June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, which seemed a particularly apt time to talk with Rich Taylor, a University of Notre Dame researcher whose research focuses on the discovery and development of new therapeutic leads for the treatment of unmet clinical needs in a number of diseases, including Alzheimer’s. Taylor is associate vice president for research, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and interim director of the Warren Family Research Center for Drug Discovery and Development.

Read More

Researchers in the Hartland group, along with their collaborators at the University of Melbourne, have published new research in Nano Letters showing that at the nanoscale, even simple liquids can act like viscoelastic liquids. This is the first time that compressional viscoelastic effects have been seen in simple liquids. 

Read More

The University of Notre Dame has joined scores of other organizations as well as leaders of American business, industry, higher education, science and engineering in an urgent call to action for stronger federal policies and investment to drive domestic research and development. Ten CEOs and 252 organizations signed Innovation: An American Imperative, a document aimed at federal decision makers and legislators. It underscores the findings — and warnings — contained in The American Academy of Arts & Sciences report, Restoring the Foundation: The Vital Role of Research in Preserving the American Dream.

Read More

Justin Crepp, an astrophysicist and the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics at the University of Notre Dame, will participate in a Congressional briefing on Wednesday (June 24) about the potential of science to change world in the not-too-distant future.

Read More

On June 18 (Thurs.), the Department of Physics and Notre Dame’s Physics Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program hosted the annual Physics Olympics in Jordan Hall of Science. REU students from Michigan State, Purdue, and Notre Dame participated in three main activities that tested their knowledge of physics.

Read More

A team of researchers in Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters has been awarded a $3.1 million grant from the Templeton Religious Trust to examine how the concrete practices of science relate to something more abstract—what theologians and philosophers consider “virtues”—and how that connects with other areas of scientists’ lives, including their religious beliefs. The endeavor is a key component of Notre Dame’s new Center for Theology, Science, and Human Flourishing, which will serve as a hub for transdisciplinary research at the University.

Read More

University of Notre Dame faculty members continue to comment on the new encyclical Laudato Si’, issued by Pope Francis in Rome on Thursday (June 18).

In an op-ed essay in Wednesday’s edition of the Chicago Tribune, Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., writes that, “It is characteristic of this pope to speak as the Catholic leader but to seek to build bridges to all people who promote friendship and cooperation serving the good of all.

Read More

A team of biologists from the University of Notre Dame, Rice University and three other schools has discovered that an agricultural pest that began plaguing U.S. apple growers in the 1850s likely did so after undergoing extensive and genome-wide changes in a single generation.

Read More

An accomplished scientist with extensive experience in the academic, government and private sectors, Mary E. Galvin has been appointed the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame by Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., the University’s president.

Read More

This fall, the Graduate School will launch a unique Ethical Leaders in STEM program, a yearlong leadership development opportunity for third- and fourth-year Ph.D. graduate students.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the goals of the program are to provide an opportunity to become aware of and further develop one’s leadership strengths; to provide an ethical foundation for decision-making; and to positively impact the community.

Read More

Timothy Beers, the Notre Dame Professor of Astrophysics, was interviewed on this week's episode of Big Picture Science. Big Picture Science is a nationally syndicated radio talk show produced by the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. and broadcast nationally on NPR.

Read More

Indiana University announced on Monday (Jun. 8) that Molly Duman Scheel, adjunct associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame and associate professor of medical and molecular genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend (IUSM-SB), is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled "Small Interfering RNA Larvicides for Control of Malaria Vector Mosquitoes."

Read More

The pursuit of the question, “Why?” has taken Siyuan Zhang from his native China to Notre Dame to find answers in the battle against breast cancer. 

“I tell my students the best of the best have curious minds,” says Zhang, the Nancy Dee Assistant Professor of Cancer Research
 at Notre Dame’s Mike and Josie Harper Cancer Research Institute. “The best of the best are always asking, ‘why?’

Read More

Robert V. Stahelin, adjunct associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame and associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend (IUSM-SB), has been awarded IUSM-SB's Navari Family Endowed Chair.

Read More

Encyclicals are formal letters issued by a pope to the universal Church concerning moral, doctrinal and disciplinary matters. While Pope Francis’ predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, both called for restraint on consumption and care for the earth, Pope Francis, from the very first days of his papacy, has amplified their teaching, making clear his conviction that the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics have a moral responsibility to protect the poor in a climate-changing world.

Read More

Last week's International Conference on Boundaries and Ergodic Geometry (June 1-5) completed the fifth annual thematic program hosted by the Center for Mathematics at Notre Dame.

Read More

Marya Lieberman, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry and member of the Eck Institute for Global Health, was awarded the inaugural Partners for Progress Prosperity (P3) Award at the American Chemical Society (ACS) 2015 Joint Great Lakes/Central Regional Meeting on Friday (May 29).  She was recognized for her partnerships with Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kenya and Chemists Without Borders.

Read More

Are you coming home to Notre Dame for Alumni Reunion? As you begin to make your alumni reunion plans this weekend, please be sure to add the College of Science to your weekend itinerary.

Read More

Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., astronomer and president of the Vatican Observatory, will speak on his career in science and faith at 7 p.m. June 16 (Tuesday) in the University of Notre Dame’s Jordan Hall of Science.

Brother Consolmagno’s lecture, “Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?” will concern this and similar questions addressed to him in emails and letters he receives in the course of his work.

Read More

University of Notre Dame researcher Mike Ferdig is part of team of researchers who have demonstrated that so-called “humanized” mice can be an effective model to study parasites that cause malaria and resistance to malarial drugs. Their study appears in the June 1 edition of the journal Nature Methods.

Read More

For the fifth consecutive year, the Center for Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame is hosting its summer thematic programming. This year’s three-week program focuses on boundaries and dynamics.

Read More