Notre Dame International has awarded Global Collaboration Initiative grants to nine Notre Dame faculty engaged in research with colleagues at universities around the world.
Steven Corcelli, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and director of graduate studies, has been appointed as chair of the Graduate Education Advisory Board (GEAB) in 2015.
University of Notre Dame alumna Lynn Larkin Flanagan will be the keynote speaker at the annual Pink Zone Brunch on Sunday (Feb. 1) at Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion. Organized by the College of Science and the Notre Dame women’s basketball team, the brunch will bring together local oncologists, researchers, survivors, patients and their families. The brunch will be held at 10 a.m. before the Notre Dame women’s basketball Pink Zone game against Wake Forest at 1 p.m.
A year ago, Notre Dame International awarded the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center an Andrónico Luksic grant to create the Masterclass Institutes Collaborating in the Americas (MICA). Program directors Mitchell Wayne, professor of physics, and Kenneth Cecire, QuarkNet national staff teacher, used the funds to create a collaboration between Pontifica Universidad Católica (PUC) in Santiago, Chile and the University of Notre Dame particle physics education and outreach programs.
Biological sciences graduate student Kelsey Weigel has been invited to present her research at the 2015 St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital National Graduate Student Symposium in Memphis, Tenn. from April 7-11. The application process to speak at the symposium is highly selective; the event is not advertised and students can only apply if they have been nominated by a St. Jude representative or faculty advisor. Of the 1,815 students invited to apply, Weigel was one of 44 students selected to participate in the symposium.
Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and research professionals will come together with representatives from commerce for the eighth annual Collaborating for Education and Research Forum from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 31) in the Jordan Hall of Science at the University of Notre Dame.
Sylwia Ptasinska, the Tom and Carolyn Marquez Assistant Professor of Physics, was recently selected to serve a three-year term on the editorial board of the European Physical Journal D: Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics.
The University of Notre Dame will present TEDxUND 2015, featuring a diverse lineup of speakers that includes a modern-day artisan, a youth poet, the mayor of South Bend and many others, exploring the topic “What if …,” on Feb. 27 (Friday) in the Patricia George Decio Theatre of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
Designed to showcase the ideas and talents of the Notre Dame community in engaging 12-minute presentations, TEDxUND presenters were chosen from a pool of more than 130 applicants, and include current undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students, faculty members, alumni and community members, including South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
The 9th annual College of Science Joint Annual Meeting (COS-JAM) will take place in Jordan Hall of Science on Friday, May 1, 2015, as part of the 8th annual Undergraduate Scholars Conference. The intent of COS-JAM is to highlight the achievements of undergraduate students conducting scientific research.
On January 26, the University of Notre Dame hosted its inaugural Sustainability Research Expo. This event showcased opportunities from across the campus and around the community for students to get involved in sustainability research, educational programs, and internships. The expo took place in the Hesburgh Library concourse and over 100 students attended.
Undergraduate and graduate students in all colleges across the University are invite to submit a proposal for the 2015 Research Like a Champion Cancer Research Competition.
The three best proposals will receive a $12,500 research award that will provide support throughout the academic year and summer. Funding can be used to support summer student stipends, research supplies, and travel.
Innovation and entrepreneurship are terms often associated with the business world, but four Notre Dame students have dedicated themselves to changing that perception on campus. They believe that innovation and entrepreneurship are a vital part of any discipline and the academic experience.
Ani Aprahamian, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics, has been elected to the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Commission on Nuclear Physics. IUPAP established the commission in 1960 to promote the exchange of information and views among the members of the international scientific community in nuclear physics. Members are elected for three-year terms to the commission by physics societies in the United States.
The Notre Dame Center for Nano Science and Technology (NDnano) has several undergraduate research fellowships available for summer 2015. The NURF program offers motivated undergraduates the opportunity to learn more about a specific area of research in nanoscience or nanoengineering, gain valuable skills inside and outside the lab as part of a faculty-led team, and interact with the other students in Notre Dame's summer research community. Nearly 30 projects are available to choose from.
A new NSF-funded program in the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values is encouraging STEM Ph.D. students to go beyond standard research ethics training and look at their research in terms of its social relevance. The people behind the project are Don Howard, Reilly Fellow and former Director of the center, Melinda Gormley, Assistant Director for Research of the center, and Mark Bourgeois, a postdoc hired to implement the program.
Rev. Thomas Streit, C.S.C., founder and principal investigator for the Notre Dame Haiti Program, recently published his reflections on the five-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti that occurred on Jan. 12, 2010. The reflection piece, “5 years on, hope for Haiti” was published on CNN.com on Monday, Jan. 12.
The University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN) will lead an adaptation advisory committee to determine local adaptation indicators for the United States, using these indicators to create a five-city pilot urban adaptation assessment.
Renee Bouley, a fourth-year graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The fellowship will provide two years of funding for Bouley’s project, “Discovery of a new class of antibacterials that inhibits penicillin-binding proteins.”
Diabetes affects more than 29 million Americans, or 9.3 percent of the population. One of the many complications of the disease is the inability of wounds to heal properly because diabetic patients often have nerve damage, weakened immune systems or narrow arteries. In 2010, 73,000 non-traumatic lower-limb amputations were performed in the United States due to diabetes.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) announced Tuesday that it is funding a $1.6 million Accelerator Award to Mayland Chang, research professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, to help lower that number. The research award, part of the association’s Pathway Awards program, will provide funding for Chang’s project, “A Strategy to Accelerate Diabetic Wound Repair,” over five years.
Ani Aprahamian, Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics, has been re-appointed to the Science Advisory Committee for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University. The committee provides recommendations to the FRIB director on the most interesting science that should be done at the facility and the associated experimental equipment that should be implemented. The committee is composed of a group of leading scientists with rare-isotope expertise from institutions in the United States, Germany and Japan.
The University of Notre Dame and Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center (SJRMC), a member of the Trinity Health system, announced that they are collaborating on research aimed at earlier detection of sepsis in patients. Sepsis, a potentially fatal illness in which the body has a severe inflammatory response to bacteria or other microorganisms, is the leading cause of death from infection in the world and is the costliest condition to U.S. hospitals.
The University of Notre Dame’s first MOOCs (massive open online courses) are now open for registration. Created by Notre Dame faculty working with the Office of Digital Learning, these inaugural four MOOCs, offered through the University’s partnership with edX, draw on expertise from across the University. The courses are available to anyone with a free edX account.
Umesh Garg, professor of physics, has been selected a Fulbright Specialist in Physics Education for a five-year term. The Fulbright Specialist Program promotes linkages between U.S. scholars and professionals and their counterparts at host institutions overseas. The program awards grants to qualified U.S. faculty and professionals, in select disciplines, to engage in short-term collaborative projects at eligible institutions in over 140 countries worldwide.
Karen Cowden-Dahl, adjunct assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry and member of the Harper Cancer Research Institute, recently received a grant from the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program for her project entitled, “ARID3B Induces CD133-Mediated Homing to the Ovarian Cancer Metastatic Niche.”
The University of Notre Dame Haiti Program (NDHP), in partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and the Population (MSPP) and the Congregation of Holy Cross, dedicated a new salt processing plant in Delmas, Haiti on Dec. 8. The Delmas facility is located in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
The dedication ceremony attracted about 100 attendees, who traveled from across Haiti and the United States to attend the special occasion. Several administrators from the Notre Dame Haiti Program, Cargill Salt, and other partners of the NDHP Salt Project were present at the dedication. There was also a strong media presence at the event. Madame Sophia Martelly, first lady of Haiti, also participated in the ribbon cutting.
Ani Aprahamian, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics at the University of Notre Dame, has been elected to chair of the American Physical Society’s Division of Nuclear Physics for 2014-2015 and named chair of the Advisory Committee for Physics Today, the flagship publication of the American Institute of Physics.
Two studies led by Nora Besansky, O’Hara Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame and a member of the University’s Eck Institute for Global Health, which resulted in the sequencing the genomes of 16 Anopheles mosquito species from around the world, are featured on the cover of today’s (Jan. 2) edition of the prestigious journal Science.
