Written by Colin McEvoy | April 23, 2026 | SHARE
Lehigh students Annie Bibus ’27 and Alexander Lien ’28 will conduct research in Germany this summer through the prestigious DAAD RISE and Ruhr Fellowship programs, advancing work in renewable energy and neuroscience while gaining global experience.
Less than a year after her first experience abroad, Annie Bibus ‘27 will spend her summer in Hamburg, modeling how ocean waves can be transformed into renewable energy, an experience that blends hands-on engineering research with a truly global perspective.
Bibus, a junior mechanical engineering major, is one of nearly a dozen students who will be studying in Germany this summer through one of two prestigious fellowships: the DAAD Rise program and the Ruhr Fellowship.
“Engineering is such an interdisciplinary, interconnected field, so it is important to understand how engineering is approached around the world,” said Bibus, who will be interning in Hamburg through the DAAD Rise program. She interned abroad last summer at Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) under the guidance of Prof. Dimitrios Vavylonis through the Iacocca International Internship Program
“It has always been a dream of mine to study in Germany as the country is known for being a “hub for engineering,” she said. “I am entering with an open mind, eager to explore.”
Alexander Lien ‘28, a sophomore dual major in Biology and Health, Medicine & Society, will work this summer in the biopsychology lab of Onur Güntürkün, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at Ruhr University Bochum. He will be studying avian cognition and comparing it to human cognition.
Lien, who learned about the Ruhr Fellowship through Lehigh’s Office of Fellowship Advising (OFA), said the experience will allow him to gain professional laboratory experience and build cross-cultural collaboration skills. It will mark his first time traveling outside the United States.
“I am very excited to experience the culture in another country,” Lien said. “I would like to gain experience drawing conclusions from my experiments, since I will be using similar skills as a physician.”
Below is a full list of students who were awarded fellowships through the two programs this year:
Ruhr Fellowship:
- Genevieve An ‘28
- Avneet Kaur ‘28
- Ronit Khromchenko ‘28
- Alexander Lien ‘28
DAAD Rise:
- Anne Bibus ‘27
- Prema Maringanti ‘27
- Alicia Tyagi ‘28
- Alexa Bercutt ‘28
- James Young ‘27
- Matthew Pelleschi (professional)
The DAAD RISE and Ruhr programs are one of several successful cross-divisional collaborations between OFA and the Lee Iacocca Institute for Global Leadership. IIIP provides co-funding support for the DAAD RISE and Ruhr students, alongside the German fellowship. Without this funding, many of these students would likely not be able to participate.
DAAD RISE is a competitive program funded by the German Academic Exchange Service that places undergraduate students from North America and the UK in summer research internships at German universities and institutes, where they work closely with doctoral researchers on STEM projects.
The Ruhr Fellowship Program is a selective summer initiative that brings students from leading international universities to Germany’s Ruhr region for a combination of academic coursework, company visits, cultural programming, and research placements at universities and partner institutions in the Ruhr region.
Bibus is interested in R&D and innovation, and is currently considering graduate study in fluid mechanics. She believes the experience in Hamburg will give her skills in cross-cultural communication, broader engineering perspectives, and increased confidence in laboratory and research settings.
“I thoroughly enjoy making genuine connections, and I look forward to meeting locals, students, and colleagues,” she said. “I believe the diversity of ideas is what fuels progress. My goal is to make meaningful contributions to the mechanical engineering field.”
Lien said receiving a prestigious Ruhr Fellowship will strengthen his medical school applications, and that he looks forward to experiencing German culture and traveling across Europe.
“This allows me to gain experience working with colleagues hailing from backgrounds different from mine,” he said. “This experience will allow me to make valuable relationships with experts in advanced scientific fields.”
OFA works with university students, faculty, staff, and alumni to prepare nationally competitive scholarship and fellowship applications. A total of $2.5 million in awards has been won through OFA’s efforts since 2016, and 250 Lehigh students, faculty, and alumni have won nationally competitive scholarships since spring 2017.
The Iacocca International Internship Program is a program of the Lee Iacocca Institute for Global Leadership. Since its launch in 2011, IIIP has placed nearly 900 students in high-quality summer internships across five dozen countries.