Graduate School // Graduate School

Patent Law Program Gains Approval

2012-01-27T14:00:00-05:00

A new graduate program designed to fill the need for registered patent agents will admit its first class this fall after gaining approval in late January. The one-year program, a Master of Science in Patent Law, will train students with a science or engineering background with the additional skills necessary to pass the Patent Bar exam.

Notre Dame’s newest graduate-level program, the MS in Patent Law program will be directed by Dr. Karen Deak, herself a geneticist and registered patent agent. The program serves as a collaborative effort between the College of Science, the College of Engineering and the Law School, with patent attorneys, agents and examiners from across the country presenting lectures in their various areas of expertise.

“We’re thrilled to announce Notre Dame’s new Master of Science in Patent Law,” Deak said. “As far as we’re aware, there’s no other program like it in the United States.”

“There is a great need for patent agents in our country,” said Greg Sterling, Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Notre Dame. “This will be a groundbreaking program to help meet that need. I trust that we will not only train successful patent agents, but also make a difference in the larger research enterprise of the University of Notre Dame and the knowledge-based economy of the United States.”

Training as a patent agent provides the ability to research, prepare and file patent applications with the United States Patent Office on behalf of a client. A patent agent is a specialized legal professional who holds the same qualifications as an attorney with regards to practicing at the United States Patent Office.

“Becoming a patent agent is often a difficult transition to make; until now, there hasn’t been a formal training program for patent agents, and we hope that Notre Dame’s Master of Science in Patent Law program will help to fill that gap,” Deak said. “The program combines classes with patent law with hands-on training the in the practical, day-to-day skills that a patent agent uses.”

The one-year program is now accepting applications for the first class of students to begin study in the Fall of 2012. For more information on the program, visit http://patentlaw.nd.edu.

Thibault Wins Award, Gives Back To Notre Dame

2012-01-27T12:10:00-05:00

Jean-Baptiste Thibault, who received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2006, was one of seven General Electric scientists and engineers to be named a recipient of the Edison Pioneer Award in 2011.

The award, which was presented by GE chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt at a reception at GE’s Global Research Center in May 2011, honors mid-career scientists and engineers for contributions that have impacted the vitality of the company. Dr. Thibault was honored for his efforts in Iterative Reconstruction for Computed Tomography, a breakthrough technology for low-dose, high-quality CT scans.

Dr. Thibault began his work in iterative reconstruction for CT when he was a graduate student working with Prof. Ken Sauer of Notre Dame’s Department of Electrical Engineering. Thibault and Sauer, along with their Purdue collaborator, Prof. Charlie Bouman, saw the development of the technology from its initial research through its recent deployment in the US and abroad under the name Veo.

As part of the award, GE donated $10,000 to an academic or philanthropic organization of Dr. Thibault’s choosing – and Dr. Thibault chose Notre Dame’s Department of Electrical Engineering to be the beneficiary of the award. As a result, one of Notre Dame’s Electrical Engineering graduate students will be supported next year by the Thibault Fellowship.

“I owe much of this success to my graduate studies at Notre Dame, and the great support and collaboration from my advisor, Professor Ken Sauer,” said Thibault. “I am proud that I can now in turn help another student achieve his or her goal of getting a great education at the start of a new career.”

Article originally published by Ken Sauer on Notre Dame’s Electrical Engineering web site

Graduate Student Earns Accolades for Research on Cancer Survivors

2012-01-27T11:00:00-05:00

Post-doctoral fellow Errol Philip made history this fall when he became the first two-time winner of a prestigious American Psychological Association graduate student award—just the latest in a long list of accolades.

Philip won the APA’s Division 17 Health Psychology Graduate Student Award for his paper, “Depression and Cancer Survivorship: Prevalence Rates and the Importance of Coping Self-Efficacy in a Sample of Long-Term Survivors." He won the award in 2008 for a paper on quality of life in cancer patients.

He recently completed an internship at Yale University School of Medicine and successfully defended his dissertation at Notre Dame. This past spring, Philip also won the Graduate Student Research Award from the Ethnic Minority and Multicultural Health Special Interest Group at the Society for Behavioral Medicine.

Now in the midst of a two-year, post-doctoral appointment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Philip credits the supportive environment at Notre Dame for much of his success. During his first year at Notre Dame, for example, Philip was awarded a Zahm Travel Grant to spend the summer at Sloan-Kettering, where he developed relationships with people who were mentors throughout his graduate program and were instrumental in landing his post-doctoral fellowship.

“I don’t think I would be where I am today without some of the support I received from Notre Dame and my mentor, Professor Tom Merluzzi,” Philip says.

A native of Australia, Philip became interested in the psychology of cancer survivors while working with a group that provided support services to cancer patients in Melbourne, where he earned his undergraduate degree in psychology. In 2006, he came to Notre Dame specifically to work with Merluzzi, a professor of psychology who studies coping processes in people with cancer and also serves as director of the College of Arts and Letters’ Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts.

A few years ago, a Notre Dame alumni newsletter featured a story on Merluzzi’s lab and Philip’s research on cancer survivors. “The story made mention of the fact that for many patients, life doesn’t just go back to normal after treatment."

The message resonated strongly with alumni who were also cancer survivors, a number of whom called or sent emails to Merluzzi’s lab in the Department of Psychology. This feedback became the impetus for Philip’s most recent, award-winning research.

The study looked at the rates and predictors of depression in individuals five to 10 years after the completion of cancer treatment. Philip found that even though far removed from treatment, a significant minority of people were reporting symptoms of depression at a rate higher than would be expected in the general population. He also found that people’s confidence in being able to manage the physical symptoms associated with cancer, such as pain and fatigue that continued after treatment, was a very strong predictor of how much depression they reported.

Philip hopes the findings can be used to implement interventions that will help equip survivors with skills that may reduce their chances of experiencing significant depression.

“It is only somewhat recently—as more people are living with a cancer diagnosis—that we are becoming aware of the challenges these individuals face in survivorship,” he says. “It is important that we look at the long-term effects of cancer and its treatment, and how best to assist people in managing these challenges.”

At Sloan-Kettering, Philip will continue his research examining the long-term challenges that survivors face, and the most effective form of support that health professionals can offer them. He is also focusing on the role lifestyle factors play in cancer and identifying what survivors can do to reduce their risk of recurrence or future disease, as well as how health professionals can help promote these efforts.

Merluzzi calls Philip one of his best graduate students and one of the best in the clinical psychology program, in large part due to Philip’s boundless energy and unparalleled work ethic.

“We continue to collaborate on research, though I have trouble keeping up with his productivity,” Merluzzi says. “It is a pleasure to work with a student like Errol, where at some point in the process of mentoring, one stops and admits that the mentoring is mutual.”

Learn More >

Originally published by Sara Burnett at al.nd.edu on January 27, 2012.

Notre Dame psychologist developing new math learning strategies

2012-01-23T15:20:00-05:00

What do children know about mathematics before they start learning it in school? How do external factors like language, education and culture affect children’s understanding? What is the best way to structure an environment so they have the building blocks needed for success in math?

These are just some of the questions Notre Dame psychologist Nicole McNeil seeks to answer in her research, for which she recently received a three-year, $565,000 grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

“The development of mathematical thinking presents a paradox,” says the Mary Hesburgh Flaherty and James F. Flaherty Assistant Professor of Psychology, whose scholarship focuses on cognitive development, specifically mathematical cognition.

“On one hand, young children and even infants have been shown to have a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of abstract math concepts,” she says. “On the other hand, math is a notoriously difficult subject to learn in school, with many children and adults failing to achieve basic competence.”

This is McNeil’s second IES award. In 2007, she received a four-year grant totaling more than $750,000 to determine whether modifications to traditional arithmetic practice could improve children’s understanding of mathematical equivalence.

The new funding will allow McNeil to build on what she learned during the first study in order to “develop and test a comprehensive intervention that is affordable, effective at producing mastery, and easy for teachers and parents to administer in schools, after-school programs and homes.”

Her goal, she says, is to create a program that has the potential to have “real and lasting benefits for children’s mathematical achievement and algebra readiness in the long term.”

To further support her work, McNeil has also recently been awarded a five-year CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) worth approximately $750,000. CAREER grants are NSF’s “most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”

As part of the NSF grant, McNeil will conduct a longitudinal study to see if a better understanding of math equivalence in the second grade leads to greater success in higher grades, especially algebra readiness in the sixth grade.

As an undergraduate, McNeil planned to become a doctor and was double majoring in chemistry and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. One of her professors suggested she build her medical school application resume by working in a research lab on campus, and she found her way into one focused on cognitive development and communication.

“I developed a passion for cognitive development research—I couldn’t get enough of it—so I abandoned my idea of going to medical school and instead chose to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology,” she says.

Inspired by that experience, McNeil now challenges her students in the Department of Psychology to discover their own academic passions. She encourages them to find a “big question” that intrigues them and then works to provide the tools and guidance they need to pursue an answer.

“I feel strongly that students need to have one-on-one attention from faculty members,” McNeil says. “It gives them the opportunity to bounce ideas off and ask questions of an expert in the field. This type of intellectual discourse puts them in the position to eventually make a real contribution to the field.

“Students in my lab also get to be involved in every aspect of research, from conceptualization to dissemination.”

Through all this work on her own scholarly projects and with her students, McNeil hopes she can help parents and teachers determine the best ways to structure each child’s mathematical education so that all children can learn to be successful in school—and beyond.

Originally published by Joanna Basile at al.nd.edu on January 06, 2012.

Noted conductor and artist Carmen-Helena Tellez joins Notre Dame faculty

2011-12-26T16:00:00-05:00

In July 2012, scholar, conductor and interdisciplinary artist Carmen-Helena Tellez will join the University of Notre Dame as a professor in the Department of Music and in the Master of Sacred Music program in the Department of Theology.

She comes to the College of Arts and Letters from Indiana University Bloomington, where she was the director of graduate choral studies in the Jacobs School of Music, holding the position previously held by noted artist-scholars Julius Herford, George Buelow and Thomas Dunn. There, Tellez taught conducting techniques and mentored graduate students in the analysis and scholarship of choral music.

She has also led the Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble since 1992 and is completing her 20th year as director of Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center, a research institution dedicated to the promotion of Latin American art music.

At Notre Dame, Tellez will lead the graduate studio in conducting in addition to pursuing research and teaching.

“Carmen-Helena is a renowned specialist in 20th and 21st century choral and choral orchestral sacred repertory, a major growth area for Notre Dame’s new program in sacred music,” notes Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy and co-director of the Master of Sacred Music program.

Tellez’ academic expertise and her skills as a conductor make her an essential partner for Notre Dame’s faculty in sacred music, Fassler adds.

“She is an energetic and innovative programmer of events featuring contemporary composers and discussions of their works but also of canonic composers who can be experienced from a new inter-artistic and interdisciplinary perspective.”

“I currently work on projects that reveal an expanded concept of sacred music in particular and choral music in general,” Tellez says. “I study how different forms of collective singing, especially when manifested in ritualized contexts, express the highest values and deepest concerns of a society.”

An international lecturer on Latin American repertory and interdisciplinary performance, she has contributed to the “Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.” Tellez’s work also extends into a real-world exploration and experience of music.

“Carmen-Helena has strong artistic relationships with many composers both nationally and internationally, and we look forward to exciting collaborations beginning next fall with composer James MacMillan, who will be in residence in mid September,” says Fassler, adding that Tellez co-commissioned and premiered his composition “Sun Dogs” at Indiana University in 2006.

“I concentrate on the creation and production of artistic events with multimedia components and interdisciplinary perspectives,” Tellez says, “crossing the boundaries between choral singing, experimental theater, and sound installation.”

Tellez currently serves as artistic co-director of Aguavá New Music Studio, a group of artists with which she has recorded and toured internationally. Tellez has won support for her academic and performance work through grants and awards from the U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Lilly Foundation, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the United States Information Agency.

After meeting with Fassler and other scholars in the College of Arts and Letters, Tellez says she was impressed by everyone’s commitment to ensuring that scholarship in sacred music and the sacred arts reaches its highest potential at Notre Dame—an effort to which she is now personally dedicated, as well.

“Beyond its intrinsic beauty as the vehicle for spiritual expression of the highest order, sacred music is the cradle of the Western art music heritage,” Tellez says.

“It is also a treasure of inspiration for new musical and interdisciplinary works that may resonate with the issues and spiritual needs of the modern world.”

Originally published by Joanna Basile at al.nd.edu on December 15, 2011.

Ethics Workshop Scheduled For First-Year Graduate and Professional Students

2011-12-14T11:00:00-05:00

The Graduate School will hold its inaugural ethics workshop for first-year students on January 16, 2012, from 9 am – 2 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, Saint Mary’s College.

Registration Form (Graduate School)
Registration Form (Law, Business, Architecture)

In announcing the workshop, Gregory E. Sterling, Dean of the Graduate School, said, "In a society plagued by ethical misconduct, including misconduct in the academy, the University of Notre Dame is committed to producing graduate students who are not only experts in their field, but who also embody the highest standards of ethical behavior.

“We want our students to have a distinctive education in ethics. The stakes are too high — for our students and for the world — to rely on students absorbing the essential elements of ethical conduct themselves or through a patchwork of reading or faculty pointers. We want our students to be sensitive to ethical decisions and have the capacity to address them at a sophisticated level.”

The workshop will be conducted in two parts. In the morning, students will work in small groups to discuss two case studies. The first is more general and raises larger issues related to fields of research and confidentiality. The second is more specific and illustrates some of the issues that arise in research, such as fairness in the evaluation of the work of others.

First-year students from the Colleges of Architecture, Business and Law will join in midway through the workshop for a catered lunch. Afterwards, Alasdair MacIntyre, the Rev. John A. O’Brien Senior Research Professor of Philosophy (emeritus) at the University of Notre Dame, will deliver a keynote address, Everyday Ethics, Ethics of Crisis. MacIntyre is one of the foremost authorities on ethics in the world. His After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory is widely considered to be one of the most influential books on moral decision-making of our era.

This year’s workshop was generously funded by the President’s Office at the University of Notre Dame.

Beginning with students who matriculated in a doctoral program in the Fall of 2011, all Ph.D. candidates in the Graduate School are required to attend a three-hour ethics workshop before the completion of their degree. The requirement was established by the Graduate Council in May 2010 in response to a faculty committee charged with formulating recommendations for integrating ethics training into the graduate studies curriculum.

For further information or questions on the workshop, please contact Melissa Wilde

LEARN MORE about ethical education and professional development at the University of Notre Dame Graduate School

Notre Dame Signs Historic Agreement For Graduate Studies in Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences

2011-12-07T14:00:00-05:00

The University of Notre Dame has signed an agreement with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile for a dual graduate degree in civil engineering and the geological sciences. It is the University’s first graduate dual degree. Gregory E. Sterling, Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Notre Dame, and Joannes Westerink, Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at Notre Dame (CEGEOS), traveled to Chile for the signing ceremony. Two other professors in the CEGEOS program, Patricia Maurice and Rob Nerenberg, were also present for the historic occasion.

“We are pleased to enter into this relationship with one of the leading universities in Latin America,” said Dean Sterling. “In addition to top-ranked faculty and graduate students at both institutions, the PUC provides access to the natural laboratory we know as Chile; we, in turn, provide access to Notre Dame’s state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.”

“PUC faculty have extensive experience in the problems that face Chile—including seismic events, coastal ocean circulation, wind wave environments in the vicinity of narrow continental shelves, mountain meteorology, tsunamis, groundwater flow, and mine leaching,” added Prof. Westerink. “Many of these problems are precisely what we focus on in CEGEOS, with our four priorities of environment, infrastructure, energy, and water. We all look forward to many promising synergies to be developed by the diverse faculty between our two institutions.”

The agreement between Notre Dame and the PUC provides that students are to be accepted first by one institution and then nominated to attend the other. They must complete the standard admission process for both universities and, once accepted at both, will be considered enrolled at both universities. Students will be in residence at the partner institution from 12 to 24 months and, typically, take two or more classes in addition to engaging in research. They will be required to fulfill all the requirements of doctoral students at the partner institution—for example, holding a teaching assistantship and completing written comprehensives, oral examinations, and a dissertation defense. Once all requirements are fulfilled, they will receive a degree from both institutions.

Peter Kilpatrick, Dean of the College of Engineering issued the following statement on the occasion of the signing: “The PUC is a wonderful match with Notre Dame, as the engineering colleges of both institutions have strengths in structural engineering, hydraulics, geological sciences, and environmental engineering. In addition, we have a common mandate from our Catholic heritage to be a force for good in the world through our mutual commitment to social justice. I look forward to the research collaborations the agreement will foster between faculty at both institutions.”

Student Spotlight: Olukunle Owolabi, Ph.D. Student in Political Science

2011-11-28T13:00:00-05:00

Political science graduate student and former Kellogg Dissertation Year Fellow Olukunle Owolabi has a unique personal connection with the subject of his research — the differences in development and governance between countries with a history of plantation slavery and those with a history of colonial occupation.

The son of a Trinidadian mother and a Nigerian father, Owolabi was born in Toronto, Canada but moved to Nigeria when he was four so that his father, an obstetrician/gynecologist, could realize his dream of
constructing a hospital there.

“One summer,” he recalls, "my family traveled to Trinidad to visit my mother’s relatives—a visit stretched longer by a military coup in Nigeria.

“Even at the age of seven, I was struck by the differences in socioeconomic development, inequality, and governance between my parents’ homelands. This seemed particularly striking, given that both countries were former British colonies with oil-exporting economies and ethnically diverse populations.”

After earning degrees at the University of Toronto (BA, International Relations) and Oxford University (M.Phil, Latin American Studies), Owolabi took a year off to nurture a second passion: music. A gifted musician—he has composed several award-winning choral pieces, earned diplomas in piano and organ performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and performed as an organist while
earning his degree at Oxford — Owolabi served in that year as director of music at St. Basil’s Church in Toronto.

Then, ready to immerse himself once again in academia, he entered Notre Dame’s doctoral program in political science. Still intrigued by the differences in development and present-day government between countries subjected to different modes of European colonization, he is now completing his dissertation on that very topic.

“Kunle’s deep reading and extensive archival work on three continents have made him deeply and extensively knowledgeable about colonial history,” says his adviser, Faculty Fellow Michael Coppedge. “He is pushing a provocative argument, but he has the evidence to back it up. He is a fountain of fascinating details, and his qualitative historical evidence and his statistical analysis tell the same story.”

Owolabi’s thesis is that forced settlement — that is, the mass import of African slaves and/or Asian indentured laborers — generated higher education outcomes at the end of the colonial era and higher levels of democracy up until the present day than did the colonial occupation of indigenous societies.

“This divergence,” Owolabi maintains, "is because some form of metropolitan citizenship was introduced in the forced settlement colonies—primarily located in the West Indies and the small offshore African islands—after the abolition of slavery in the mid or late 19th century.

“Legally, freed slaves became citizens or subjects of the metropolitan state, which promoted education as a way of cultivating patriotism while at the same time, imposing social control.”

Despite significant economic inequality coupled with persistent poverty, he says, these societies achieved surprisingly high levels of educational attainment by the end of the colonial era, and relatively high levels of democracy following independence.

Conversely, Owolabi argues, in countries subjected to colonial occupation, the metropolitan state maintained control by introducing legal distinctions between indigenous and nonindigenous populations,
which clearly benefited the colonial elites.

“Generally, many of the benefits extended by the state were confined to colonial settlers,” he asserts. “Access to education was extremely limited in these countries for much of the colonial era, and colonial rule usually gave way to authoritarian single-party regimes and/or military dictatorships following independence. For most African countries, democracy began to emerge only during the 1990s.”

As Coppedge notes, Owolabi’s thesis is a unique combination of statistical analysis and archival research. The statistical analysis involves coding the nearly 100 countries decolonized after World War II for such
factors as school enrollment, adult literacy, and ethnic fractionalization.

It is the case studies, though, in which Owolabi compares two British colonies—Jamaica and Ghana—and two Portuguese colonies—Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau—that elucidate his point.

“By examining countries individually,” he explains, “I can delve into the sequencing and long-term developmental consequences of specific reforms, rather than merely rating the postcolonial outcomes.”

Owolabi credits his Kellogg Institute funding — a Graduate Research Grant after his third year of study and a Dissertation Year Fellowship — with giving him the opportunity to dig deep into archives in Lisbon
and London.

“Much of my argument hinges on evidence from these colonial archives—personal correspondence, school enrollment records, governmental records, and newspapers. These materials explain why citizenship rights were extended in forced settlement colonies following slave emancipation, and denied to indigenous populations in the colonies of occupation.”

Owolabi, a two-time recipient of the Graduate Student Union’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, will defend his dissertation later this year. In August, he joined the faculty of Villanova University with a
tenure-track appointment in the Department of Political Science.

Article originally appeared in Kellogg Institute’s semi-annual newsletter, Fall 2011 edition

New Special Interest Pages Aid Prospective Students In Choosing Programs

2011-11-10T11:00:00-05:00

Research and study under the umbrellas of the environment, the life sciences and religion are among the most critical academic pursuits in the world today. Several of Notre Dame’s graduate programs offer a disciplinary home for students who wish to study these topics—whether that study is rooted in the sciences, engineering, the arts, humanities or the social sciences, or resides at the intersection of two or more of these areas.

To aid students in selecting a program that meets their interests and talents, the Graduate School has launched several new Special Interest pages. Currently, pages exist for Environmental Sciences, the Study of Religion, the Life Sciences and Energy. These pages collect all departments and programs that offer graduate programs in a particular special interest, as well as profiles of faculty and students working in the field, and relevant campus centers and institutes.

English Doctoral Candidate Receives Dissertation Fellowship

2011-11-10T10:00:00-05:00

Lauren Rich, a Ph.D. candidate in Notre Dame’s Department of English, has been awarded a 2011–12 American Dissertation Fellowship from the American Association of University Women for her research on food in early 20th century British and colonial fiction. Fewer than 10 percent of the more than 900 applicants were given fellowships.

Rich says she was particularly honored because the award “is designed not only to recognize intellectually rigorous and promising scholarly projects but also to support women who are contributing to their academic and local communities by mentoring and helping other women.”

Rich’s dissertation, “Food for Thought: Eating, Reading, and Being Modern in Twentieth-Century British and Irish Literature, 1904–1954,” seeks to examine and enrich the understanding of the complex relationships between food, community, and literature.

Consumption and Culture

“Virginia Woolf famously wrote that most ‘novelists have a way of making us believe that luncheon parties are invariably memorable for something very witty that was said, or for something very wise that was done. But they seldom spare a word for what was eaten,’” says Rich.

“I’m amazed at just how wrong she was. Food is everywhere in early 20th century literature—it’s just that literary critics and scholars are only now starting to really pay attention to it.”

This scholarly interest comes at a time when food is also becoming a hot topic of cultural conversation, Rich says, pointing to the growing awareness of obesity, environmental issues related to agribusiness, and the locavore and slow food movements.

In her dissertation, co-directed by Associate Professor of English Barbara Green and Maud Ellmann (now at the University of Chicago), Rich takes an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating material from fields such as history, anthropology, and sociology.

“I also get to read a lot of old cookbooks,” she says, “which can be very interesting. It wasn’t until I started looking at period recipes for Bouef-en-Daube, a dish featured in a key scene in Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse, that I realized it was meant to be anachronistic—a signifier for a way of life that is rapidly passing away in the novel.”

Food and Fiction

In conjunction with her research, Rich has also developed and taught a literature course for non-English majors called Voracious Reading: Four Centuries of Food and Fiction.

“While the course explored a much wider variety of literary and non-literary texts than my dissertation,” she says, “it, too, centered around food-studies readings. I find students—especially non-majors—are really attracted by this approach.”

Students who wouldn’t normally take an English class did so because they like to cook or like watching food-related television programs, Rich says. But by the end of the semester, these same students found they’d become more careful readers and were eager to explore additional authors and genres.

At the request of her students, Rich even led an informal reading group the semester after her course ended. Called Food for Thought, the group continued the kinds of conversations she began in the classroom with students.

“Among many other things,” she says, “we read Irish novelist Pat McCabe’s The Butcher Boy together, scheduled a screening of the film adaptation, and invited the author to join one of our meetings while he was visiting at Notre Dame. He very graciously answered our questions, talked about his writing process, and even autographed our books.”

Interdisciplinary Approach

In another project related to her dissertation, Rich is helping to organize a January 2012 conference at Notre Dame called Food Networks: Gender and Foodways.

Sponsored by the College of Arts and Letters’ Gender Studies Program, the interdisciplinary event will focus on gender issues within the context of food and food culture, including food spaces, representations of food, dieting, and individuals associated with the food industry, among others.

“I’m really fortunate in that my scholarly work allows me to combine two of my greatest passions: food and literature,” she says. “Eating and reading—both forms of consumption—can be some of life’s greatest pleasures, though both have become problematic for many people for various reasons.

“I see my work as a scholar and teacher as, among other things, a way of helping people recover a sense of pleasure and enjoyment in these activities.”

Learn More

Department of English
Gender Studies Program
Lauren Rich’s website
Lauren Rich’s Graduate School spotlight
Food Networks: Gender and Foodways conference
American Association of University Women

Originally published by Joanna Basile at al.nd.edu on October 12, 2011.

Student Spotlight: Sean Walsh, Ph.D. in Mathematics and Philosophy

2011-10-24T15:00:00-04:00

Sean Walsh, a graduate of Notre Dame’s departments of philosophy and mathematics, was awarded a Kurt Gödel Research Prize Fellowship — one of the most prestigious honors in the field of logic. He was one of five pre-and post-doctoral winners.

The Kurt Gödel Society, named for the late mathematical logician and philosopher, awards the fellowships to support original research that carries on his legacy.

A native of Fairbanks, Alaska, Sean completed a joint doctoral degree in logic and foundations of mathematics in January 2011 under the direction of Michael Detlefsen, McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy, and Peter Cholak, professor of mathematics. He says he is “deeply humbled and grateful” to receive such recognition for his work on “The Limits of Arithmetical Definability.”

Currently a post-doctoral fellow in the philosophy department at Birkbeck, University of London, Sean studies the philosophy of mathematics, mathematical logic, and the intersection of the two.

“Some parts of my research are pure philosophy—I ask and try to answer questions about the nature of mathematical objects and the possibility of mathematical knowledge,” Sean explains. “Other parts of my research are pure mathematics: I try to formulate conjectures and prove them, availing myself of known proof techniques from different parts of mathematics and different parts of mathematical logic. Perhaps what is most distinctive about my research is that I attempt to combine these two things.”

Sean’s award-winning paper is representative of this type of interdisciplinary approach. Specifically, he used tools from contemporary mathematical logic to gauge the strength of the logical resources needed to effect one traditional reduction of arithmetic to logic.

“Such a reduction played a central role in Gottlob Frege’s logicism,” he says, “one key idea of which was that mathematical knowledge does not require an appeal to intuition or other quasi-perceptual resources, as had been claimed by [Immanuel] Kant in his famous Critique of Pure Reason.”

In addition to the distinction of publishing his paper in the Annals of Pure and Applied Logic, Sean gave a lecture at the 2011 “New Trends in Logic” conference in Vienna, Austria. He says, “I plan to use some of the resources afforded by the prize fellowship to run seminars on topics at the intersection of philosophy of mathematics and mathematical logic; and in particular, to use these resources to host external speakers and some workshops.” [For a detailed description of the seminar Sean is teaching in the Autumn 2011 term, read more].

As for his post-doctoral fellowship, he says: “It is associated with a grant funded by the European Research Council, which is ‘vertically integrated’ in the way common now in Europe. Thus, in addition to a senior investigator, there are two post-docs and two Ph.D. students, and in addition to working on our individual but thematically-linked projects, we jointly run various seminars and conferences that involve and are open to the larger academic community. For instance, this last year I was teaching courses on set theory and its philosophy, and this past summer, we organized a summer school jointly with the University of Notre Dame and the University of Munich.”

Some portions of this article were originally published by the Notre Dame Office of Public Affairs and Information (http://al.nd.edu/news/21682-recent-philosophy-ph-d-receives-international-honor/)

Student Spotlight: Anne Peterson, Ph.D. Candidate in Philosophy

2011-10-24T15:00:00-04:00

As a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Anne Peterson focuses her research on ancient philosophy and metaphysics, especially on metaphysical issues in Aristotle.

After receiving her undergraduate degree from Notre Dame, she says: “I became motivated to further the study of Aristotle’s philosophy through teaching and research because his ideas systematically counteract the reductivism and relativism that have become so prevalent today. I am particularly interested in questions regarding the fundamental status of organisms within Aristotle’s philosophy.

“Aristotle held that although organisms are composed of lower-level material, their development, characteristics, functions, and behaviors cannot all be accounted for by appealing to the nature of this material. Organisms are endowed with an irreducible nature of their own. Although today we have an idea that is different from Aristotle’s idea of the material that composes organisms, we face the same questions about reductivism that worried him. My aim is to explore Aristotle’s understanding of the metaphysical composition of organisms, focusing on the question of what he thinks makes one organism distinct from another. Defending an anti-reductive understanding of the metaphysics of organisms paves the way for an anti-reductive understanding of their ultimate purposes and of the moral principles which govern them.”

Anne says that she “has been grateful not only for the expertise available in Notre Dame’s philosophy department in my own areas of specialization, but also for the widespread interests found in the department as a whole. I have been able to develop and pursue an interest in the philosophy of biology by working on papers concerning the classification of traits as homologous, questions fundamental to evolutionary theory. Through serving as the graduate assistant for Faith and Philosophy for two years, I have had the opportunity to advance my understanding in the philosophy of religion. And I have participated in an ancient Greek reading group run by the Notre Dame workshop on Ancient Philosophy for the last few years. In addition, I have found support at Notre Dame for my interest in music, participating in the Notre Dame Chorale as well as in the Schola Musicorum, a group which performs Gregorian chant, during all the years I have been here.

“The resources available at Notre Dame have allowed me to give presentations on metaphysical issues in Aristotle at two international conferences, where I connected with many enlightening scholars. And most importantly, Notre Dame has given me the opportunity to develop my teaching skills by serving as a teaching assistant for three different courses as well as by substitute teaching periodically for other courses. I am especially grateful for the wisdom and support of my advisor, Michael Loux, the George N. Shuster Professor of Philosophy, who sparked my interest in Aristotle, and also for the inviting, supportive, and vibrant nature of the philosophy department as a whole, both among the graduate students and among the faculty.”

More Than $175,000 In Professional Development Awards Distributed In 2010-11

2011-10-10T16:45:00-04:00

During the 2010-11 academic year, the Graduate School at the University of Notre Dame awarded more than $175,000 in professional development awards. These awards allowed students to travel all over the world to present at conferences, receive specialized training at workshops and short courses, conduct research experiments, scour manuscripts, and participate in seminars.

Aside from the primary purpose, attending these activities offered students other excellent opportunities, such as networking, forming peer discussion groups, career development, access to thesis-related landmarks or archives, establishing relationships with fellow students and scholars, receiving feedback or leads from top scholars in the field, practice for defending theses or dissertations, and even connecting with possible future employers.

Graduate students can apply for funding to attend workshops, participate in professional development activities, and undertake research travel through the Graduate Professional Development Application. The awards are funded by three endowments – Joseph F. Downes Memorial fund, Notebaert Professional Development fund, and Zahm Research Travel fund – with three deadlines available each year – September 15, January 31, and May 31.

Students interested in applying for these professional development funds should contact Colleen Turk with any questions about the application.

“…I was able to attend and present a paper at this summer’s International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds, UK. … Most importantly, I was able to meet a lively group of other scholars working on similar material, including one person whose translations I had been using extensively and another whose dissertation was a key secondary source for my argument.”
- Brian Hamilton-Vise, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Theology – Christian Ethics

“I believe this seminar not only helped me expand my knowledge on the given topics, but it has also provided me with a precious chance to consider how to improve my dissertation on Transpacific American Studies.”
- Yugon Kim, Ph.D. candidate, Department of English

“I attended two workshops focused on bioinformatics analysis of microarray data. These workshops provided much- needed guidance that has already and will further contribute to my thesis research. The information at these workshops proved very beneficial during my [oral candidacy] exam.”
- Michelle Bertke, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

“[I attended] the Workshop on Macro Perspectives, organized by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and held in Cambridge. It was a superb opportunity to interact with the most renowned economists that work in my area of research. Furthermore, I was able to exchange thoughts and discuss both methods and approaches with graduate students attending top-ranked schools. This was an enriching experience since it gave me the opportunity to interact with very bright students and create links that, hopefully, will prove to be highly valuable in my future professional life.”
- Julio Garín, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Economics

Student Spotlight: Andrew Paluch, Ph.D. Candidate in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

2011-10-07T10:00:00-04:00

The research focus of chemical engineering student and Schmitt Fellow Andrew Paluch is developing general computational and theoetical methods that will enable us to predict the solubility limit of species such as drug molecules and pollutants in different solvents.

“This is important for several reasons," Paluch explains. "In drug development research, companies are interested in discovering new molecules with a desired biological activity. How ‘available’ these molecules are to the body is determined by how soluble they are in biological fluids, and the methods we are developing will help companies determine this early in the drug discovery process. To make these drug molecules commercially, large amounts of solvents are required. Our methods can be used to help companies choose environmentally friendly solvents when they design production processes. These same techniques can be applied to many other situations. For example, as part of the Notre Dame Sustainable Energy Initiative, we are applying our methods to study how pollutants formed during the combustion of fossil fuels might be removed from exhaust streams by dissolving them selectively in special liquids.

“Working under the direction of my adviser, Prof. Edward Maginn, the main tools we use are statistical mechanics and molecular-level computer simulations. The key here is to view the process at the atomistic level. If, for example, we are interested in how a particular molecule dissolves in water, we can examine the atomistic-level interactions between this molecule and water with our simulation methods. We then apply statistical mechanical analysis to the results of the simulations to determine the properties that would be observed in the laboratory (i.e. the solubility). The challenge that we encounter is that it quickly becomes computationally exhaustive to create distributions of all of the relevant configurations of interest. To this end, we are developing novel simulation methodologies to tackle this specific problem.

“While the solubility of a molecule in a given solvent may be determined experimentally, time and expense constraints limit the number of systems that can be examined. The hope is that by providing reliable computational tools that can quickly assess the solubility of a compound in a range of solvents, we can substantially speed up the way in which solvents are selected in the areas of drug discovery and pollution control. Moreover, by taking a molecular-level view, we can gain a deeper fundamental understanding of the solvation process. For instance, why do two molecules that ‘look’ similar have such different solubilities in water? Our approach allows us to interrogate this process at its most fundamental level and therefore develop an understanding of the underlying physics.”

Andrew explains that when he began to investigate graduate schools, “I knew very well the type of research that I would like to perform. I was introduced to molecular simulations as an undergraduate, and I was hooked. I was fortunate to have very good guidance in selecting schools based on the research interests of faculty.

“Ultimately, I choose to come to Notre Dame as a result of a great visit with my adviser. Compared to other schools that I visited, I felt very comfortable interacting and talking with the faculty in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department here. This level of comfort has continued and has allowed me to be extremely productive in my work.”

And productive he has been. Andrew has already published four first-author peer-reviewed papers and has several more in preparation. He has given nine conference paper presentations and been awarded fellowships to present his research at the UCLA Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics workshop on Navigating Chemical Compound Space for Materials and Bio Design and a Gordon Research Conference on Computer Aided Drug Design. In 2009 he received an NSF fellowship to participate in the National Institute for Nanoengineering summer school at Sandia National Laboratories.

Three History Ph.D. Students Awarded Fulbrights

2011-09-30T16:00:00-04:00

Three doctoral students in Notre Dame’s Department of History have been named 2011 Fulbright Scholars. Max Deardorff, Nathan Gerth, and John Moscatiello will use their Fulbright funding in Russia and Spain to support research that spans education policy, government bureaucracy, and religion.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Program was established in 1946 to increase cross-cultural understanding and facilitate educational and research opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals in the United States and more than 155 countries around the world.

Universal Education Program

A scholar of colonial Latin American and global history, Deardorff is writing his dissertation on the ways in which the church and state cooperated to create a universal educational program in 16th century Spain and its colonies.

“For the first time, the kings of Spain sought to implement a program that applied to every person who lived within the borders of their realms—an important transition in the relationships between individuals and the states of which they formed part,” he says. “This new, idealized citizenship was predicated upon the demonstration of Christian belief and the appropriation of Spanish cultural customs.”

In Spain, Deardorff will examine manuscripts at the National Library in Madrid and bureaucratic documents in the Archive of the Indies in Seville in an attempt to discover “whether the real, daily process of acculturation ever looked anything like the ideals mapped out in formal meetings.”

The Fulbright award, he says, “has greatly facilitated my work, since I will be able to concentrate on my archival research long enough to dig deep into the sources.”

Bureaucrats and State Power

Gerth will use his Fulbright grant to spend 10 months in Tver, Russia, a city northwest of Moscow. There, he will dig through archival documents—everything from criminal investigation reports to hospital and school records—to study the lives and work of provincial bureaucrats.

His dissertation explores how local bureaucracies laid the groundwork for a powerful modern state in Russia. “Examining their world,” Gerth says, “will help us further understand what changes in provincial society helped spark the major social upheavals that Russia experienced during the latter decades of the 19th century.”

The Fulbright program has proven to be an “invaluable” resource in a country where personal and institutional relationships are key, he adds.

“Russian archives are not a straightforward place to conduct research,” he says. “The Fulbright office in Moscow has already helped me overcome some of these difficulties by putting me in touch with the state university in Tver, along with several historians in the city.”

Medieval Spanish Life

Moscatiello focuses his doctoral work on medieval Iberia, social history, the history of Christianity, the history of the family, and domesticity. Last year, he chaired an international graduate student conference at Notre Dame called “From Iberian Kingdoms to Atlantic Empires: Spain, Portugal, and the New World, 1250–1700.”

“Our conference caught the attention of the editors of the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, who agreed to publish a special issue of the conference proceedings in 2012,” Moscatiello says, adding that one of the editors, Julio Escalona Monge, then offered to sponsor his application for a Fulbright to Spain.

In Madrid, Moscatiello will collaborate with scholars at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spanish National Research Council) to do archival investigations for his dissertation on the history of private life and domesticity in medieval Spain—specifically the everyday interactions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. He will also be acting as a research specialist for the Council.

“As a cultural ambassador in the Fulbright program,” he says, “I hope that my work and community service help foster relations between American and Spanish scholars.”

Learn More >

Originally published by Joanna Basile at al.nd.edu on September 30, 2011.

Student Spotlight: Alejandro Montecinos, Ph.D. Candidate in Economics

2011-09-29T16:00:00-04:00

Alejandro Montecinos, a doctoral student in economics, studies the microeconomics of growth and income inequality.

Born and raised in Chile, he says: “Coming from a country where poverty and growth are at the foundation of some key social issues, I knew that I wanted to be able to help to solve important questions that affect a huge number of people—not only in Chile, but in most of the developing economies in the world.”

Montecinos received his bachelor’s degree from the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (2001). He then worked for Coca-Cola—and realized then that “the contributions I wanted to make to my country had to be done from academia.” He started down that path by earning a master’s degree in economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and then worked as an instructor in the business school of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez.

When Alejandro decided to take the definitive step into academia and applied to doctoral programs, he was awarded the Becas Chile fellowship, “which is a grant sponsored by the Chilean government that finances my tuition and living expenses. Once I decided to come to Notre Dame, I was also awarded funding from the Kellogg Institute, which has an international reputation in Latin American and development studies, and where I am a student fellow.”

Why Notre Dame? He explains: “I wanted to make the transition to the academy in a world-class university with a mission to make relevant and concrete contributions to improving the life of those who need it the most. I believe that earning a Ph.D. is a life-changing experience, and I wanted to live that process in an environment that has an awareness of the urgency to help those in need—knowing that that awareness is the main driver of personal action. I strongly believe that Notre Dame embodies that view. It’s not just a matter of learning techniques and performing excellent scientific research—as important as that is to why one seeks excellence. My ‘why’ is to give and to help, especially to those who have not experienced a life as blessed as mine.

“One thing that makes the Department of Economics excellent here is that the classes are small—giving each student access to the faculty. Even more importantly, faculty members are always available, so the level of interaction is huge. This facilitates the process of learning the skills necessary to be an excellent researcher. After one year in the program, I can say that it has been everything I wanted and more.”

Student Spotlight: Brandon Cook, Ph.D. Candidate in Medieval Studies

2011-09-28T15:00:00-04:00

Brandon Cook is a graduate student in the doctoral program in Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame. As an art historian, Brandon studies medieval Italy and the history of cultural exchange between Byzantium and the Latin West through the objects these societies produced. His recent research has focused on the veneration of the saints at the twelfth-century Palatine Chapel in Palermo, Sicily.

As the son of an American diplomat, Brandon spent his high school years in Pakistan and Hungary, where he first developed an interest in languages and world cultures. Continuing with these interests, he studied linguistics as an undergraduate at Yale University, and just before beginning his studies at Notre Dame, he earned a master’s degree in art history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In describing his path from linguistics to medieval studies, Brandon says, “It was a course on Dante in my senior year of college that sparked my passion for the Middle Ages. I was first struck by the beauty of the Vita Nova and the Divine Comedy, in particular their human and intellectual depth. After that, I couldn’t get enough of medieval culture; the following semester I took classes in medieval history and art history and began to study Italian.”

On why he chose the program in Medieval Studies at Notre Dame, he says, “It’s the perfect place for someone with interdisciplinary interests like me. While I’m encouraged to keep my ultimate intellectual and disciplinary aims clear, I am equally encouraged and given the space to take courses to develop my skills in other disciplines such as philosophy, liturgical and manuscript studies, and ancient languages.” He adds, “Beyond the world-class collection of scholarly resources available here, I’m surrounded by scholars and students who have the same passion for medieval culture that I do and who, very importantly, want to share it with others. It’s an incredibly stimulating place to develop as a young scholar, and I’m happy to be here.”

Brandon is a Notre Dame Presidential Fellow and submitted an award-winning entry to the Graduate Research Symposium in 2011.

Student Spotlight: Katherine Ward, Ph.D. Candidate in Chemistry

2011-09-28T15:00:00-04:00

Katherine Ward, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, studies an enzyme that is a hallmark of inflammation, Cytosolic Phospholipase A2. The enzyme is controlled by a potent sphingolipid, Ceramide-1-Phosphate, which impacts atherosclerosis and the rate-limiting step of inflammation.

Katherine, whose adviser is Prof. Robert Stahelin, is working to solve the structural basis of this interaction—which, once achieved, can contribute to the design of pharmacological therapies for patients with cardiovascular disease and stroke.

The significance of Katie’s work has been recognized by the American Heart Association, which recently awarded her a two-year, $52,000 pre-doctoral fellowship.

Katie became familiar with Notre Dame by participating in a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates program between her junior and senior years as an undergraduate. As testimony to her own skills as well as the interdisciplinarity of work in the life sciences at Notre Dame, her placement that summer was in the field of biological nanotechnology—in Prof. Ryan Roeder laboratory.

Katie has displayed the latest work on her project at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology national conference, where she was awarded “Best Poster” in the category of Lipid Membrane Metabolism. She has also published the results of her research in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Katie has enjoyed assisting in teaching at Notre Dame and has received two educational awards for her contributions. The Kaneb Center recognized her for outstanding work as a general chemistry laboratory instructor. From her own department, she received the Roger K. Bretthauer Award for teaching biochemistry.

She says: “I know that Notre Dame was the right choice for me. I work with cutting-edge facilities in my lab while receiving personal attention from professors in my department.”

Student Spotlight: Renato Bettiol, Ph.D. Candidate in Mathematics

2011-09-28T14:00:00-04:00

As a graduate student in pure mathematics, Renato’s main interests are related to global analysis and differential geometry, particularly applications of analysis techniques to study the geometry and topology of Riemannian and semi-Riemannian manifolds. These areas are also closely related to physics, providing a wide range of theoretical frameworks—from general relativity and fluid mechanics to more modern theories, such as supergravities and braneworld cosmology.

Renato earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2008. For his master’s thesis at that same university, he extended classic generic properties of nondegeneracy for the Riemannian geodesic flow to the semi-Riemannian case, proving a more general version of the Bumpy Metric Theorem, for (possibly noncompact) semi-Riemannian manifolds.

Now at Notre Dame, he says: “The atmosphere on campus is extremely exciting and is helping me realize my academic goals. Just during my first year at Notre Dame, I managed to finish two preprints that were submitted for peer-reviewed publications as well as completing most of the departmental requirements for coursework and qualification exams. With highly qualified faculty and very active research groups, this is a fantastic environment for young people interested in a scientific career.”

Student Spotlight: Sarah Cotter, Ph.D. Candidate in Mathematics

2011-09-28T14:00:00-04:00

Sarah Cotter is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mathematics, where she has studied model theory for the last four years. She works with VC-minimality, an area of research which has only developed in the last few years.

Her research attempts to take results from o-minimal and C-minimal theories, two widely-studied topics in model theory, and generalize them to a VC-minimal setting. In doing so, her work touches on algebra and combinatorics, among other areas of mathematics. Working with her adviser, Sergei Starchenko, she recently submitted an article containing their first results for publication consideration.

Along with the rest of Notre Dame’s model theory group, Sarah spent the spring of 2009 studying at the Fields Institute in Toronto, Canada, as part of their Thematic Program on o-minimal structures and real analytic geometry. She travels regularly with the Logic group to events throughout the Midwest, and has attended conferences across the United States as well as in Canada and France.

Sarah has worked as a teaching assistant, and has taught undergraduate courses at Notre Dame. In addition to teaching calculus, and working with science and engineering students, she taught a beginning logic course designed specifically for humanities students without extensive mathematical backgrounds. In 2011 she was a recipient of the Kaneb Center’s Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award for Excellence in Teaching.