Masaru “Ken” Kuno, associate professor of chemisty and biochemistry, has recently published a textbook,Introductory Nanoscience Physical and Chemical Concepts. The book is aimed at upper-level undergraduate and graduate students and asks key questions about the quantitative concepts that underlie this new field. Topics include how the optical and electrical properties of nanomaterials are dependent upon size, shape, and morphology and how nano–metersized objects are constructed. Complete with solved examples throughout the chapters, and reinforcement of fundamental concepts via end–of–chapter problems and further reading, Kuno’s book shows to what extent we may predict the behavior and functionality of nanomaterials by understanding how their properties change with scale.

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ND LIGHTS— Notre Dame Laboratory Instrumentation Giving Hope To Students — recently completed its first year of collecting and sending donated laboratory equipment to limited–resource schools across the country, mostly in the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) program. The equipment comes complete with instructions and materials for conducting high school classroom experiments. Each ACE teacher received individualized training during their summer on campus to prepare them to use the equipment. The program is a collaboration between the College of Science, the Office of Sustainability, and Procurement Services.

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Jessica Choi, senior, has been selected by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) as a 2011 recipient of the ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship. This fellowship is aimed at highly competitive students who wish to pursue graduate careers (Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.) in microbiology. Fellows have the opportunity to conduct full–time summer research at their institution with an ASM mentor and present their research results at the 112th ASM General Meeting in San Francisco, CA if their abstracts are accepted.

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John Gensic, a Notre Dame extended Research Community (NDeRC) K–12 Lead Teacher, has been named a 2011–2012 Jacobs Educator by the Indiana University School of Education. As a Jacobs Educator, Gensic will receive a $1,000 equipment budget for materials to assist him with implementing technology–enhanced activities in the classroom, and a $1,500 stipend at the end of his tenure as a Jacobs Educator. He will share his expertise in the use of technology to support teaching and learning with School of Education faculty and staff who sometimes visit the classroom.

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In a rare opportunity for scientific connections with Cuba, David Severson lectured this summer at the 12th International Dengue Course at the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute (TPK) in Havana. It was the third time Severson, director of the Eck Institute for Global Health and a professor of Biological Sciences, lectured at the biannual event since he met an organizer at a Biology of Disease Vectors course in Colorado a decade ago.

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Julie Bourguet, a master’s candidate at the Université Paris Diderot, is spending the summer at Notre Dame in an internship with Nicolas Lehner, research assistant professor in the Department of Physics.

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The University of Notre Dame London Centre hosted a Workshop on Biomedical Modeling held on July 18–19, 2011, gathering researchers in biomedical engineering and mathematical and computational biology from the United States and the United Kingdom for discussions of possible future collaboration. The Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Biocomplexity (ICSB) and Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics (ACMS) from Notre Dame and the Centre for Mathematical Biology and the Oxford Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics from the University of Oxford organized the event.

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Through a competitive process the Eck Institute for Global Health has selected four outstanding University of Notre Dame PhD candidates who will receive fellowships for the 2011–2012 academic year. Selection of fellows was based on the student’s academic standing, scholarly activities, merit of their research program and its relevance to the mission of the Eck Institute. The fellowship will allow students to focus on their global health-related research projects, and thereby contribute to bringing new knowledge to global health solutions. Students will also participate in Eck Institute for Global Health activities, allowing them to become part of a greater global health research community.

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Kevin Towle ‘12, a biological sciences major, is completing a competitive summer fellowship to research the effects of climate change on New England ant ecology.

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Physics graduate student Stephanie Lyons was asked byStewardship Science, the SSGF Magazine (published annually by the Krell Institute for the NNSA Office of Defense Science’s Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship program) to comment on what drew her to science and why stewardship is important. Lyons is a recipient of the Graduate Fellowship from the Krell Institute. Lyons says, “To lead the way, scientists should give back to the community through communication and outreach.”

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An efficiency retrofit currently being installed in the Jordan Hall teaching labs will enable faculty to save $45,000 annually, simply by pressing a button.

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