Gwendolyn Cooper, a doctoral student at Montana State University, will graduate with a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the university’s fall commencement ceremony on December 12. Cooper expressed concern early in her studies that pursuing a doctorate might require her to narrow her research focus more than she preferred.
“I’ve had this problem my whole life of being interested in everything,” Cooper said. “Typically, Ph.D. students almost become hyper-focused in one area. I didn’t want to do that because I think I would get bored if I only worked on one thing.”
During her time at Montana State University (MSU), Cooper found support for interdisciplinary work through the lab of her adviser, Brian Bothner, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Bothner recommended she apply to MSU’s Extreme Biofilms National Research Traineeship Program (NRT), which was established in 2021 with funding from the National Science Foundation.
The NRT program is designed to provide graduate students with skills for various careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). Participants receive stipends and tuition support for two years, take interdisciplinary courses, attend professional development training, and have opportunities for paid internships at national laboratories or with industry partners.
Professor Brent Peyton and assistant research professor Dana Skorupa lead the NRT within MSU’s Thermal Biology Institute and Center for Biofilm Engineering. The program supports interdisciplinary research on biofilm-forming microorganisms found in extreme environments such as Yellowstone National Park’s hot springs and Antarctica’s icy regions. Since its inception, it has supported 24 funded Ph.D. students.
“National Research Training Programs are built around what the NSF calls convergent research, which is an approach that integrates expertise, methods and perspectives from multiple disciplines to collaboratively tackle complex problems,” Skorupa said. “In our program, the primary disciplines we’re converging are engineering, biochemistry and microbiology. This means a student like Gwen, who comes from a biochemistry background, gains hands-on experience and exposure to research in both engineering and microbiology, broadening her training and skill set.”
Cooper joined six other doctoral students as part of the first group studying microbes in Yellowstone National Park. They recently completed a paper on their findings for publication.
“It was really this conglomeration of people with very different backgrounds and levels of expertise, and it definitely challenged us to communicate well with one another and fill in holes,” Cooper said. “Some people starting out had zero knowledge of biochemistry, whereas I had never seen a biofilm.”
Skorupa noted that building soft skills is also central to the program: “A strong focus of our NRT program is helping students build soft skills that employers value, such as teamwork, leadership and networking, along with strengthening their ability to communicate their research and expand collaborative opportunities.”
The Extreme Biofilms NRT offers professional development workshops open not only to participants but also to STEM graduate students across campus. Peyton emphasized efforts to make these offerings permanent: “We’re working very hard to institutionalize our professional development offerings, which is a real need for graduate students at MSU.”
Students attending these workshops can apply for seed grant awards; so far 15 grants totaling $22,500 have been awarded across campus.
For Cooper—who will be the second graduate from this NRT—the most significant opportunity came through an internship at Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton.
“I learned so much about human health and disease at the RML that I was able to bring back to some of the projects I worked on here at MSU,” she said.
Her work included projects both within Bothner’s lab and with Mary Miles’ nutrition research group in MSU’s Department of Food Systems, Nutrition and Kinesiology.
“It was this great accidental collaboration that happened, and I think that’s the whole goal of the internship program that I did with RML – to facilitate that partnership between our federal science institutions and academics,” she said.
Cooper hopes to continue as a postdoctoral researcher at RML after graduation.
“Gwen is fabulous, and I would say she’s an example of all the top-notch NRT trainees we’ve had in the program,” Peyton said. Five trainees have received prestigious NSF Graduate Research or EPSCoR Graduate fellowships during their time with NRT.
Although renewal is not possible after its five-year term ends due to funding rules governing these programs nationally, Peyton encourages other faculty members at MSU—a public research institution operating from its main campus in Bozeman (source)—to consider applying for similar training grants: “They’re lots of fun and very, very rewarding,” he said.
Montana State University enrolls over 17,000 students (source), offers more than 250 undergraduate programs along with over 100 graduate programs (source), draws students from inside Montana as well as out-of-state (source), maintains active research labs near outdoor areas like Yellowstone National Park (source), blends education with community engagement (source), competes athletically under its Bobcat mascot (source), upholds traditions since its founding as Montana’s first land-grant institution in 1893 (source), promotes community building through events (source), serves as a public research institution (source)—and continues supporting innovative programs like Extreme Biofilms NRT aimed at expanding educational experiences beyond traditional academic boundaries.
