A collaborative initiative between the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering, the De Novo program offers fellowships to exceptional undergraduate students to conduct research under the guidance of a faculty mentor. The fellowship is aimed to support students with outstanding academic records and who also may have overcome financial challenges and/or may not have had role models in their field of interest who reflected their own experience. CAS De Novo Fellowships provide a $6,000 stipend for up to 10 weeks of full-time research, as well as up to $1,000 for conference expenses related to presenting their research in the subsequent academic year.
Apply through SCUSPUR.
Meet the 2024 College Fellows

Karishma Nijjar '25
NeuroscienceAltering EnHD and UVF to improve binding to DNA via Molecular Modeling
Faculty Mentor: Michelle McCully

Muriel Oosthuizen '26
BiochemistryIsolating high-affinity aptamers for cancer-linked glycoforms of thrombospondin-1
Faculty Mentor: Steve Suljak

Olivia Alleyne '26
ChemistryDeveloping an Efficient Method to Deuterate Cumenes
Faculty Mentor: Ben Stokes

Riley Carpenter '25
Engineering PhysicsInvestigating low-gap materials to fabricate Josephson junctions for meV-scale dark matter detectors
Faculty Mentor: Betty Young

Sean Do '26
NeuroscienceExploring Reward Circuitry Underlying Early Life Stress-Mediated Social Deficits
Faculty Mentor: Lindsay Halladay