Air Conditioning & Exposure and Vulnerability to Extreme Heat (Summer 2026 Intern)

RFF Summer Research Internship Program

Program Description

The RFF summer internship program provides an opportunity for students to prepare for careers that engage in rigorous, policy-relevant research. Interns are essential members of RFF's Research and Policy Engagement team; they are responsible for providing technical support that, under the direction of RFF Fellows, allows for the production of compelling and impactful research that aligns with RFF's mission of improving environmental, energy and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement.

At RFF, interns will have the opportunity to connect with researchers and other staff members through seminars, coffee chats, and RFF staff events. Further, the internship co-coordinators will organize an external intern event near the beginning of the summer to foster DC-wide connections with interns from other environmental organizations. The internship program will culminate with presentations from interns about their summer projects and an end-of-summer celebration.

The internship program will run June 15–August 21, 2026. Start or end dates for individual interns can be adjusted as needed. All internships will be conducted in RFF's offices in Washington, DC.

Air Conditioning & Exposure and Vulnerability to Extreme Heat. Working with Margaret Walls (Senior Fellow and Director, Climate Risks and Resilience Program), Kristen McCormack (Fellow), and Penny Liao (Fellow), the intern will help develop a database of extreme heat exposure and vulnerabilities, with a particular focus on air conditioning (AC) penetration and use. The intern may collect, process, and analyze large, administrative datasets and develop new methods, potentially drawing on machine learning and other big data techniques, to fill in data gaps. This work may contribute to a variety of data products and follow-up research. *This internship is contingent upon securing funds before the summer of 2025.*

Education level: By and large, RFF summer research internships are geared toward graduate students (either Masters or PhD), although some openings are available to advanced undergraduates. In the past, some graduate-level interns have also chosen to continue collaborating with RFF on academic journal articles beyond their paid internships. Please see individual job descriptions (linked above) for specific education requirements of the various roles.

Compensation: All RFF internships are paid. We offer a sliding pay scale for interns based on the level of completion in their degree programs, ranging from $17.95 per hour to $26 per hour.

Multiple applications: If you are interested in more than one internship project, please feel free to apply to more than one project. Please note that each project may have different requirements, so please review the PDF linked for each project for all details.