Two students in engineering lab

When you enroll in The Catholic University of America, you join one of the original research universities in the United States. Here you not only learn what has been developed and passed down through the centuries, but you also are invited to add to the world’s body of knowledge through research. And unlike many other schools, Catholic University offers a wide array of research opportunities for undergraduates.

  • Biology students can take research courses for credit, do paid or volunteer work with faculty research projects, or apply for internships at top research facilities and biotech companies in Washington, D.C., and across the nation.
  • History students can undertake research apprenticeships with a professor in which they earn course credit and develop a one-on-one mentoring relationship.
  • Each undergraduate tutor working in the Writing Center develops a research project on writing pedagogy, theory, and/or practice under the guidance of a faculty mentor.
  • Students studying economics can become research fellows assisting faculty in the Department of Economics. The program gives students a deeper understanding of the nature and methods of academic research, field research and impact evaluation.
  • Undergraduate students also can take research courses for credit in a variety of disciplines, incuding anthropology, chemistry, classics, education, nursing, physics, psychology, sociology, and social service.

Catholic University also has launched a multidisciplinary undergraduate research journal called Inventio. It publishes research that best represents the University’s commitment to the academic and Catholic traditions that inform its mission to “discover and impart the truth.” The journal accepts submissions of research in theology, philosophy, the humanities, the arts, and the social sciences.

University Research Day is an annual spring celebration of current faculty and student research in every discipline. It is a campus-wide festival recognizing the dazzling array of new discoveries through research. It also is a fitting way for the University to reaffirm our core belief that every science and art, every reality we can know ultimately leads to knowledge of our Creator.

A student presents her research poster to another student at Research Day

Research Day is Back In-Person and a Success

The first University Research Day held in-person since 2019 was a resounding success, based on the crowds at the Pryzbyla Center and at presentations across campus throughout the day.

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