With its growing number of collaborative institutes, world-class faculty and noteworthy alumni, the college is building on a strong foundation as it moves into the future in the forefront of scientific teaching and research.
1842 |
Arithmetic and elementary college mathematics were part of the original curriculum written by Rev. Edward Sorin. Physics and geology were added in 1863. |
| 1865 |
The College of Science is founded. |
| 1884 |
 Rev. John A. Zahm built the first science hall, moving the college from two buildings that had been attached to the old church. His brother, Prof. Albert Zahm, pioneered the aerodynamics of flying machines.
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| 1899 |
The first American wireless transmission was conducted by Prof. Jerome Green, from Notre Dame to Saint Mary’s College. |
| 1909 |
Rev. Julius A. Nieuwland founded The American Midland Naturalist, a Midwestern plant life quarterly that is now an international general biological journal. |
| 1912 |
The first graduate degree in chemistry was awarded. Chemistry Hall was the first building on campus dedicated to a single science department. |
| 1925 |
 The Department of Biology formed, uniting botany, zoology, anatomy, cytology and bacteriology. |
| 1930 |
Neoprene, the first synthetic rubber, was invented, based on the research of Rev. Julius A. Nieuwland, a chemist and botanist who had graduated from Notre Dame in 1899 and started teaching in 1952. Also in the 1930s, some scholars fleeing Nazi Germany arrived to teach on campus. Rev. John A. O’Hara added graduate programs in biology, physics and mathematics. |
| 1935 |
 LOBUND, the Laboratories of Bacteriology at the University of Notre Dame, was started, building on the germ-free research of Prof James Reyniers. The center attracted numerous leading scientists and became the world leader in germ-free research. The technology is important in bone-marrow treatment for leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease, prevention of colon cancer, use of nutrition in preventing prostate cancer and development of “statin” cholesterol-lowering drugs. The Reyniers Germfree Life Building was dedicated in 1950. |
| 1937 |
Prof. Karl Menger, a noted mathematician, started a graduate program in mathematics with a focus on research and publishing. |
| 1938 |
 Notre Dame’s first electrostatic accelerator was completed. The second accelerator, completed in 1942, was used in Manhattan Project research. The Nuclear Science Laboratory is now known as the Institute for Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics (ISNAP). |
| 1939 |
The graduate program in physics started, 19 years after the first professor of physics was hired. |
| 1949 |
Chemistry Prof. Milton Burton established the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory. The Radiation Lab, now in a building dedicated in 1964, is operated by the University of Notre Dame under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Office of Basic Energy Sciences and the Division of Chemical Sciences. |
| 1951 |
The first whole-ecosystem experiment was performed at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC), some 7,500 acres on the Wisconsin-Michigan border. |
| 1952 |
Nieuwland Science Hall opened. Fees and royalties from DuPont, the manufacturer of Neoprene, helped pay for the building. |
| 1957 |
 George B. Craig Jr. became director of the Vector Biology Laboratory. Prof. Craig studied the genetics of Aedes aegypti until 1975 and was an important researcher in the fight against other disease-carrying mosquitoes. |
| 1961 |
The Department of Preprofessional Studies opened. Preprofessional studies, allowing students to take a range of courses across the science departments, is now a major. |
| 1972 |
The Galvin Life Science Center was dedicated. The building was expanded in 1985 with the Frank M. Freimann Research Facility.
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| 1987 |
The Center for Applied Mathematics opened to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration in the field. |
| 1995 |
The Center for Transgene Research opened to study functions of components of the hemostasis system in a variety of genetic diseases, using an extensive collection of mice with modified hemostatic systems. It was renamed the W.M. Keck Center for Transgene Research in 1998. |
| 1998 |
The Notre Dame QuarkNet Center, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, opened to engage high school students and teachers in university-level teaching and research. The collaboration led to the creation of the Notre Dame extended Research Community (NDeRC), a National Science Foundation Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) Project. |
| 1999 |
The Center for Nano Science and Technology was established with researchers from chemistry and physics as well as engineering. |
| 2000 |
 The Center for Zebrafish Research opened to provide zebrafish, an important vertebrate model for research. The center can support up to 200,000 adult zebrafish. |
| 2002 |
Chemistry Prof. Dennis Jacobs was named U.S. Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education for the year 2002-2003. |
| 2003 |
The National Science Foundation started the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), a collaboration of Notre Dame and two other universities, with Prof. Michael Weischer as director. The institute is a collaboration of astronomy, astrophysics and nuclear physics researchers, including experimentalists, theorists and observers studying nuclear processes in the universe. |
| 2004 |
The Institute for Theoretical Sciences was established as a joint program of Notre Dame and the Argonne National Laboratory. |
| 2005 |
The Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona achieved its first science-quality images. Notre Dame is part of a consortium that sponsored the telescope, and its astrophysicists get 10 observing nights a year. |
| 2006 |
 The Jordan Hall of Science, an investment of more than $70 million, opened with 40 teaching labs, two lecture halls, an observatory, a greenhouse and a Digital Visualization Theater. The building includes space for exhibiting the extensive plant collection of Rev. Julius A. Nieuwland. |
| 2008 |
The Center for Rare and Neglected Disease opened with Prof. Kasturi Haldar as director. |
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MIND, the Midwest Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery was started.
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