Provost // Provost

Science dean biking 3,250 miles to bring attention to rare disease research

2012-05-16T10:00:00-04:00

Greg Crawford, dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, will be cycling 3,250 miles from Boston to Pebble Beach, Calif., to raise awareness and funds for research to find a cure for Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC) disease. His third cross-country ride will start May 21 (Monday) and conclude June 22 (Friday), in time for the Parseghian Classic, a golf fundraiser at Pebble Beach Resorts.

The “Road to Discovery” bicycle ride demonstrates Notre Dame’s commitment to research to find a cure or treatments for the devastating disease that took the lives of three grandchildren of former Notre Dame head football coach Ara Parseghian.

The genetic, fatal neurodegenerative disease, which prevents the body from effectively processing cholesterol, primarily strikes children, who succumb to the disease before or during adolescence. Researchers have identified its cause and made significant progress toward treatment in recent years, but there is still no cure.

Last summer, Crawford and his wife, Renate, rode from Boston to Dallas, visiting families with children affected by the disease as well as other research centers across the country that also investigate NPC. This summer, Crawford will visit Notre Dame Clubs and families affected by NPC on the ride through Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California.

Crawford is dedicated and motivated to fight the disease. He says, “It’s part of our mission to find an end to this disease. There are so many great minds out there, and so many partners who share a passion to get rid of this rare disease. We are particularly inspired by the Parseghian family and are honored to partner with them in the fight against NPC.”

“Notre Dame researchers are at the forefront of NPC research, and their advances in the understanding of this disease give hope to all NPC children and their families,” says Cindy Parseghian, who co-founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation just two months after three of her four children were diagnosed with NPC.

The traditional summer bike ride started in 2010 when the Crawfords rode together from Tucson, Ariz., where the Parseghian Foundation started in the mid-1990s, to Notre Dame to symbolize a newly strengthened partnership between the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation and the University.

Through the Michael, Marcia and Christa Parseghian Endowment for Excellence at Notre Dame, NPC researchers at the University and other U.S. institutions collaborate with other NPC researchers, parents and clinicians in Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, France and Canada to bring together expertise in molecular biology, drug discovery, cell biology and neurology, with results from clinical studies.

This time, the trip is coast-to-coast, starting in Boston on May 21 and concluding at Pebble Beach, where the Parseghian Classic will be held June 22-24 at Pebble Beach Resorts to raise funds for NPC research at Notre Dame and other institutions.

Visit the dean’s blog to read daily entries about his ride, the inspiring parents of children with NPC and the supportive Notre Dame family he will meet along the route.

Contact: Marissa Gebhard, 574-631-4465, gebhard.3@nd.edu

Originally published by Marissa Gebhard at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 11, 2012.

Notre Dame students travel to Northern Ireland for inaugural CSC seminar

2012-05-16T10:00:00-04:00

Seven University of Notre Dame students and two faculty members traveled to Northern Ireland this spring for a new Center for Social Concerns (CSC) seminar to explore the role of digital technology in peace building.

The Notre Dame team worked with eight students from Lismore Comprehensive School, a Catholic school in Portadown, and four students from Lurgan Junior High School to help create a website. Lurgan Junior High is a Protestant school about 20 minutes from Portadown. The four students from Lurgan traveled to Lismore each day during the week of March 12-16.

Historically, interaction between the two schools has been limited due to tensions between Protestants and Catholics during the Troubles, though most violence has ceased since the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The Notre Dame students hoped to teach the students from Lurgan and Lismore the technological skills involved in creating a website, while encouraging collaboration with peers with whom they may not otherwise have had the opportunity to interact.

The Notre Dame team collaborated with these 13- and 14-year-old junior high students to study and create a website about lios mor, or “big fort” in Irish — the ancient ring fort on the grounds of Lismore that gives the school its name. They also created a Facebook page and YouTube channel to help generate interest in the site. The project was timed to coincide with the celebration of Lismore Comprehensive’s 40th anniversary this August.

Notre Dame’s involvement with the project was incorporated into an inaugural CSC seminar, “Digital Education in Northern Ireland.” Connie Mick, assistant director of the CSC, developed the idea for this trip four years ago.

Mick approached Sean O’Brien, assistant director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, with her idea for the seminar, and O’Brien met with administrators from Lurgan and Lismore last fall to begin planning the project.

Joe Corrigan, the principal of Lismore, did much of the initial work to clear and publicize the ring fort when he became principal in 1976, and together he and O’Brien came up with the idea of creating a student-produced website about lios mor.

Over the next few months, O’Brien selected a team of Notre Dame students that represented a range of skill sets and courses of study, from film to IT management. To cover the trip, each Notre Dame student applied for and received grant money from various Notre Dame departments, including the Keough-Naughton Institute, the Glynn Family Honors Program and the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement.

Each Notre Dame student paired with one or two Irish students and developed a mentoring relationship with them over the course of the week.

Clodagh Cordner, a Lurgan student interested in archaeology, said of the experience, “(The project) gives me confidence to work with others, and builds friendships.”

The junior high students took initiative not only with their work on the site but their willingness to be open to cultural differences between students from the three schools. All of the students collaborated well together, and seemed to have a great time doing so. The group achieved its goal of having the site up and running by the end of the week.

Jonathan Ginesa of Lismore said, “The schools work really well together. The people I’ve met and worked with from Notre Dame and Lurgan have been great.”

The junior high students, who were eager to keep in touch with the Notre Dame students and with each other, took a great deal of pride in their work, which was made evident by their stories of going home each night during the week and showing their parents the progress that had been made that day.

Mick said the initiative and drive of these junior high students was what most impressed her about the experience.

“That’s the hallmark of community-based research,” Mick said. “The kids wanted to know more about the ring fort and they started every day ready to work, and innovated beyond anything we could have ever imagined.”

About the author: Kathleen Toohill is a member of Notre Dame’s Class of 2012.

Originally published by Kathleen Toohill at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 14, 2012.

Mendoza ranked No. 1 for ethics and sustainability in Bloomberg Businessweek specialty rankings

2012-05-16T09:00:00-04:00

The Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame earned top five rankings in eight of 14 business specialty categories in the 2012 Bloomberg Businessweek annual ranking of the “Best Undergraduate Business Programs by Specialty,” released May 9.

The results included first-place rankings in ethics and sustainability, third-place rankings in macroeconomics, accounting and finance, a fourth-place spot in microeconomics, and fifth-place rankings in business law and information systems.

The specialty rankings are calculated using survey data collected as part of Bloomberg Businessweek’s annual ranking of the top undergraduate business programs. Mendoza received the overall No. 1 ranking in the 2012 survey for the third consecutive year.

Senior business students from the participating schools were asked to assign grades to their business programs in the 14 specialty areas: microeconomics, entrepreneurship, ethics, international business, sustainability, macroeconomics, operations management, accounting, quantitative methods, finance, marketing, corporate strategy, business law and information systems. Based on those grades, scores were calculated for each of the ranked schools in each area.

The full Bloomberg Businessweek story, including complete rankings in each specialty, is available here.

The Mendoza College had the most top five specialty rankings and tied with Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management for the most top 10 specialty rankings.

The Mendoza College of Business currently enrolls 1,888 undergraduate students in four departments: accountancy, finance, management and marketing. After completing the University’s innovative First Year of Studies program, Notre Dame business majors enter the Mendoza College in their sophomore year.

The Mendoza College also offers graduate degree programs – including a master of business administration, executive master of business administration, master of science in accountancy, and master of nonprofit administration – as well as non-degree executive education and nonprofit professional development programs.

Originally published by Shannon Chapla at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 10, 2012.

Music historian and liturgical scholar Margot Fassler wins three research awards

2012-05-16T09:00:00-04:00

Art. Sacred music. Medieval history. And the digital humanities. Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, brings them all together in her current research on Hildegard of Bingen — research for which she has been recently awarded fellowships from both the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Adding to these accolades, Fassler, a professor in the Department of Theology who co-directs the Master of Sacred Music program in the College of Arts and Letters, on May 11 (Friday) received the 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize for “The Virgin of Chartres: Making History Through Liturgy and the Arts” (Yale University Press, 2010).

“It seems that 2012 is my year,” Fassler says.

Excellence in medieval studies

The annual Gründler prize recognizes an author whose work in any area of medieval studies is judged to be an outstanding contribution to the field. Fassler accepted the award before 3,000 of her peers at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University.

Her winning book, about the history of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France, draws on local histories, letters, obituaries, chants, liturgical sources and reports of miracles to explore the cult of the Virgin of Chartres and its development in the 11th and 12th centuries. The book explores how the past was made in the central Middle Ages and argues for an understanding of the liturgical framework of time.

“It was especially meaningful to win this prestigious award in 2012,” Fassler says, “because I am the third Notre Dame faculty member in a row to win, joining my colleagues John Van Engen and Thomas Noble — all three of us fellows of Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute."

Noble, a professor in the Department of History, won in 2011 for his book “Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians,” marking the first time the Gründler prize had ever been awarded twice to faculty from the same university, let alone in back-to-back years. Van Engen, the Andrew V. Tackes Professor of History, won in 2010 for “Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages.”

In addition to the 2012 Gründler prize, Fassler’s “The Virgin of Chartres” received the biennial ACE/Mercers’ International Book Award in late 2011 for “an outstanding contribution to the dialogue between religious faith and the visual arts.”

Humanities in the digital age

Next up for Fassler are two research projects focusing on the medieval figure Hildegard of Bingen. The first, called “Hildegard’s Scivias: Art, Music, and Drama in a Liturgical Commentary: Book and Digital Model,” is supported by an ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowship — one of only eight given out each year.

“My project concerns a set of interlocking illuminations provided for a late-12th-century copy of Hildegard’s theological treatise ‘Scivias,’ written in the 1140s,” Fassler says. “I will be working with Christian Jara, a talented and experienced digital artist, to create a digitized model of the cosmos as Hildegard envisioned it, adding music and dramatic dimensions to the model, all of which are texts and musical compositions by Hildegard as well.”

The new project, Fassler says, will take advantage of Notre Dame’s “splendid” Digital Visualization Theater (DVT), a 50-foot dome that allows viewers to fully immerse themselves within and fly through high-resolution and high-fidelity images. “We hope to have this 12th-century universe ready for display in the DVT when the Medieval Academy of America meets at Notre Dame in spring 2015,” she says.

Peter Holland, McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre and the associate dean for the arts in the College of Arts and Letters, says the use of new technologies in projects such as Fassler’s is transforming the work of humanities scholars.

“We have wonderful people doing brilliant work in the digital humanities here in the College — cutting-edge, innovative projects that take the way we can understand something in wholly new directions,” Holland says.

And the possibilities are endless, notes Susan Ohmer, director of DigitalND, a new initiative designed to streamline and strengthen digital work at Notre Dame. “Research such as Margot’s exemplifies the contributions that digital humanities can make to scholarship by opening up new methods of analysis and new bodies of research material for scholars to consider.”

Interdisciplinary exploration

In addition to the ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowship, Fassler was this year named a Guggenheim fellow, a midcareer award based on both “prior achievement and exceptional promise.”

The award will support Fassler’s new book about Hildegard’s early writings. The first interdisciplinary monograph on “Scivias,” it treats the work as a liturgical commentary, one that incorporates art, drama and music in its explanations of the sacraments, she says.

“It is an exciting time to be finishing a study of Hildegard, as she will be named a Doctor of the Church in fall 2012,” Fassler adds.

Although deep into her Hildegard research, Fassler has certainly not forgotten about the subject of her last book, which she turned into a College Seminar course called “Chartres Cathedral in the Middle Ages and Today: Art, Music, Liturgy and Identity.”

As part of this Arts and Letters undergraduate class, Fassler and Katie Bugyis, a teaching associate in the Medieval Institute, took 14 students to France during spring break to study the art, architecture and theological importance of the cathedral, which houses the most complete array of in situ medieval glass and sculpture in Europe. The trip was supported by the College of Arts and Letters, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and “Les Amis de la Cathédrale de Chartres.”

“We are preparing a website on our trip and our studies in Chartres, so stay tuned,” Fassler says, adding with a note of pride that “the work of these students has been the best thing yet about 2012.”

Originally published by Joanna Basile at al.nd.edu on May 11, 2012.

Paul Bohn named 2012 spectroscopy fellow

2012-05-15T16:50:00-04:00

Paul W. Bohn, the Arthur J. Schmitt Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, director of the Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics initiative and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS). Bohn will be honored for his exceptional contributions to spectroscopy and his service to the society during its annual meeting in October.

A member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Bohn has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the 2010 Theophilus Redwood Award from the RSC; the 2006 Research Team Award from the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory; the 2005 Bomem-Michelson Award from the Coblentz Society, presented to scientists who have advanced the techniques of vibrational, molecular, Raman or electronic spectroscopy; the 2004 Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of spectroscopy; and the Spectrochemical Analysis Award from the ACS.

Bohn has authored and coauthored more than 210 publications focused on the understanding and control of molecular transport on the nanometer length scale, spatially anisotropic surfaces, optical spectroscopic measurement strategies for surface and interfacial structure-function studies, molecular nanoelectronics and the characterization of optoelectronic materials. He holds six patents issued in technologies related to these efforts. In addition, he has delivered more than 250 invited lectures at universities, national laboratories and industrial laboratories throughout the world. He has also served as a consultant for companies both in the United States and in Europe.

Bohn received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. A 1977 graduate of Notre Dame, he has been a member of the faculty since 2006.

The SAS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the dissemination of information related to spectroscopy and other allied sciences.

Originally published by Nina Welding at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 09, 2012.

EWiND facility aimed at improvements in wind energy

2012-05-15T16:00:00-04:00

A wind turbine and a meteorological tower recently erected on the University of Notre Dame’s White Field are a highly visible symbol of the University’s commitment to establish a premier wind energy research program.

Thomas Corke and Robert Nelson, professors of aerospace and mechanical engineering, are directing the effort, which includes the establishment of a Laboratory for Enhanced Wind Energy Design, titled “eWiND.” The program will seek to develop revolutionary designs that involve “virtual aerodynamic shaping” for enhanced wind energy systems. The laboratory will provide a rich environment for multidisciplinary investigations including fluid dynamics, acoustics, fluid-structure interaction, design optimization, materials, failure modeling, system feedback and control, and atmospheric turbulence.

The eWiND initiative is a key component of the University’s Strategic Research Investment program that has allocated $80 million of Notre Dame’s own money to advance the scope, excellence and visibility of its research enterprise.

Although wind energy has long been recognized as a low-cost, clean source of electricity, substantial reductions in the cost of per kilowatt hour are needed for the technology to become competitive with fossil-powered generating technologies. The White Field wind turbine research laboratory is aimed at overcoming this obstacle through the design of advanced rotors that feature a Notre Dame-patented plasma flow control technology. The plasma actuators are designed to increase the energy capture of wind turbines without increasing the weight of the rotors.

Corke and Nelson hope to demonstrate that the technological enhancement increases power generation and extends the life span of wind turbine systems while decreasing the cost of harvesting wind energy. The White Field facility will feature two wind turbines, including one that serves as a baseline and one that has been modified with the plasma actuators. The laboratory’s meteorological tower provides for continuous documentation of wind conditions.

The Notre Dame-patented plasma control technology has many other applications, including reducing both airplane landing gear noise and air resistance (drag) on the back side of a truck, which results in substantial fuel savings.

Contact: Thomas Corke, 574-631-3261, Thomas.C.Corke.2@nd.edu

Originally published by William G. Gilroy at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 07, 2012.

Survey of Catholic school principals finds support needed for a tough job

2012-05-15T16:00:00-04:00

Catholic elementary school principals, speaking out in a major nationwide survey, report faithful commitments alongside acute challenges in the operation of their schools, and they identify financial management, marketing, Catholic identity, enrollment management and long-range planning as their schools’ top five areas of need.

The study, completed by the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education and its Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, is a rare, comprehensive glimpse of these principals’ views on what they need in order to do their jobs better and how they describe the state of Catholic education today.

“It is difficult to read the responses of Catholic school principals in this study and not sense both their commitment to this ministry and the overwhelming responsibilities that are associated with it,” say the authors of “Leadership Speaks: A National Survey of Catholic Primary School Principals.” They paint a picture of many principals as faith-filled individuals confronting unusually challenging expectations, worthy of new forms of support, such as their own national association.

The study has not yet been published, but the authors — Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, senior director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, along with two members of the Remick Leadership Program faculty, Anthony Holter and James Frabutt — presented an overview of their work during the National Catholic Educational Association annual convention in Boston and at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada, both held in April.

A total of 1,685 Catholic school principals representing all areas of the country and all types of school locations and organizational structures participated in the survey during 2010, answering nearly three dozen questions.

When invited to give open-ended answers, the participants narrowed down the five top areas of need to the two they called most important — enrollment management and financial management — which together often capture the most basic goal of survival: keeping a school open.

Based on the data obtained, “the Church seems to have hired well, attracting mission-driven and loyal individuals to the overarching goals of Catholic education,” according to the study. But these principals live daily with what has been called “the tyranny of the urgent,” hungering for more support — “emotional as well as financial.”

“A Catholic school principal has job expectations that go beyond what can be found in secular educational literature,” the authors note, pointing out that the work of a chief executive officer and a chief operating officer is combined with the school’s overarching religious purpose: “the sanctification of all its stakeholders.”

The study provides enormous amounts of data describing today’s Catholic school principals and outlining their views, and the authors conclude with four recommendations:

Develop “new models of governance for Catholic elementary schools” that shift the panoply of principal responsibilities “into a more manageable and realistic position description.”
“Develop a program of ongoing professional development and renewal for principals” that address their needs, both professional and personal.
Organize a national association of Catholic school principals as a means “to give voice to their leadership concerns at every level and to promote advocacy for Catholic schools at the national level.”
“Convene multiple groups of national and international stakeholders to advance the understanding of Catholic schools as instruments of the new evangelization.”

Contact: Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, rnuzzi@nd.edu

Originally published by William G. Schmitt at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 07, 2012.

Marketing group names award after ND professor William Wilkie

2012-05-15T16:00:00-04:00

William L. Wilkie, professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame, recently added another achievement to his long list: The American Marketing Association Foundation has named an award after him.

The foundation announced the creation of the William L. Wilkie “Marketing for a Better World” Award at the annual AMA Winter Marketing Educators’ Conference in St. Petersburg, Fla. The award recognizes and honors the life of Wilkie, the Nathe Professor of Marketing at the Mendoza College of Business.

The Wilkie Award will honor marketing thought leaders who have significantly contributed to the understanding and appreciation of marketing’s potential to positively impact the human community.

“The AMAF is extremely honored to support the Wilkie Award,” said Jerome D. Williams, AMAF chairman and Prudential Chair in Business and Research Director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development, Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick. “The purpose of this award and what it stands for is the heart of the AMAF mission — to champion the marketing profession by encouraging excellence and investing in marketing that benefits society.”

Wilkie, who joined the Mendoza College faculty in 1987, has been honored by the American Marketing Association with its highest recognition, the Distinguished Marketing Educator Award. He has been recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Marketing Association’s Special Interest Group on Marketing and Society. At Notre Dame, Wilkie received the Special Presidential Award, and has been voted the BP Outstanding Teacher Award for the Mendoza College of Business by the graduating senior class.

During the awards event, Wilkie described marketing as being a complex and important field of study that monitors the wants and needs of society. “While marketing can sometimes overstep bounds in its pursuits, it also can bring wonder to, and real improvements in, people’s daily lives,” he said. “One important goal for our aggregate marketing system, therefore, is that it be both fair and efficient in its operations."

He added that along with the impressive advancements in academic marketing, there has been a shift in the perceptions about the field itself. “In our quest for increasing rigor in the ‘A journals,’ we are in danger of forgetting that marketing actually has impacts on the world we live in, and that these impacts themselves are extremely important,” he said. “I’m hopeful that this will be a major award in our field, targeted to recognizing marketing thought leaders whose work serves to highlight these issues of marketing’s impacts on the world we live in, and thus serving to enhance these impacts in the future."

The nomination period for the inaugural award will open in September 2012. Additional information can be found at www.themarketingfoundation.org/wilkie.html.

Wilkie’s scholarship includes numerous journal articles, monographs and books, including a textbook, “Consumer Behavior,” that has been used in classrooms throughout the world. Wilkie has been named in several studies as a “Thought Leader” in academic marketing, and is author of an article named as a “Citation Classic in the Social Sciences” by the Institute for Scientific Information.

Wilkie has served as president of the Association for Consumer Research, an international professional group with more than 1,600 members in 30 nations; as an Academic Advisory Board member for the Marketing Science Institute; a member of the Advisory Board for the Applied Economics Research Bulletin; and as a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, among others.

Originally published by Carol Elliott at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 08, 2012.

Graphene-based terahertz devices: The wave of the future

2012-05-08T08:00:00-04:00

People use electromagnetic energy every day … watching television, listening to the radio, popping corn with a microwave, taking an X-ray or using a cellphone. This energy travels in the form of waves, which are widely used in electronic and wireless devices.

One of the hottest areas of the electromagnetic spectrum being explored today is the terahertz (THz) range. Terahertz waves, lying between microwave and optical frequencies, offer improved performance for a variety of applications in everyday life. For instance, THz waves can carry more information than radio/microwaves for communications devices. They also provide medical and biological images with higher resolution than microwaves, while offering much smaller potential harm of exposure than X-rays.

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have shown that it is possible to efficiently manipulate THz electromagnetic waves with atomically thin graphene layers. This achievement, which was recently published in Nature Communications, sets the stage for development of compact, efficient and cost-effective devices and systems operating in the THz band.

“A major bottleneck in the promise of THz technology has been the lack of efficient materials and devices that manipulate these energy waves,” says Berardi Sensale-Rodriguez, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Notre Dame. “Having a naturally two-dimensional material with strong and tunable response to THz waves — for example, graphene — gives us the opportunity to design THz devices achieving unprecedented performance.”

The terahertz team — graduate students Sensale-Rodriguez, Rusen Yan, Kristof Tahy and Tian Fang; research assistant professors Michelle M. Kelly, through Center for Nano Science and Technology (NDnano), and Lei Liu, in conjunction with Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics at Notre Dame (AD&T); visiting research assistant professor Wan Sik Hwang, with Midwest Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery (MIND); associate professor Debdeep Jena and John Cardinal O’Hara, C.S.C., Associate Professor Huili (Grace) Xing — has demonstrated the first proof of concept prototype of a graphene-based THz modulator, a device enabled solely by intraband transitions in graphene.

Graphene, an atom-thick semiconductor material, has shown promising electrical, mechanical and thermal properties leading to the recent demonstration of fast transistors, flexible/transparent electronics, optical devices and now terahertz active components.

“Graphene has been touted as an ideal platform to discover new, as well as prove/dispute existing, physical phenomena since 2004," Xing said. "That is what two physicists in the United Kingdom, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, were awarded the Nobel Prize for in 2010. However, very few real-world applications of graphene have emerged to date. Using graphene to manipulate THz waves is one of such applications. This Nature Communication paper documented our first experimental effort to realize the predictions in our paper published in Applied Physics Letters last year. Devices with better performance continue rolling out of our laboratories.

“Though Professor Jena and I formed the vision to use two-dimensional electron gas to manipulate THz waves back in 2006, it was not until Michelle, Lei and Berardi joined us that this piece of work was possible,” Xing added.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research, as well MIND, NDnano and AD&T.

Contact: Huili (Grace) Xing, 574-631-9108, hxing@nd.edu

Originally published by Nina Welding at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 01, 2012.

Unique research laboratory focuses on making aircraft engines more efficient

2012-05-04T16:20:00-04:00

Travel on airlines has become so routine for most of us, we often fail to appreciate what a true technological marvel it is. And it’s a costly and noisy marvel. Moving millions of passengers millions of miles each year requires an astounding amount of costly jet fuel and generates a significant amount of engine noise.

That helps explain why the companies that manufacture aircraft engines often find their way to the laboratory of Scott Morris, an associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

Morris conducts experimental research on turbomachinery and acoustics as part of the Institute for Flow Physics and Control, which is located in Notre Dame’s Hessert Laboratory for Aerospace Research. His work is aimed at helping the airline industry and the military to increase the efficiency of aircraft engines and reduce their noise.

Morris and research assistant professor Joshua Cameron developed a turbomachinery laboratory that is focused on improving the components of gas turbine engines for propulsion and power system applications. The lab’s facilities include two transonic axial compressors and a high speed research turbine. These facilities feature single-stage rotating experiments that allow for advanced diagnostics and flow control under conditions that are similar to those occurring in full-scale aircraft engines.

The lab also focuses on aeroacoustics, a field that involves fluid mechanics, acoustics, fluid structure interactions and vibrations. Experiments conducted in this area focus on problems such as airfoil generated noise and vibration, fan noise and the sound associated with active flow control devices.

Turbine engine manufacturers and the military are keenly interested in developing quieter, more energy efficient engines and the Morris lab enables them to gain insights into engine performance that can result in savings of millions of dollars in design and operational costs.

The research facility is growing significantly with a current staff of 20 and a calendar booked with experiments into 2014. The experiments being conducted in the Morris lab are leading to new discoveries that will improve both the energy costs and environmental impact of air travel.

Contact: Scott Morris, 574-631-3238, s.morris@nd.edu

Originally published by William G. Gilroy at newsinfo.nd.edu on April 30, 2012.

Richman honored for online Creole course that builds connections to Haiti

2012-05-04T16:10:00-04:00

Karen Richman, a faculty fellow in the University of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies and academic director of the University’s Institute for Latino Studies, has been honored by the OpenCourseWare Consortium with the 2012 Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence. Her free, online Creole Language and Culture course was selected from among the 17,000 courses shared openly by universities worldwide to receive one of five awards in the text and still image category.

An anthropologist who studies Haitian culture and popular religion, Richman adapted her classroom curriculum for Internet use in 2007 with the goal of building sustained commitment to the people of Haiti through an introductory study of the “vivid and sonorous” language of Creole.

Richman designed the course not only to teach grammar and phonetics, but also to introduce students to the complexities of Haitian history, economy, politics, religion and art. By placing language study within a broader anthropological framework, she aims to cultivate respect for Haitian thinking and values and “to teach a Creole perspective on the universe.”

“Creole is more than a tool — it actually shapes people’s perception of experience,” she says. “If you want to get to a deeper level of understanding and a deeper level of support or service, it is imperative to master Creole.”

After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the number of visits to the site spiked dramatically. Church volunteer groups, nonprofits dedicated to trauma recovery, journalists and even the UN peacekeeping team in Haiti contacted her and accessed course materials online.

Richman notes that Haiti has been plagued by one disaster after another, from the 2008 flooding in Gonaives to the cholera epidemic following the earthquake.

“Haitians are very familiar with poverty,” she says. “They have confronted tragedy and pain and struggle from time immemorial — as they would say, ‘from the time of Africa.’”

In her course, Richman teaches Haitian proverbs to provide insight into the ways Haitians cope with disaster and poverty — and perhaps with the foreign aid organizations that descend upon the country in bad times.

“I’ve seen a lot of well-meaning people not be able to accomplish anything,” she laments. “Haiti has received so much foreign aid, but often it doesn’t help the right people.”

Richman intends for her course to give students a new point of departure for future efforts by promoting understanding of Haitian realities. Whether students go on to do relief and development work or undertake research in Haiti, “they’ll listen more and be able to interpret what they’re hearing,” she says.

Since 2004, Richman has taught Haitian Creole as part of the Notre Dame curriculum. The course (ROFR 20680) is cross-listed in the Department of Anthropology and the Kellogg Institute’s Latin American Studies Program.

An international collaboration of colleges, universities and associated organizations, the OpenCourseWare Consortium offers a broad body of open educational content using a shared model. Notre Dame’s membership in OCW Consortium began as an initiative of the Kaneb Center in 2006.

Contact: Karen Richman, 574-631-8146, krichman@nd.edu

Originally published by Esther Terry and Elizabeth Rankin at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 02, 2012.

Notre Dame student discovers rare star

2012-05-04T16:00:00-04:00

Many students work the night shift to get through law school, but Colin Littlefield’s late-night job at the Notre Dame Observatory has led to a one-in-a-billion discovery of a rare type of star, a Wolf-Rayet. Littlefield discovered the exceptional star, named WR 142b, this past summer, and he and his colleagues announced the discovery in a paper accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.

Co-authors of the paper include Peter Garnavich, Terry Rettig and Colin McClelland of the University of Notre Dame Department of Physics; Howie Marion of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Jozsef Vinko of the University of Szeged in Hungary; and J. Craig Wheeler of the University of Texas at Austin.

There are only a few hundred known Wolf-Rayet stars in our Milky Way galaxy, which contains an estimated 400 billion stars. A Wolf-Rayet star is like a ticking time bomb that will explode as a brilliant supernova or a gamma-ray burst at the end of its short, violent life. Among the most massive, luminous stars known to exist, Wolf-Rayet stars are in their final death throes and hemorrhage prodigious amounts of mass into space, often at a rate of several Earth masses per year.

The first three of these unusual stars were noticed by the French astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet in the 19th century. Wolf-Rayet stars begin their lives with 20 to 100 times the mass of our sun, quickly exhaust their reserves of nuclear fuel, and finally blow themselves apart with tremendous energy leaving a black hole or a neutron star.

Littlefield has had a fascination with astronomy since grade school and has worked at the Observatory helping students with their astronomy class projects since 2008. After the other students head back to their dorms, Littlefield stays at the observatory to do his own research. While monitoring the outburst of one star this past July, Littlefield noticed an unexpected brightness variation in a nearby star and followed up by analyzing the starlight using a spectrograph. Although this star appeared as just one inconspicuous dot in a field of many such specks of light, the star’s spectrum, which showed strong emission lines from highly ionized helium and nitrogen, told a far more interesting story. Littlefield said, “The spectrum showed unmistakable signs of the high temperatures and strange chemical composition unique to Wolf-Rayet stars, enough evidence to get professional astronomers with big telescopes excited.”

More data on the star was obtained with the 9-meter-aperture Hobby-Eberly Telescope and the 8.4-meter-aperture Large Binocular Telescope, two of the largest telescopes in the world. In addition to confirming that Littlefield’s star was indeed a newfound Wolf-Rayet, the data from these telescopes revealed that if it were not for clouds of interstellar dust obscuring WR 142b, the star would appear so bright from Earth that it could be visible to the naked eye at night. “Although a telescope is currently necessary to view WR 142b,” says Littlefield, “it will temporarily shine as one of the brightest stars in the night sky when it finally explodes as a supernova at some point in the future.”

Littlefield earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in peace studies in 2011 from Notre Dame. He is currently enrolled in the Notre Dame Law School.

Contact: Colin Littlefield, clittlef@nd.edu; Peter Garnavich, professor of physics, 574-631-7262, pgarnavi@nd.edu

Originally published by Marissa Gebhard at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 01, 2012.

New book busts myths about sex, race and violence

2012-05-04T16:00:00-04:00

There are three pervasive myths about human nature centered on sex, aggression and race. They are:

1. Men and women are truly different in behavior, desires and wiring.
2. Humans are divided into biological races (white, black, Asian, etc.).
3. Humans, especially males, are aggressive by nature.

A new book by University of Notre Dame Anthropology Professor Agustín Fuentes titled “Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You: Busting Myths about Human Nature” (University of California Press, 2012) counters these pernicious myths and tackles misconceptions about what race, aggression and sex really mean for humans.

Presenting scientific evidence from diverse fields, including anthropology, biology and psychology, Fuentes incorporates an accessible understanding of culture, genetics and evolution, requiring us to dispose of notions of “nature or nurture.”

Fuentes devises a myth-busting toolkit to dismantle persistent fallacies about the validity of biological races, the innateness of aggression and violence, and the nature of monogamy and differences between the sexes. He includes a list of the most common misperceptions about human nature on race, sex and violence, and counters those myths with a myth buster. Among them:

Myth: Humans are divided into biological races: Racism is part of our nature.

Myth buster: There is no separate gene for black or white. Our concept of race is not biological; it is social. While there is only one biological race in humans (Homo sapiens), it still matters whether you are black or white in the U.S. Differences between “races” in the U.S. are the outcomes of social, historical, economic and experiential contexts, not biological entities.

Myth: Humans are more or less naturally monogamous, or more specifically: Men want a lot of sex and women want a little. Males want many partners and women search for one mate. As the saying goes: “Hogamous, higamous, men are polygamous … Higamous, hogamous, women are monogamous.”

Myth buster: Humans are not biologically monogamous, but we can be socially so. Humans are attracted to many individuals throughout their lifetime, whom they may or may not have sex with, and men and women have sex in more or less the same frequency and manners. As a species, humans have lots of sex … sometimes leading to some very big problems.

Myth: Humans, especially testosterone-laden males, are aggressive by nature.

Myth buster: There is no “beast within.” Humans are neither naturally aggressive nor naturally peaceful, but we are really good at working things out. Humans are the most successful large animal on this planet, but we have few if any “natural” defenses (no horns, claws, fangs, etc.). All we have are big brains and other people. It is our history of working together that got us to where we are (7 billion strong in 2012). But more people means more conflict — can we continue to work things out?

An expert in biological anthropology, primatology, human evolution, and social organization and behavior, Fuentes also has authored “Evolution of Human Behavior” and “Health, Risk and Adversity.” He is a regular contributor to NationalGeographic.com and National Geographic radio and has appeared as a guest on “Animal Planet.” He also is a regular guest blogger for Psychology Today.

Contact: Agustin Fuentes, 574-329-5826, afuentes@nd.edu

Originally published by Susan Guibert at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 03, 2012.

ND theologian Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., receives 2012 Touchstone Award

2012-05-04T16:00:00-04:00

Rev. Daniel G. Groody, C.S.C., associate professor of theology and director of the Center for Latino Spirituality and Culture at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, has received the 2012 Touchstone Award from the National Federation of Priests’ Councils (NFPC).

The NFPC annually gives the Touchstone Award to a Catholic priest “whose service in the Gospel of Jesus Christ exemplifies the purposes and goals of the Federation.”

In announcing the award, the NFPC, which represents 26,000 priests nationwide, praised Father Groody’s work in the Latino community and his scholarship in migration issues and theology.

Father Groody spent many years doing pastoral work and research in Latin America and along the U.S.- Mexican border, particularly in the Coachella Valley of California, where he worked from 1997 to 1999. In addition to the numerous books and articles he has written on U.S. Latino spirituality, globalization and the relationship of Christian spirituality to social justice, he has produced documentary films including “One Border, One Body: Immigration and the Eucharist” and “Dying to Live: A Migrant’s Journey.”

Founded in 1968, the NFPC supports member organizations and priests through collaboration, communication, ongoing formation, research and advocacy.

Originally published by Michael O. Garvey at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 03, 2012.

Teaching awards honor exemplary work with undergraduates

2012-05-04T15:45:00-04:00

Twenty University of Notre Dame faculty members have received Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and three faculty were honored with Dockweiler Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising.

The awards are presented by the Office of the Provost, but recipients are selected through a process that includes peer and student nominations.

Dockweiler Award winners are: Ramzi K. Bualuan, associate professional specialist, computer science and engineering; Joshua B. Kaplan, associate professional specialist, political science; and Holly E. Martin, assistant dean, First Year of Studies.

The 20 winners of Joyce teaching excellence awards represent faculty who have had a profound influence on undergraduate students through sustained exemplary teaching. Faculty committees in each of seven disciplinary areas review the peer and student nominations.

Recipients are: John C. Cavadini, theology; Jon T. Coleman, history; Steven A. Corcelli, chemistry and biochemistry; Rev. John S. Dunne, C.S.C., theology; Kenneth E. Filchak, biological sciences; Margaret M. Forster, finance; Stephen A. Fredman, English; Holly V. Goodson, chemistry and biochemistry; Brad S. Gregory, history; Daniel M. Hungerman, economics; Kristin M. Lewis, biological sciences; Chong Keat Arthur Lim, mathematics; Robert C. Nelson, aerospace and mechanical engineering; Walter J. Nicgorski, liberal studies; Carolyn R. Nordstrom, anthropology; Vera B. Profit, German and Russian languages and literatures; Valerie L. Sayers, English; Christian Smith, sociology; Douglas L. Thain, computer science and engineering; and Julianne C. Turner, psychology.

The undergraduate teaching award is supported by a gift from the late Father Joyce’s classmates in the Class of 1937. This is the sixth year that advisors and student mentors are being honored through an award supported by the Julia Stearns Dockweiler Charitable Foundation.

Originally published by Shannon Chapla at newsinfo.nd.edu on April 30, 2012.

Michael O’Brien named 2012 valedictorian

2012-05-04T15:00:00-04:00

Michael J. O’Brien, a political science major from St. Charles, Ill., has been named valedictorian of the 2012 University of Notre Dame graduating class and will present the valedictory address during Commencement ceremonies May 20 (Sunday) at Notre Dame Stadium. O’Brien, who also will be awarded an International Business Certificate from Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, earned a 4.0 grade point average.

O’Brien is editor-in-chief of “Beyond Politics: Undergraduate Journal of Politics,” and serves as president of the Notre Dame College Democrats, leading one of the most active College Democrats chapters in the nation.

O’Brien is a fellow in Notre Dame’s International Security Program and has joined national security scholars and experts in small-group discussions. Under the direction of Political Science Assistant Professor Sebastian Rosato, O’Brien developed an original theory on how the structure of unipolar (single great power) international systems influences the foreign policy behavior of the unipolar state. He also conducted research on religious freedom, regime composition and Islamic political movements in Muslim-majority countries.

A finalist for both the Rhodes Scholarship and the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, O’Brien will co-author, with Rosato, an article this summer on the durability of U.S. primacy, to be published by the Nobel Institute in Norway and later by an American journal of international relations.

This fall, O’Brien will enter the University of Chicago Law School, having earned a full tuition merit scholarship.

The Commencement invocation will be offered by Ashley K. Logsdon, a double major in biological sciences and theology from Pickerington, Ohio, who will graduate with a 3.99 grade point average.

Originally published by Susan Guibert at newsinfo.nd.edu on April 27, 2012.

NDnano paper examines nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem

2012-05-04T15:00:00-04:00

A recent paper by Kathleen Eggleson, a research scientist in the Center for Nano Science and Technology (NDnano) at the University of Notre Dame, provides an example of a nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem that is unfolding right now.

The world of nanotechnology, which involves science and engineering down at billionths-of-a-meter scales, might seem remote.

But like most new advances, the application of that technology to everyday experience has implications that can affect people in real ways.

If not anticipated, discussed or planned for, some of those implications might even be harmful.

The problem that Eggleson describes is that hospital-acquired infections are a persistent, costly and sometimes fatal issue. A patient goes in for one condition, say an injury, but ends up being infected by a microorganism picked up in the hospital itself. That microorganism might even have developed a resistance to conventional drug treatments.

The solution is that engineers are developing new and innovative ways of coating medical materials with nano-sized particles of silver, an element that has long been known for its antimicrobial properties. These particles are being applied to hard surfaces, like bedrails and doorknobs, and to fabrics, such as sheets, gowns and curtains, by a growing number of medical supply companies. And these new materials are proving effective.

“Nanosilver coatings have made life-saving differences to the properties of typical hospital items,” Eggleson says. “Just this last December, a textile made by a Swiss company was the first nano-scale material approved as a pesticide by the EPA.”

The possible new danger is that the vast majority of bacteria and other microorganisms are actually neutral, or even beneficial, to human life and a healthy environment. For example, some bacteria are needed to maintain appropriate levels of nitrogen in the air, and others, living inside the human body, are critical to both vitamin synthesis and digestion.

So overuse of nanosilver products, especially outside of clinical environments, could pose a danger to needed microorganisms, and enable resistant strains to flourish.

“Under most conditions, the preservation of microbial biodiversity is a benefit,” explains Eggleson.

“In fact, those who would use these potent new antimicrobial technologies for frivolous uses, such as for odor control, work directly against the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative’s goal of responsible nanotechnology development.”

Eggleson came to the Center for Nano Science and Technology last year to study and prompt discussion of problems like these.

“NDnano is expanding its scope into studies of the societal impact of nanotechnology,” explains Wolfgang Porod, Frank M. Freimann Professor of Electrical Engineering at Notre Dame and director of the center. “This is the background for bringing Kathy on board.”

To facilitate such discussion, Eggleson initiated a monthly meeting group, called the Nano Impacts Intellectual Community, which brings together Notre Dame researchers from across campus, visiting scholars and authors from outside the university, and leaders from the local area to probe nanotechnology topics in depth.

The group has tackled such issues as the ethics of nanomedicine, the commercialization of nanotechnology products, and the interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology research.

“I appreciate being a part of this on-going conversation,” says Glenn Killoren, an attorney at Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a regular Nano Impacts attendee. “Nanotechnology isn’t just something that happens in research labs anymore. It’s a small but growing part of our lives, and both scientists and non-scientists need to think about its effects.”

Eggleson and NDnano faculty have also met with a number of local middle school and high school teachers who feature nanotechnology in their lesson plans. Moreover, the center supports Ivy Tech Community College-North Central’s program to train aspiring nanotechnology technicians.

“We try to do as much as we can to engage the community in this exciting area,” says Eggleson.

NDnano is one of the leading nanotechnology centers in the world. Its mission is to study and manipulate the properties of materials and devices, as well as their interfaces with living systems, at the nano-scale.

The center’s expanding work on the societal impacts of nanotechnology has been made possible, in part, by one of the university’s Strategic Research Investments (SRIs), which represent a commitment of internal funds and other resources, supplementing funding from external grants and gifts, to advance excellence in research.

In addition, Nano Impacts is supported by the Office of the Provost’s Initiative on Building Intellectual Community.

Contact: Kathleen Eggleson, 574-631-1229, eggleson.1@nd.edu

Originally published by Arnie Phifer at newsinfo.nd.edu on April 27, 2012.

Johansen honored for scholarship, innovation, mentoring in international peace

2012-05-04T15:00:00-04:00

Robert C. Johansen, who retired this year as professor of political science and peace studies and a founding faculty member of the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, was honored April 19-21 with a conference and related festivities at the Kroc Institute. The conference, entitled “Global Governance and the Future of Strategic Peacebuilding,” focused on a central theme of Johansen’s scholarship and teaching: the importance of strengthening ethical and legal norms and international institutions that contribute to peace and justice.

Conference participants included prominent scholars of global affairs — including keynote speakers G. John Ikenberry of Princeton University, Craig Murphy of the University of Massachusetts, and Richard Falk of the University of California — as well as Johansen’s colleagues at Notre Dame, students in peace studies, members of the Kroc Institute Advisory Council, and Kroc Institute alumni who said their lives had been transformed by Johansen’s teaching and mentoring.

Johansen is best known for his scholarly work on analyzing foreign policy from a global perspective and describing international relations as a global system, said Scott Appleby, director of the Kroc Institute.

“The central idea that informs everything Bob has written and teaches is that we have to find ways to move beyond boundaries, beyond exclusive expressions of our identities — whether they be religious, racial, or national. What binds us together is our common humanity. How do we embed that conviction in international legal norms and institutions, in order to ensure that each person’s dignity is protected?”

At Notre Dame, where he has taught for 25 years, Johansen was central to shaping the Kroc Institute from its inception in 1986 to its position today as a leading center for peace research and education. He developed the institute’s innovative professional master’s program in international peace studies, which he directed from 1987-98. He also taught and mentored generations of peace scholars and practitioners (many of the program’s nearly 500 graduates), who now work in nearly 100 countries.

Johansen spearheaded the design and development of the Kroc Institute’s unique Ph.D. program (in which students are fully credentialed in history, political science, psychology, sociology, and theology, as well as in peace studies) and served as director of doctoral studies from 2008-10.

“Bob Johansen is the reason I came to Notre Dame,” said Laura Taylor, one of the first doctoral students in peace studies. “I think the Ph.D. program has the potential to change the face of peace studies by being interdisciplinary. That vision makes it different from any other program and allows us to all be strong in our home discipline and in peace research.”

“Your ideas are changing the field of peace,” wrote Noah Salameh, a 1994 alumnus from Palestine, one of many dozens of former students who thanked Johansen for his intellectual and personal commitments. “Your thoughts, books and teaching are in practice every day.”

“You’re a giant among my elders because of your wisdom, joy and commitment to making the world a better place,” wrote Michelle Parlevliet, a 1995 graduate from Amsterdam.

Johansen has served as program chair for the International Studies Association, past president of the World Policy Institute, and founding editor-in-chief of the World Policy Journal. He has held visiting appointments at Princeton University’s Center for International Studies, Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, and the Center for the Study of World Religions. In 2009 he received the Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Peace Studies award from the Peace and Justice Association.

Johansen’s major publications include “The National Interest and the Human Interest: An Analysis of U.S. Foreign Policy” (Princeton, 1980) and “Toward an Alternative Security System: Moving Beyond the Balance of Power in the Search for World Security” (World Policy Institute, 1983), and he co-edited “The Constitutional Foundations of World Peace” (SUNY, 1993). His scholarly articles have appeared in World Policy Journal, World Politics, The Journal of Peace Research, Global Governance, Human Rights Quarterly, Third World Quarterly, Mershon International Studies Review, and Review of Politics.

The Kroc Institute has excelled not only because of its commitment to interdisciplinary research and teaching on peace and justice, Johansen said, but also “because faculty and students are animated by a spirit of compassion that has quietly woven its way into our lives together. One test of this program has become whether — because we faculty and students have worked together — someone’s suffering will be reduced, some person’s life will be spared, or some child who might have suffered genocide or war instead will live to productive adulthood.”

In retirement, Johansen plans to continue his research, writing, public speaking, and advocacy for peace.

Watch tribute video to Professor Johansen

Contact: Robert Johansen, 574-631-6971, rjohans1@nd.edu

Originally published by Joan Fallon at newsinfo.nd.edu on April 27, 2012.

José Limón to direct Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies

2012-05-04T15:00:00-04:00

José E. Limón, one of the country’s foremost scholars of Latino literature, has been appointed to lead the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies (ILS). As the new director of ILS, he will hold the Julian Samora Chair in Latino Studies.

Timothy Matovina, a leading expert on Latino Catholicism, will serve as executive director of the institute, which is housed in the College of Arts and Letters. Both appointments take effect July 1.

Established in 1999, the Institute for Latino Studies supports a variety of interdisciplinary initiatives to foster understanding of the U.S. Latino experience.

“I am extraordinarily pleased and grateful for the opportunity to lead the Institute for Latino Studies to even greater prominence and to place it at the center of the intellectual life at Notre Dame,” Limón says. “I look forward to working with Executive Director Timothy Matovina as well as the College of Arts and Letters and its departmental chairs.”

Limón is the Notre Dame Professor of American Literature in the Department of English and author of three major books in the field of Latino studies: “American Encounters: Greater Mexico, the United States and the Erotics of Culture,” “Dancing with the Devil: Society and Cultural Poetics in Mexican-American South Texas” and “Mexican Ballads, Chicano Poems: History and Influence in Mexican-American Social Poetry.” The University of Texas Press is set to publish his fourth book, “Américo Paredes: Culture and Critique,” in fall 2012.

Limón’s academic interests are varied and include cultural studies, Latino literature, anthropology and literature, Mexicans in the United States, U.S.-Mexico cultural relations, critical theory, folklore and popular culture. He also teaches and writes on the literature of the U.S. South.

Matovina, a professor in the Department of Theology, is completing a 10-year term as director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, also housed in the College.

His new book, “Latino Catholicism: Transformation in America’s Largest Church,” published by Princeton University Press, closely considers the five-century-long history of Latino Catholics in America and how that history has affected them and their Church.

“I look forward to working with my colleague José Limón to build on the strong foundation that Gilberto Cárdenas has laid at the Institute for Latino Studies,” Matovina says.

In announcing the new appointments, College of Arts and Letters Dean John T. McGreevy also praised the work of Cárdenas, who has led ILS since its creation in 1999. An assistant provost and professor of sociology, Cárdenas is a distinguished scholar of Mexican immigration and Latino art.

“Gil Cardenas’s achievement is to place Notre Dame at the center of Latino studies in the U.S. through his visionary leadership of multiple programs, in fields as diverse as Latino health, immigration and Latino art,” McGreevy says. “We are deeply grateful for his efforts.”

Latino studies is a key component of the academic mission of the College — and the University, McGreevy says. “The stakes for Notre Dame in Latino studies are unusually high. Latinos are already a central part of American culture, business and politics, and this influence — important for all Americans, not just Latinos — will only grow in coming decades. At the same time, Latinos will soon number half of American Catholics, a development reflected in Notre Dame’s rapidly growing number of Latino students.

“I look forward to working with two eminent scholars — José Limón and Timothy Matovina — in helping us to become preeminent in this area. "

Originally published by Kate Cohorst at al.nd.edu on May 1, 2012.

Study finds mild winters are detrimental to butterflies

2012-04-27T10:00:00-04:00

The recent mild winter throughout much of the United States was a cause for celebration for many. However, butterfly aficionados shouldn’t be joining in the celebration.

A new study by Jessica Hellmann, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, and researchers from Western University found that mild winters, such as the one many of us just experienced, can be taxing for some butterfly or possibly other species.

Hellmann and her fellow researchers studied caterpillars of the Propertius Duskywing butterfly, which feed on Gary Oak trees. This species of caterpillar, like many insects, has a higher metabolic rate and burns more fat during mild winters.

“The energy reserves the caterpillars collect in the summer need to provide enough energy for both overwintering and metamorphosing into a butterfly in the spring,” Caroline William, lead author of the study, said.

So a butterfly needs to conserve as much energy as it can during the winter months. In the paper, Hellmann and her colleagues explain for the first time how warmer winters can lead to a decrease in the number of butterflies.

However, Hellmann and the Western University researchers found that warmer winters might not always reduce butterfly populations as much as one might initially think. They reared caterpillars in two different locations: one which often experiences more variable and warmer winter temperatures and one which generally features more stable and generally cooler winter temperatures. The caterpillars that were exposed to the warmer and more variable conditions were better able to withstand the warmer conditions, simply by being exposed to them. They did so by lowering the sensitivity of their metabolism.

However, the ability of even caterpillars accustomed to warmer, more variable winters to cope with such conditions is still limited, according to the researchers. They calculated the energy use of both groups of caterpillars and discovered that the caterpillars that lower their metabolic rates to deal with warmer winters still use significantly more energy to survive them.

“We still have lot to learn about how organisms will respond to climate change,” Hellmann said. “Our study shows significant biological effects of climate change, but it also shows that organisms can partially adjust their physiology to compensate. We now need to discover if other species adjust in similar ways to our example species.”

So although mild winters may be a cause for celebration for many of us, those who are concerned about biodiversity might find them to be much more somber seasons.

The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Contact: Jessica Hellmann, 574-631-7521, hellmann.3@nd.edu

Originally published by William G. Gilroy at newsinfo.nd.edu on April 20, 2012.