Undergraduate Research
at the University of Notre Dame
Undergraduate Research at Notre Dame
MILLION IN RESEARCH AWARDS IN FY25
Notre Dame has built a recognized research enterprise, one that continues to advance, including through its selection for inclusion into the Association for American Universities (AAU).
What further sets Notre Dame apart, however, is the
extent to which students have the opportunity to engage in original research and collaborate in faculty research projects.
Whether you plan to pursue graduate studies or immediately embark upon a career, you will benefit in several ways from participation in research projects. You’ll develop skills in active learning that are applicable in many other settings and explore a topic of interest to you in greater depth than possible in classroom courses. And you’ll gain valuable experience in working as part of a team—in collecting, organizing, and analyzing data—and in communicating the results of your work.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities
OF ALL NOTRE DAME STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Employer expectations, along with wider recognition of the value of research experience, have led to steady growth in the number of undergraduates engaged in research.
Today, approximately half of all Notre Dame undergraduates participate in original research with a faculty mentor—a number that continues to rise.
At Notre Dame, you will have the opportunity to pursue independent research and creative projects through a variety of programs in our vibrant research atmosphere.
The Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good offers funding for undergraduate research. This program provides both academic-year and summer grants, which can be used to support independent research, creative projects, or the presentation of student research at conferences.
Through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program, students have the opportunity to gain STEM-focused research experience on campus or abroad with Notre Dame faculty over the summer.
Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement
Through CUSE, students can learn how to apply for grant funding for a variety of different types of projects. Additionally, CUSE offers workshops and personalized advising to help students get started in research, connect to faculty mentors, and apply for grants and fellowships. Visit cuse.nd.edu for further information.
The Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE) inspires and enables Notre Dame undergraduates to undertake experiences that engage their scholarly interests with the aim of transforming themselves and their communities in the pursuit of human flourishing and the common good.
Stimulates the life of the mind across campus by building a scholarly community to engage and support students in intellectual and creative pursuits inside and outside of the classroom.
Creates opportunities for undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative endeavors in all colleges and schools by connecting students to resources such as faculty mentors, projects, funding, and venues for presenting and publishing their work.
Encourages and facilitates students’ applications for nationally competitive fellowships, such as Rhodes Scholarships and Fulbright Awards.
JEFFREY F. RHOADS
John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research
“I would not be in academia if it wasn’t for students.
Often when people think about research [in higher education], they think about a decision between whether you’re going to be teachingfocused or research-focused. I find it to be a false narrative.
Students are central to what we do with research at a university, whether that’s undergraduate or graduate researchers. Research is part of the educational process, because research is about teaching people how to think and discover; how to be analytical and deductive and reasoned.
Research is a complement to what happens in the classroom. And it’s really those two things together that I think make a world-class university like Notre Dame.”
College of Engineering
For John Howe, Notre Dame was a place to push the limits of microelectronics. The electrical engineering major studied emerging memory devices and completed two summer research fellowships at NDnano. Howe, a Barry Goldwater Scholar, gained valuable real-world experience at the largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry in the world as an intern at Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s facility in Phoenix, Arizona. As part of his research for his senior thesis, Howe built a one-kilobyte ferroelectric memory chip, a device that stores information using tiny built-in electric fields and compacts the space and energy needed for next-generation computing.
REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE
Today, employers and graduate schools expect that undergraduates will have had practical, real-world experience. Notre Dame undergraduates are leading the way to research discoveries, helping to win grants, publishing academic articles, and securing patents.
College of Arts & Letters
At Notre Dame, Rocío Colón Cotto engaged in research that fused the disciplines of art history and materials science on the cutting edge of art conservation. The art history and Chinese double major’s senior thesis detailed the scientific and historical study of a 16th-century illuminated patent of nobility from Spain, including material analysis with x-ray fluorescence, which permitted Colón Cotto to pinpoint the chemical elements of different pigments used in the manuscript. As a research assistant in the Rare Books & Special Collections section of the Hesburgh Libraries, Colón Cotto processed and consolidated three distinct acquisitions of the letters of Gabriela Mistral, a Chilean poet and Nobel laureate. Beyond campus, the Fellows for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (FUSE) program member participated in an immersive summer language program in China and studied abroad in London, where she interned with the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the oldest public art gallery in England. Colón Cotto won a Beinecke Scholarship to pursue graduate studies in paper conservation.
SPARKING NEW DISCOVERIES
The sense of discovery and the spark of a new idea are transformative moments for an undergraduate student. Notre Dame undergraduates participating in original research help forge these moments, thereby instigating change for a better world.
College of Science
Gracie Speicher benefited from Notre Dame’s global connections to pursue aquatic ecology research at field sites all over the world. An environmental science and Italian double major, Speicher traveled to the Galápagos Islands, where she conducted a mini-study on the behavior of two shark species in different habitats. She went on to research the effectiveness of public spaces along the Tiber River as a Sustainability Research Fellow through the Nanovic Institute while in Rome, and the water quality of streams entering a developing salt marsh in the Dublin Bay as a Naughton Fellow at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. Closer to campus, Speicher studied plant communities in different types of lakes at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) in Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin. For her senior thesis, the FUSE Fellow researched the impacts of an invasive plant on food webs in Alaskan ponds.
WORLD-CLASS MENTORS
Notre Dame is renowned for excellence in undergraduate teaching, an excellence that is matched by our faculty’s research and creative endeavors. This combined distinction in teaching and research makes our faculty worldclass mentors.
School of Architecture
Inspired by his lifelong love of sports, School of Architecture student Rylan Chromy explored how athletics are used across disciplines as a tool to change lives for the better. A first-generation college student, Chromy combined athletics with architecture through the study of sports urbanism, traveling to London to research how different Premier League stadiums across the city impact the neighborhood around them. As a Nanovic Diplomacy Scholar, the Italian and European studies minor also traveled to Ireland to examine the blending of American and Irish culture through the game of American football at the Aer Lingus Football Classic. Chromy, a Transformational Leaders Program scholar and FUSE Fellow, benefited from hands-on experience in architectural practice during his internships at architecture firms in Richmond, Virginia, and South Bend, Indiana.
DEEP ENGAGEMENT
Today, most Notre Dame undergraduates expect to have robust opportunities to engage in original research. It is no longer incidental to their programs of study. This is reflected in the continuously rising percentage of undergraduates who are engaged in research.
Mendoza College of Business
For accountancy and psychology double major Grace DeCroix, the Mendoza Research Honors Program provided a golden opportunity to study ethical behavior in the context of work. Her thesis investigated motivated blindness, which is the inability to see the unethical behavior of others because it benefits oneself, in the context of employment. DeCroix, a Business Honors Program scholar, was appointed Director of University Policy for Notre Dame Student Government and Social Service Division Chair for the Club Coordination Council, employing her knowledge of organizational management in service of the broader campus community. Outside of the classroom, DeCroix completed an audit internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston, Massachusetts, where she was hired full-time after graduation.
Notre Dame’s low student to faculty ratio allows our students unparalleled access to research opportunities and one-on-one mentorships with faculty scholars in their chosen field of study.
Keough School of Global Affairs
Rachel DeGaugh, a global affairs and Spanish major and data science minor, conducted research through the Notre Dame Law School’s Global Human Rights Clinic, contributing to international human rights cases before institutions such as the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. A Kellogg International Scholar, DeGaugh studied abroad at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her Spanish honors thesis examined the intersection of disability, gender, and poverty in Latin America, focusing on the coastal nation’s post-dictatorship social protection system. The Transformational Leaders Program scholar also worked with Catholic Relief Services and La Casa de Amistad, using her Spanish skills to support Latin American migrants and immigration lawyers.
IGNITING CURIOSITY
Notre Dame students are called to be constantly curious about the world and cultures around them. A deep research experience, whether international or domestic, allows students to expand their understanding, transform their thinking, and enrich the community.
The University of Notre Dame is committed to supporting a culture of research, scholarship, and creative endeavor throughout campus, in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world.
Research at Notre Dame has paved the way for new discoveries, unlocked knowledge, and improved technologies. Further, Notre Dame has a long history of research. The aerodynamics of glider flight, the transmission of wireless messages, and the formulae for synthetic rubber were pioneered at the University. Today, the University supports and encourages innovation in numerous core facilities and resources, as well as in a number of key areas of research, including cancer, environmental change, global health, turbomachinery and propulsion, and many more.
Inspired by the University’s Catholic mission, Notre Dame’s world-class faculty and students together are pursuing globally significant, solutions-oriented research as Notre Dame’s research enterprise grows in line with President Rev. Robert A. Dowd’s vision: “as a premier Catholic research university, our research and learning drive insights, innovation, and impact for good around the world.”
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