs, and I’m working on a project through the CNS which looks at the historical origins of nanotechnology in food. It has been great working with everyone here at CNS. Roger-Eardley Pryor, my mentor, has been incredibly supportive since the beginning. He has proved to be the best mentor I could have hoped for. The other mentors and interns here at CNS have been great to work with too. Through them I have been exposed to a wide range of interesting backgrounds and perspectives. Galen is extremely knowledgeable in anything related to politics and/or public policy. Cassandra has an encyclopedic knowledge of nanotechnology related activist groups. Kelli participated in the model UN and learned a lot about patent law, intellectual property, and scientific innovation policy. Merisa shares my sense of humor and is a lot of fun to joke around with. In short my “work” environment is interesting and fun.

I learn so many new things every day that I am here, my brain feels like it is bursting at the seams. I know I will walk away from this internship experience with both an extremely thorough understanding of the subject matter of my research, and a better appreciation of the work that academic researchers do. I’ve already learned so much, and it’s only the end of the third week. I wonder what I will have learned by the end of the eighth.