Each fall, Notre Dame celebrates the excellence of its faculty alongside one of the University’s most visible traditions. At each home football game, the provost recognizes a faculty member whose scholarship, teaching, and service are making an impact at Notre Dame and beyond. Together, this year’s six honorees represent the breadth and distinction of the University’s academic community as Notre Dame’s 2026 All-Faculty Team.
“Notre Dame’s ambition to be the leading global Catholic research university is ultimately realized through the work of our faculty,” said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “The scholars on this year’s All-Faculty Team exemplify the intellectual excellence, creativity, and sense of purpose that distinguish research at Notre Dame.”
Meet the team:
Sherif Girgis
Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
Professor Sherif Girgis studies one of the central questions of American law: how judges should read the Constitution.
The Supreme Court increasingly looks to history and tradition to apply Americans' most contested rights—free speech, religious liberty, privacy, Second Amendment rights, and more. Professor Girgis uses philosophical tools to clarify the value as well as the limits of this approach. His scholarship explores how courts can honor the promises made at our Founding while taking seriously the needs of the present, guarding both liberty and the rule of law.
Learn more about Sherif Girgis
Jennifer Schaefer
Sheehan Family Collegiate Professor of Engineering, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Professor Jennifer Schaefer studies how materials behave at the molecular and mesoscale levels and how those properties can be harnessed to develop new technologies. Her research group focuses particularly on energy and the environment, with work that could influence next-generation batteries, sensors, cooling systems, and processes for recovering critical minerals.
Professor Schaefer is motivated by the potential for discoveries in materials science to improve everyday life, even when the materials that make new technologies possible often go unnoticed.
Learn more about Jennifer Schaefer
Kevin Lannon
Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the College of Science
Professor Kevin Lannon studies the fundamental building blocks of the universe through the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Working with an international collaboration of scientists, Lannon searches for undiscovered particles and forces that shape the cosmos, including dark matter and dark energy.
The particles scientists currently know about account for only about 5 percent of the universe. Through one of the most sophisticated scientific instruments ever created, Lannon and thousands of scientists from around the world are working together to understand the other 95 percent, continuing a quest to understand the nature of the universe that stretches back to the ancient Greeks.
Dean Shepherd
Ray and Milann Siegfried Professor of Entrepreneurship, Mendoza College of Business
Professor Dean Shepherd studies how entrepreneurs identify opportunities, make decisions, and take action in uncertain environments where established rules may not exist or no longer work. His research examines the thoughts, emotions, and decision-making that shape entrepreneurial journeys, including how entrepreneurs experiment and learn to find a path forward. Ultimately, his work seeks to understand how entrepreneurship can create value not only for entrepreneurs, but also for society.
Shepherd is particularly interested in people who are willing and able to act amid extreme uncertainty. By understanding how they evaluate opportunities and move forward without a clear path to success, his research sheds light on how entrepreneurship and innovation can transform people’s lives.
Learn more about Dean Shepherd
Sharon Yoon
Associate Professor of Korean Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs
Professor Sharon Yoon studies race and migration in East Asia, examining how marginalized communities build belonging, civic engagement, and the capacity to create social change. Drawing on years of immersive research conducted in four languages across China, Japan, and South Korea, her work challenges conventional ideas about communities often dismissed as peripheral, from ethnic enclaves to migrant churches.
In Osaka’s historic Koreatown, for example, Yoon documented how members of a small, long-stigmatized community responded to more than a thousand hate demonstrations by building a grassroots movement that ultimately contributed to Japan’s first national law addressing hate speech. By living and working alongside the communities she studies, Yoon seeks to understand their experiences on their own terms and bring greater attention to how communities facing exclusion can organize, adapt, and create lasting change.
Joyelle McSweeney
William P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English, College of Arts & Letters
Professor and award-winning poet Joyelle McSweeney draws inspiration from the landscape around her, particularly the St. Joseph River that runs through South Bend. Over two decades at Notre Dame, she has written eight books here, transforming observations of the natural and human worlds into poetry that explores their connections to something larger.
For McSweeney, the St. Joseph River is a particularly rich source of creative inspiration, constantly changing with the city, seasons, light, and weather while connecting South Bend to places far beyond it.