News » Archives » January 2010
New paper describes important advance in imaging of cell death
• Date: January 29, 2010 • Categories: Research
For quite some time, the “Holy Grail” in medical imaging has been the development of an effective method to image cell death as a means to intervene early in diseases and rapidly determine the effectiveness of treatments. A new paper by researchers at the University of Notre Dame and the Washington University School of Medicine describes important progress in using a synthetic probe to target dead and dying cells in mammary and prostate tumors in living animals.
Bradley D. Smith, Emil T. Hofman Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Notre Dame, points out that the group of researchers had previously discovered that synthetic zinc (II)-dipicolylamine (Zn-DPA) coordination complexes can selectively target the outer surfaces of anionic (negatively charged) cell membranes. Furthermore, fluorescent versions of these Zn-DPA complexes act as imaging probes that can distinguish dead and dying mammalian cells from healthy cells in a cell culture and also selectively target bacteria in contaminated samples.
Notre Dame launches new partnership program in Tucson Catholic schools
• Date: January 29, 2010 • Categories: Academics and Faith and Service
The Diocese of Tucson and the University of Notre Dame have agreed to designate three Tucson parish Catholic schools as the nation’s first Notre Dame ACE Academy (NDAA) schools.
The Most Reverend Gerald F. Kicanas, Bishop of the Diocese of Tucson, and Notre Dame representatives will announce the designation on Friday (Jan. 29) at the Diocese of Tucson Pastoral Center.
The NDAA partnership marks a significant deepening of the Notre Dame relationship with the Diocese of Tucson begun in 2001, when the University began providing teachers to Tucson Catholic schools through Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) program.
Notre Dame launches International Development Studies minor
• Date: January 28, 2010 • Categories: Academics and International
Interest in international development issues runs high among University of Notre Dame undergraduates, many of whom have studied or served in the developing world. Now they have a new way to connect their experiences overseas with their own academic development—a Kellogg Institute for International Studies minor that integrates coursework and fieldwork.
The Institute’s Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity has announced the launch of a minor in International Development Studies (IDS) to provide students with a foundation for analyzing the dynamics of development across the globe.
In addition to a gateway course, electives in a variety of disciplines, and a capstone seminar, a significant component of the interdisciplinary IDS minor is a field-based research project in the developing world. Through their research, students will have the opportunity to contribute to the Ford Program’s mission of seeking solutions to real-world challenges by examining the causes and consequences of extreme poverty.
Notre Dame adds to its expertise in nanobiotechnology
• Date: January 28, 2010 • Categories: Academics
Gregory Timp has been named the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Electrical Engineering and Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame.
The first joint appointment between the College of Engineering and the College of Science, Timp’s position is indicative not only of the interdisciplinary nature of his work, but it also signifies the start of a new University program in synthetic biology, which is part of the biomedical initiative on campus. The program seeks to mimic biology on the nanometer scale with man-made constructs for applications in tissue engineering, epigenetics and DNA sequencing, and will be featured within the University’s Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics Initiative.
Critic Paul Goldberger to address ND School of Architecture
• Date: January 27, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker, will give a talk titled “Why Architecture Matters” at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 1 (Monday) in 104 Bond Hall at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture.
The event is free and open to the public and a book signing will follow the lecture. Please note that this lecture is rescheduled from its original date in November.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Paul Goldberger has written The New Yorker’s celebrated “Sky Line” column since 1997. He began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 he received the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism, the highest award in journalism.
Notre Dame efforts raise $250,000 for Haiti earthquake relief
• Date: January 26, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
Fundraising efforts held in conjunction with two University of Notre Dame home basketball games have resulted in more than $250,000 in donations that will go toward relief efforts in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit the island nation on Jan. 12.
Through the generosity of fans and alumni, as well as contributions from the University and the Notre Dame Monogram Club, the money was raised at the men’s and women’s basketball games that were played Jan. 23 and 24, respectively, in Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion.
Notre Dame donated full gate receipts and net concession revenue from both games to the relief effort. In addition, a collection organized by the Notre Dame Student-Athlete Advisory Council raised more than $25,000 from fans and alumni who contributed during the games. The Monogram Club added a $10,000 matching gift to the student total.
Notre Dame Forum cancelled due to scheduling conflict
• Date: January 25, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
Due to a scheduling conflict, the Notre Dame Forum has been cancelled for the 2009-10 academic year but will be back on the University’s calendar next fall.
Notre Dame made plans last year to bring a major speaker to campus to headline the forum during the spring semester. An unforeseen change in the principal speaker’s schedule led to the decision to cancel.
The University plans to host a forum in the fall of the 2010-11 academic year.
Notre Dame expands focus in environmental fluid mechanics
• Date: January 25, 2010 • Categories: Academics
Harindra Joseph S. Fernando has been appointed the Wayne and Diana Murdy Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame.
Fernando is an expert in fluid mechanics, specifically in atmospheric and oceanic flows as well as industrial flows involving density variations. His current projects include laboratory experiments and field observations in conjunction with theoretical and computer modeling of urban flows, highlighting the effects of climate change; air flow in mountainous terrain; underwater waves in shelf seas; dynamics and remote sensing of ship and submarine wakes; storage problems in National Petroleum Reserves; flow through nuclear reactors; modeling and measurements of air pollution, including health effects; turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer; and freeway acoustics. In addition to national agencies, several international sponsors support his work.
Institute for Theoretical Sciences to host workshop
• Date: January 22, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community and Research
The University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Theoretical Sciences (ITS) will host a “Catalytic Materials by Design” workshop Jan. 27 to 30 (Wednesday to Saturday).
ITS is a joint Institute of the University and Argonne National Laboratory.
The workshop will bring together senior experimentalists and theorists in physics, biochemistry, computer science and other disciplines from around the world, plus younger researchers and graduate students. Its schedule sets aside generous timeslots for discussing “What’s our next step?” and forming collaborations to answer that question. The workshop is focused on cutting-edge science in catalysis and materials that can make a difference in today’s urgent challenges like energy sustainability, and marshalling a critical mass of people, technologies and perspectives that is needed to accelerate solutions.
Law School professors Garnett and Mayer on Supreme Court’s campaign contribution decision
• Date: January 22, 2010 • Categories: Academics
Today’s narrow Supreme Court decision that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress drew reactions from two Notre Dame Law School faculty members.
According to Notre Dame Law School professor Richard W. Garnett, the court’s 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, is “welcome and correct.”
Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, associate professor of law in the Notre Dame Law School predicts consequences from the decision.
Notre Dame basketball games to benefit Haiti relief
• Date: January 21, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
The University of Notre Dame will donate the full gate receipts, as well as the net concession revenue, from both the men’s and women’s home basketball games this weekend to benefit relief and rebuilding efforts in Haiti.
The men play DePaul Saturday (Jan. 23) at 2 p.m., and the women take on West Virginia Sunday (Jan. 24) at 1 p.m. in the Purcell Pavilion of the Joyce Center. Both games are expected to sell out.
In addition, the Notre Dame Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) is organizing a fund drive to be held in conjunction with both games to encourage fans and alumni to make their own personal contributions to aid the relief efforts.
New report examines Latinos and the housing crisis
• Date: January 21, 2010 • Categories: Research
The University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies (ILS) has published a new study that examines the effects of the U.S. housing crisis on issues that concern Latinos and Latino neighborhoods in Chicago.
“The Housing Crisis and Latino Home Ownership in Chicago,” by ILS Fellow and DePaul University Professor Martha Argelia Martinez, also provides a comparison with the effects on whites and African Americans. The report concentrates on three interrelated dimensions: mortgage credit availability, foreclosure levels and property values.
According to the report, a combination of socioeconomic vulnerability and riskier credits contributes to the fact that Latinos entered this crisis in a severely disadvantaged position.
Biochemist Brian Baker publishes research on protein dynamics
• Date: January 21, 2010 • Categories: Research
A discovery by associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry Brian Baker and his research group at the University of Notre Dame reveals the importance of dynamic motion by proteins involved in the body’s immune response. Results of the study were published in Immunity, the leading research journal in the field of immunology.
Scientists have long known that receptors on the immune system’s T-cells are important for discovering and destroying cells that are infected with viruses or other pathogens. Baker’s group studied cross-reactivity, the ability of different T-cell receptors which number perhaps a few hundred million in the body to recognize the vastly larger number of possible antigens produced by other cells. The process is important for dealing with viruses, cancers, autoimmunity, transplant rejection and other issues related to the immune system.
Lecture series explores capitalism in ten years
• Date: January 21, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
In the depth of the recession, as banks failed, foreclosure rates spiked and unemployment lines grew, there was plenty of room to question whether capitalism as a market system was to blame. The “invisible hand” seemed to have fumbled badly, and critics such as documentary filmmaker Michael Moore charged that capitalism was a failure.
But a verdict isn’t that simple, particularly given the vast changes in world economies as technology advances and proliferates, consumer usage patterns change, and influencers such as religion and sustainability rise to the fore.
What is the future of capitalism? Starting on Jan. 22, the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business spring lecture series, Ten Years Hence, will examine the topic from a variety of perspectives, including those of experts in money management, retail and media.
Haiti Program staff recounts earthquake, refocuses priorities
• Date: January 19, 2010 • Categories: International
“I feel like I have my second life,” said Rev. Thomas Streit C.S.C., founder of the University of Notre Dame’s Haiti Program.
Father Streit was at a meeting in Port-au-Prince’s Hotel Montana with Notre Dame colleagues Sarah Craig and Logan Anderson and post-doctoral student Marie Denise Milord during the Jan. 12 earthquake, which collapsed their hotel. All four were standing on open hotel balconies and rode the building down as it pancaked to the ground. They sustained only minor cuts and bruises.
“The building around us came down and we were all thrown to the ground and we held on to literally nothing because we were on a tile floor,” explained Craig, manager of the Haiti Program. “The building below us just collapsed and we could feel it going down each floor until we ended up somewhere between the first and second floors with the rubble beneath us.”
The four were in the nation’s capital city to attend the semi-annual partners meeting for the Neglected Tropical Disease Initiative, along with some 25 Haitian colleagues. After the meeting had concluded, the group separated into different areas of the hotel compound.
Holy Cross: Bringing hope to Haiti
• Date: January 19, 2010 • Categories: Faith and Service and International
The nearly unimaginable catastrophe of Haiti confronts any person of faith with the reality and paradox of the Cross, but for the brothers, sisters and priests of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the confrontation has been particularly intimate during the last few days.
Since 1944, when Holy Cross missionaries first came to Cap Haitien, the congregation, the same religious order which founded the University of Notre Dame a century earlier, has established numerous educational, social and parochial ministries throughout Haiti. Holy Cross community is now organized there as the Province of Notre-Dame du Perpetual Secours with 49 professed members, including two Holy Cross bishops, 25 temporarily professed members, five novices and six postulants.
Immediately after the earthquake, and continuing in its aftermath, stories of pain, grief, resolve and faith have circulated among the Holy Cross communities internationally, all of them resonating with the reminder in their order’s constitutions that “there will be dying to do on our way to the Father.”
Actors From The London Stage to present Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
• Date: January 19, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
Actors From The London Stage (AFTLS), an ensemble of five professional British actors from such prestigious theater companies as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Great Britain and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, will present William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” Jan. 27 to 29 (Wednesday to Friday) at 7:30 p.m. in the University of Notre Dame’s historic Washington Hall.
Admission is $20 for the general public, $18 for senior citizens and $12 for students. Tickets are available through Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center ticket office by calling 574-631-2800 or visiting http://performingarts.nd.edu.
Based in London, England and produced on campuses throughout the nation by Shakespeare at Notre Dame, AFTLS sends a new self-directed ensemble of five professional actors to the United States twice a year to universities across the nation. Actors From The London Stage has called Notre Dame its American home since 2000.
University Counseling Center director to receive award for service to Congregation of Holy Cross
• Date: January 19, 2010 • Categories: Faith and Service
Susan Steibe-Pasalich, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Counseling Center, will receive a 2010 Spirit of Holy Cross Award during the Mass for the feast of Blessed Basil Moreau at 5:15 p.m. Jan. 20 (Wednesday) in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
According to Rev. Edwin H. Obermiller, C.S.C., assistant provincial of Indiana Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the award was established “to acknowledge the critical importance lay collaborators of Holy Cross and others play in living out the vision of Holy Cross founder Blessed Basil Anthony Moreau, C.S.C., to make God known, loved and served in education, parish and mission settings.”
Antsaklis elected editor-in-chief of controls journal
• Date: January 18, 2010 • Categories: Academics
Panos J. Antsaklis, H. Clifford and Evelyn A. Brosey Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been elected editor-in-chief of the journal Transactions on Automatic Control (TAC) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), by the Board of Governors of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS).
His responsibilities include oversight of a staff of 50 editors and associate editors from around the world, as they review more than 1,600 submissions and publish 12 issues annually. Starting this month, the Notre Dame editorial office brings under one umbrella the two previous editorial offices in Boston and Torino, Italy.
Students launch fundraiser for Haiti relief
• Date: January 18, 2010 • Categories: International
The University of Notre Dame Student Government has launched a coordinated fundraiser for the victims of the Jan. 12 Haitian earthquake in collaboration with student clubs, organizations and residence halls.
Students have mounted donation boxes throughout campus to collect donations. Their locations include dining halls, campus restaurants and LaFortune Student Center.
“We are one of the most united student bodies in the country. As members of the Notre Dame community, I feel that it is our responsibility to step up and provide as much assistance and support as possible,” wrote student government president Grant Schmidt and vice president Cynthia Weber in an open letter to the student body last weekend.
Notre Dame announces Driehaus Prize laureate and Reed Award recipient
• Date: January 18, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
Rafael Manzano Martos, a Spanish architect known for his distinctive use of the Mudéjar style, will receive the 2010 Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture at a ceremony March 27 in Chicago.
The $200,000 Driehaus Prize, presented annually to a distinguished classical architect, represents the largest recognition of classicism in the contemporary built environment. In conjunction with the Driehaus Prize, legendary Yale professor and preservationist Vincent J. Scully will receive the $50,000 Henry Hope Reed Award.
Notre Dame shifts German study abroad opportunity from Innsbruck to Berlin
• Date: January 18, 2010 • Categories: International
The University of Notre Dame’s study abroad program in Innsbruck, Austria, will enroll its final class of students this spring.
Established in 1964 as Notre Dame’s first study abroad opportunity, the Innsbruck program enrolled some 1,400 students with a focus on German language and culture. At its height in the 1970s, the program attracted 35 to 50 students per year.
However, as the University offered new study abroad opportunities around the world in recent years, the number of applications to the Innsbruck program decreased to the point that just two students applied for the 2010-11 academic year, and there were just nine applicants for the 2011 spring semester. Seven Notre Dame students are enrolled for the full current academic year, and 14 will participate in this spring’s final semester.
Notre Dame response to Observer cartoon
• Date: January 15, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
The Jan. 13 issue of the University of Notre Dame’s student newspaper The Observer included a cartoon that was inappropriate and offensive.
“The University denounces the implication that violence or expressions of hate toward any person or group of people is acceptable or a matter that should be taken lightly,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president.
In accordance with Notre Dame’s Spirit of Inclusion, a formal statement adopted by the officers of the University in 1997, at Notre Dame “we prize the uniqueness of all persons as God’s creatures” and welcome " all people, regardless of color, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social or economic class, and nationality."
Notre Dame to host conference on beauty
• Date: January 15, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
Seventeen international scholars will be featured at the University of Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) Conference on Beauty, to be held Jan. 21 to 23 (Thursday to Saturday) in McKenna Hall.
This major conference will focus on the nature of beauty from the perspective of the physical and natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities and the arts. Conference presenters will address various disciplinary and interdisciplinary questions about this elusive topic.
A complete list of speakers, their affiliations, and the questions and topics they will confront is available on the Web at http://sri.nd.edu/institute-for-advanced-study/lecturesevents.
Notre Dame workers in Haiti, program structures are reported safe
• Date: January 15, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community and International
All University of Notre Dame students, faculty and staff known to be serving in Haiti have survived the Jan. 12 earthquake and are in the process of returning to the United States.
The staff of the Notre Dame Haiti Program also has learned that all of the facilities with which the program is affiliated remain standing.
As part of the University’s response to the disaster, a Mass and a relief fund for those affected by the earthquake are being organized, with details forthcoming. Updated information will be available on the Web at http://haitidisaster.nd.edu.
Mass for the victims of Haiti earthquake to be offered Monday at Notre Dame
• Date: January 15, 2010 • Categories: Faith and Service
A Mass for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti will be celebrated at 5:15 p.m. Monday (Jan. 18) in the University of Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
Notre Dame president Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., will preside at the Mass, and Rev. Richard V. Warner, C.S.C., director of Notre Dame’s office of Campus Ministry, will give the homily.
Notre Dame task force on life makes preliminary recommendations
• Date: January 14, 2010 • Categories: Faith and Service
The University of Notre Dame’s Task Force on Supporting the Choice for Life has submitted an interim progress report to University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., with preliminary recommendations that are designed to “broaden and deepen the pro-life culture in and among various constituencies in order to strengthen the Notre Dame community’s witness to Catholic teaching on life.”
The task force was convened by Father Jenkins in early September to consider and recommend ways in which the University can support the sanctity of life. It is co-chaired by Margaret Brinig, Fritz Duda Family Professor of Law; and John Cavadini, associate professor and chair of theology and McGrath-Cavadini Director of the Institute for Church Life.
“NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams to deliver 2010 Notre Dame Commencement address
• Date: January 14, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News,” will be the principal speaker and recipient of an honorary degree at the University of Notre Dame’s 165th University Commencement Ceremony on May 16 (Sunday) at Notre Dame Stadium.
“Mr. Williams is one of this country’s most respected and trusted journalists, and we are absolutely delighted that he has accepted our invitation,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president. “He has tremendous insight into the current state of our world, and I know his perspectives will be of great interest to our graduating Class of 2010.”
Williams became the seventh anchor and managing editor of the “Nightly News” in December 2004. Since then, he has reported from the field in New Orleans before and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; in Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II; in Iraq for war and elections coverage; in Africa to focus on issues such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, disease and debt; and in Indonesia after the devastating tsunami of 2004.
Notre Dame student in Haiti is safe; University is organizing Mass and relief fund
• Date: January 13, 2010 • Categories: International
A University of Notre Dame student participating in a service program in Haiti sponsored by the University of Miami is safe and accounted for in the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the island nation on Jan. 12 (Tuesday).
The student, a junior, worked during the recent Christmas break with the Miami program in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.
As part of the University’s response to the disaster, a Mass and a relief fund for those affected by the earthquake are being organized, with details forthcoming.
Four Notre Dame faculty and staff associated with the Haiti Program also are safe following the quake. A recent alumnus of the University who has been working with the Haiti Program also is safe. The faculty and staff are Sarah Craig, program manager; Logan Anderson, assistant program manager; Marie Denise Milord, a post-doctoral student; and Rev. Thomas Streit, C.S.C., the program director and research assistant professor of biological sciences.
Notre Dame to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Date: January 13, 2010 • Categories: Campus and Community
Martin Luther King Jr. Day will officially be observed nationwide Monday (Jan. 18) and the University of Notre Dame will present a number of events to mark the occasion.
An ecumenical prayer service will be held Monday at 4 p.m. in the rotunda of the University’s Main Building. Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president, and Rev. Hugh R. Page Jr., dean of the First Year of Studies and associate professor of theology and Africana studies, will offer prayers in memory of Dr. King. Sacred music will be provided by the Voices of Faith Gospel Choir and a reception will follow.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Series, sponsored by Notre Dame’s Office of Multicultural Student Programs and Services (MSPS), also will honor the memory of the nation’s foremost civil rights leader with two events.
