Emily Farley ’27 has been selected for the prestigious DAAD Research Internship in Science and Engineering (RISE) program in Germany for summer 2025. This internationally competitive scholarship allows students to spend three months conducting research in their fields under the guidance of a professor or graduate student at a German university.

Farley, a behavioral neuroscience major, received a fully funded scholarship that supports an internship conducting biology research at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. She was one of 250 students awarded and will join the Freund lab in the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Preventive Medicine, where she will collaborate with researchers studying bipolar disorder, specifically investigating the role of prefrontal dopamine D1 receptors in depressive and mania-like behavior.

At Lehigh, Farley works in the laboratory of Neal Simon, professor of biological sciences. An Eckardt Scholar, she researches the use of a vasopressin antagonist as a drug candidate to mediate cerebral edema, inflammatory responses, and neuropsychiatric deficits in rodent models following traumatic brain injury. The Eckardt Scholars program, a highly selective honors program in the College of Arts and Sciences, emphasizes deep intellectual curiosity, independent work, and close mentoring relationships between top students and faculty.

The DAAD RISE program provides undergraduates in STEM fields with hands-on research experience, cultural immersion, and professional development opportunities, strengthening global academic connections and advancing students' research skills in an international setting.