Auburn student accepts premier German undergraduate research internship

Auburn University sophomore Elizabeth Farrar will work this summer on a research project in Germany that will focus on the parasites that cause sleeping sickness, a disease deadly to both humans and animals.

Farrar is one of 150 students nationwide selected to conduct undergraduate research in Würzburg, Germany, this summer as a German Academic Exchange Service Research Intern in Science and Engineering undergraduate fellow. 

She will spend the summer in Christian Reuter's lab, a professor of cell and development biology at the University of Würzburg. Farrar will join a team researching the development of African trypanosomes in human skin tissue models. These parasites — transmitted by the tsetse fly — cause deadly sleeping sickness in humans and the widespread disease nagana in cattle. 

Farrar and the rest of the team will conduct this research to learn more about how the parasites are transmitted from the tsetse fly to humans.

Farrar, an Honors College student from Lexington, South Carolina, was chosen from more than 1,700 applications from the U.S., Canada, Ireland and the U.K.

The RISE fellowship is Germany’s premier undergraduate award that allows students studying biology, chemistry, earth sciences, engineering and physics the chance to spend a summer working with research groups at universities and top research institutions across Germany.

In addition to her research, Farrar will have the opportunity to participate in an intensive German language course as well as a scholars conference in Heidelberg, Germany, in early July.

“I am so thankful for the opportunity to take the practical skills I have learned here in COSAM and through the German department and apply them to the challenges of the international research setting in Würzburg,” Farrar said.

On campus, Farrar is involved with Delta Phi Alpha German Honor Society. She also volunteers with Mercy Medical Clinic, mentors with Project Uplift and tutors as a study partner with Auburn’s Office of Academic Support. Upon graduation, Farrar plans to attend medical school to become a physician.

“Elizabeth is a shining example of what a student can achieve through smart work and perseverance; she paid attention to detail while keeping an eye on the big picture,” said Ameya Kolarkar, a lecturer in the department of physics. “On the path to success, she also helped others around her achieve higher standards. Her fellowship is well deserved.”