News // Graduate School

Grand Opening of Innovation Park

2009-10-26T13:01:00-04:00

A grand opening celebration for Innovation Park at Notre Dame, a research park that helps transform innovations into viable marketplace ventures, was held Friday, October 23 at the park’s first building, which is located at 1400 E. Angela Boulevard.

Innovation Park connects clients with key ingredients essential for successful commercialization: University resources and talent, a world-class network of market experts, and access to early-stage capital providers.

The park will be home to a variety of start-up businesses, including ventures with expected commercial applications from core University research areas, and ventures that will leverage other University strengths, including student, faculty and physical asset resources.

Notre Dame, the state of Indiana, the city of South Bend and the U.S. Department of Energy have all committed resources to develop Innovation Park.

The $13 million facility is located on 12 acres of land directly south of the Notre Dame campus and features 55,000 square feet on three floors. The building offers build-to-suit offices, custom wet and dry laboratories and virtually unlimited network band width via the region’s dark fiber network.

Innovation Park’s exterior façade was chosen to represent the color and style of industrial buildings in South Bend around the turn of the century.

Innovation Park was officially approved as the state’s 19th Certified Technology Park last year. The Certified Technology Parks program was created as a tool to support the attraction and growth of high-technology businesses in Indiana and to promote technology transfer opportunities. Designation as a Certified Technology Park allows for the recapture of certain state and local tax revenue which can be invested in the development of the park.

Contact: Ann Hastings, Innovation Park marketing manager, 574-631-8825, ahastings@innovationparknd.com

Originally posted on Notre Dame’s News and Information website.

Graduate Seminars Enhance Scholarly Development, Research

2009-10-07T09:46:00-04:00

Every week, graduate students in sociology have the opportunity to come together to discuss with faculty and each other their research and current issues in the field. These “training” seminars keep students focused on their projects and allow them to set weekly goals for themselves as they manage the many demands on their time.

While hearing constructive criticism during these sessions can be tough, Department Chairperson Rory McVeigh says it is necessary in order to make progress as an academic.

“Negotiating one’s way through a graduate program is difficult, and there is a lot to learn about producing research and publishing in journals that cannot be learned by reading a manual,” he notes. “It is instead learned through interactions with others who have already been through the process.”

The seminars were inspired by a group started in the department in 1997. Graduate students and faculty would meet to discuss ongoing research on social movements and contentious politics. Word of what was going on spread, and, over time, their numbers expanded.

The group proved to be so helpful for those studying social movements that faculty created seminars for students who had different research interests. One-credit courses, the seminars are now offered every semester, and graduate students are encouraged to participate as often as they can so they receive continuous feedback on their work, not to mention emotional support and encouragement. Many of them attend even if they have already fulfilled their course requirements.

Elizabeth Covay, a graduate student specializing in sociology of education, has participated in the seminar on social stratification for several semesters.

“I have found the feedback to be helpful in moving my projects towards completion and placing my work into broader stratification literature,” Covay says. “After presenting my work, I always leave with many ideas of how to improve it.”

Courtesy of Ted Fox, College of Arts and Letters.

Student Spotlight: Hyunju Kim (Physics), iCeNSA Member and Newly Published Author

2009-10-07T09:45:00-04:00

Fifth-year physics graduate student Hyunju Kim of Daegu, Korea, produced the key elements for a mathematical physics paper that was selected as a “Fast Track Communication” of the Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General.

According to the journal, Fast Track Communications are “outstanding short papers reporting new and timely developments in mathematical and theoretical physics.” The paper tackles a fundamental problem in graph theory, namely constructing all labeled graphs whose nodes have pre-specified degrees (nr of neighbors), a result with key implications also on graph sampling.

Kim’s adviser, Prof. Zoltán Toroczkai of the University of Notre Dame’s Physics Department and director of Notre Dame’s Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science and Applications (iCeNSA) elaborates: “Hyunju came up with crucial ideas and proofs needed to solve one of the fundamental graph theoretical problems in network research. Her work has applications ranging from the study of the spread of diseases (epidemics), social networks, communication networks (Internet), to chemistry, particularly, counting structural isomers of alkanes.”

iCeNSA is an interdisciplinary research center organized around network science problems in social, biological, biochemical, physical, environmental, financial, organizational, technical and defense systems. Faculty and students at iCeNSA delve into the exploding research area of networks—how they emerge, what they look like, how they evolve, and how they impact our understanding of complex systems. Says Toroczkai: “We have found that a combination of statistical physics, graph theory and computational methods allows us to capture the topology of these diverse systems within a single framework.”

Kim will continue her work at iCeNSA throughout her tenure as a graduate student, performing research related to fundamental mathematical methods and its applications in network science—in particular, to the formation of functional modules in neuronal networks.

Graduate School Hosts 300 Graduate Students at Performance of the Tokyo String Quartet

2009-09-21T14:44:00-04:00

Over 300 graduate students attended a performance of the Tokyo String Quartet, courtesy of Dean Gregory E. Sterling and the Graduate School. The performance, part of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center’s Visiting Artist Series, was held in the Leighton Concert Hall.

The Tokyo String Quartet is regarded as one of the supreme chamber ensembles of the world. The Tokyo Quartet—Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda (violins), Kazuhide Isomura (viola) and Clive Greensmith (cello)—has collaborated with a remarkable array of artists and composers, built a comprehensive catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings, and established a distinguished teaching record. Performing over a hundred concerts worldwide each season, the Tokyo String Quartet has a devoted international following that includes the major capitals of the world and extends to all four corners, from Australia to Estonia to Scandinavia and the Far East.

The performance was followed by a wine and cheese reception, co-sponsored by the Graduate School and the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. At the reception, students mingled with each other and had an opportunity to meet Dean Sterling and the Graduate School’s associate deans.

Last year, the Graduate School hosted over 650 students at two Performing Arts Center events: The Hot Club of San Francisco in September and the Kronos Quartet in March. This year, in addition to the Tokyo String Quartet, students will be invited to the April 17th, 2010, performance of jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves.

Associate Dean Edward J. Maginn Receives Inaugural American Institute of Chemical Engineers CoMSEF Award

2009-09-16T10:25:00-04:00

Graduate School Associate Dean Edward J. Maginn, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Notre Dame, is the recipient of the inaugural American Institute of Chemical Engineers CoMSEF (Computational Molecular Science and Engineering Forum) award for outstanding research.

Maginn was cited for his “development of algorithms to use molecular simulation to study fundamental thermodynamics and transport behavior and his specific contributions to the understanding of nanoporous materials and ionic liquids.”

Nominees for the CoMSEF Early Career Award, which is being presented for the first time this year, may hold positions in academia, industry or a national laboratory and must be in the early stages of their professional careers, which is defined as being within 15 years of completion of the highest degree.

He has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator for more than 35 externally funded grants totaling approximately $14 million. He holds two patents and is the author or co-author of more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and five book chapters. He currently is on the editorial board of the journal Fluid Phase Equilibria.

Maginn has won a number of teaching and research awards, including the BP Outstanding Teaching Award for the College of Engineering, two Kaneb Awards, two AIChE student chapter teaching awards, the American Society for Engineering Education New Faculty Award and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1995, Maginn also serves as associate dean for academic programs for the University’s Graduate School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Iowa State University and his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley.

—
Courtesy of William Gilroy. Original article appeared on News and Information’s Newswire.

NSF Presenter Dr. Thomas Juliano to Visit Notre Dame Sept. 29

2009-09-15T09:40:00-04:00

National Science Foundation (NSF) representative Dr. Thomas Juliano will visit Notre Dame on Sept 29th to give a presentation on the Graduate Research Fellowship program. The presentation, titled “Creating a Competitive Application for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship,” will be at 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. in Room 100 of McKenna Hall.

Using the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program as the working example, Dr. Juliano will introduce attendees to the program and describe strategies for crafting a competitive application. The strategies he will outline can be applied as well to other award programs, graduate school applications, and employment positions.

The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP) offers up to three years of graduate school support worth over $120,000 to each awardee. This year, over 1200 awards were offered. Benefits include a $30,000 annual stipend, a $10,500 annual cost of education allowance, a one-time $1,000 international travel allowance, and access to TeraGrid supercomputing facilities. U.S. citizens, nationals, and permanent residents at or near the beginning of their graduate study seeking research-based master’s and/or Ph.D. degrees in NSF-supported science (including social science and psychology) and engineering disciplines are eligible to apply.

The NSF welcomes applications from all qualified students and strongly encourages women in engineering and computer science, under-represented minorities, and persons with disabilities to apply for this fellowship. For more information, please visit www.nsfgrfp.org or www.nsf.gov/grfp.

The NSF requires a confirmed list of attendees. Students and advisers planning to attend Dr. Juliano’s presentation should e-mail their name and department to Tracy Zielke in the Graduate School by Sept 20, although last-minute attendees are welcome.

Fulbright Information Session for Graduate Students: Sept. 4, 3:30-4:30 pm

2009-09-01T14:46:00-04:00

Established in 1946 by the United States Congress to facilitate cultural exchanges, the Fulbright Program is a unique opportunity for graduate students to pursue an individually designed study/research project abroad.

On Thursday, September 3, the Graduate School will sponsor a presentation for graduate students and faculty advisers on the Fulbright Program. The speaker will be Joanne Forster, a representative of the Institute of International Education, which administers the Fulbright graduate awards. Ms. Forster will speak about the application process and answer prospective applicants’ questions. The presentation will take place in 100 McKenna Hall from 3:30 to 4:30 pm; refreshments will be provided.

The on-campus application deadline for graduate students is Friday, September 18. Applicants will be interviewed by a faculty panel in late September and early October. By October 12, the finalized version of the application must be ready for release through the electronic submission process as well as in hard copy. (The final submission is made by the University’s Fulbright Program Adviser.)

For further information, please contact Dianne Phillips, the on-campus Fulbright Program Adviser for graduate students, at 631-3441 or dphillip@nd.edu.

Graduate Students, Local Teachers and Schoolchildren Collaborate in NDeRC's Third Year

2009-08-25T16:05:00-04:00

Now beginning its third year, the Notre Dame Extended Research Community, NDeRC, is a remarkable collaboration between Notre Dame professors and graduate students, and South Bend-area teachers and students. All members of this partnership are beneficiaries.

The NDeRC teams graduate students with K-12 teachers for eight weeks of summer research in the graduate student’s area of expertise. Then, when school begins in September, the graduate students join their teacher-partners in the classroom to engage students in activities in that research area. For Summer 2009 and the upcoming academic year, the research areas are:

Astrophysics: a collaboration with activities ranging from telescopic observations of asteroids in our solar system to the analysis of the absorption of supernovae radiation by distant galaxies;
BioEYES: a collaboration involving the study of zebrafish embryonic development that, in the 2009-2010 academic year, will visit over 120 classrooms (50 teachers and 3,000 students);
Biochemistry: a collaboration that studies cytoskeletal proteins that interact with microtubules and membranes within living cells;
Particle Physics: a collaboration that studies computer-simulated collisions in the Compact Muon Solenoid detector to determine the search criteria for very rarely produced particles;
Robotics: a collaboration that combines Wii remotes, Bluetooth communication devices, and Vex Robotics kits to design and build robots that can survey and navigate landscapes;
Nanotechnology: a collaboration that studies the structure and dynamics of molecular-sized objects.

The NDeRC program was funded at Notre Dame beginning in July 2007 by a $2.71 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate STEM Fellowships in K-12 Education (GK-12) grant. Notre Dame is one of a select number of universities participating in this unique NSF program. The NSF developed the program in recognition of the fact that, in addition to being competent researchers, graduate students in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields must be able to communicate science and research to a variety of audiences. The graduate students bring their research and practice into K-12 classrooms—gaining skills in explaining science to multi-age audiences of students and teachers. The graduate students also inspire transformation in the K-12 formal and informal learning environments, and stimulate interest in science and engineering among students and teachers.

Professor Mitch Wayne, chair of Physics and Principal Investigator for NDeRC, says: “NDeRC is a great, successful program. Over its five-year life span, the NSF will support a total of 37 Notre Dame graduate students in science and engineering with a generous stipend. In addition to the many benefits of the program for local schoolchildren, the program provides professional development for graduate students and local teachers, and also helps promote ‘town-gown’ relations. It’s a winning program for all participants.”

Major Restructuring Initiatives in the Graduate School

2009-08-25T16:05:00-04:00

Gregory E. Sterling, dean of the Graduate School, has announced three new appointments in the Graduate School—all in furtherance of a restructuring plan designed to revitalize and elevate the Graduate School and its programs.

Dean Sterling said: “At the centerpiece of the restructuring plan is a new associate-dean structure that will divide the major responsibilities of the Graduate School among four experienced administrators. This will allow a focus on each of our areas of emphasis: expanding our recruiting efforts, increasing the efficiency of academic progress and the quality of our training, providing our students with a holistic education that is an intense but rewarding experience, and examining the quality of our academic programs.”

The four associate deans are:

Laura Carlson, professor of psychology: the new associate dean of professional development;
Edward Maginn, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering: the new associate dean of academic programs;
Nyrée McDonald, Ph.D. Chemical Engineering: the new associate dean of recruitment and admissions;
Barbara Turpin, Ph.D. History: continuing as the associate dean of students.

In addition to the announcement of the restructuring of associate deans’ responsibilities, Dean Sterling confirmed two earlier restructuring moves for the Graduate School:

Before the start of Summer Session 2009, the administration of that program was transferred in full to the Registrar’s Office;
As of July 1, 2009, graduate studies in the School of Architecture became independent of the Graduate School, thus completing that school’s evolution into an independent entity. As with Law and Business, graduate studies in Architecture will be handled solely by the school itself.

Brief biographies of the four associate deans follow:

Laura Carlson, the Graduate School’s new associate dean of professional development, joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1994, received tenure in 1999, and was promoted to full professor in 2008. She received her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth, her master’s degree from Michigan State University, and her doctoral degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Carlson’s primary research interest is spatial cognition, an area that explores how we mentally represent the places and objects around us. She has won major grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and is author of 30 articles and 14 chapters. She serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, previous associate editor of Memory & Cognition, co-editor of the Oxford University Press volume Functional Features in Language and Space, and is on the editorial boards at Perception & Psychophysics and Visual Cognition. She has received two Kaneb Teaching Awards and the Edmund P. Joyce Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Edward Maginn, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the Graduate School’s new associate dean of academic programs, joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1995, received tenure in 2000, and was promoted to full professor in 2005. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Iowa State University; then, after working in industry for three years, entered the graduate program at the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate.

Maginn’s research focuses on computational statistical thermodynamics, in which atomistic-level computational methods are developed and utilized to obtain a fundamental understanding of the link between the physical properties of materials and their chemical constitution. Much of his work is devoted to environmental and energy-related applications. He has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator on over 35 externally funded grants totaling approximately $14 million. He holds two patents and is the author or co-author of over 80 peer-reviewed articles and five book chapters. He is currently on the editorial board of the journal Fluid Phase Equilibria. Maginn has won a number of teaching and research awards, including the BP Outstanding Teaching Award for the College of Engineering, two Kaneb Awards, two AIChE student chapter teaching awards, the American Society for Engineering Education New Faculty Award, and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Nyrée McDonald, the new associate dean of graduate recruitment and admissions, received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Tuskegee University in 1994, and then worked in Alaska for three years—first developing a public education program for local schools and community organizations and subsequently as a well planning engineer on the North Slope. She earned a master’s degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2000 in environmental quality engineering, and her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Notre Dame in 2006. While a graduate student, she served for five years as a recruiter for the Graduate School—representing the University at recruiting fairs across the country, including fairs focused on students from underrepresented minority populations.

McDonald joined the University of Alaska Anchorage as an assistant professor of civil engineering in 2005. There, her research focused on student development, drinking water, and renewable energy. Her most recent funded grant is one that assessed hydrokinetic energy potential in streams and rivers surrounding select rural Alaska villages. McDonald’s academic record includes authorship or co-authorship of six articles or book chapters, and 19 presentations—both in her field of research and on such topics as mentoring and how to be admitted to graduate school.

Barbara Turpin has had responsibility for the Graduate School’s academic programs, admissions, and students for the past semester. With the restructuring plan, she will have responsibility for the academic progress of students. Turpin, who joined the Graduate School as an administrator in 1990, received her bachelor’s degree in physics from Emmanuel College, her master’s degree in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin, and her Ph.D. in history from Notre Dame. Before coming to the Graduate School, she was a member of the special professional faculty in the College of Arts and Letters.

Turpin has served on numerous Graduate School and University committees, including the National Research Council Survey oversight committee (chair), the University Committee on Elections, and the executive committee of the special professional faculty (chair 1995-96). While Turpin’s scholarly research and dissertation focused on the evolution of the concept of the electron in 19th-century physics, she has explored many topics related to family in Notre Dame Magazine and Common Sense. For her exemplary work in the Graduate School, she received a Presidential Award in 2007.

Master of Divinity Students Receive National Fellowships

2009-08-25T14:57:00-04:00

Rebecca Guhin and Joseph Kolar, both entering master of divinity students at the University of Notre Dame, have been recognized as young leaders who demonstrate exceptional gifts for ministry by the Fund for Theological Education (FTE).

Both were recipients of 2009 FTE Volunteers Exploring Vocation Fellowships, which supported attendance at the FTE Conference on Excellence in Ministry, “Becoming Rich toward God: Pastoral Leadership and Economic Justice,” held in June in Alexandria, Va.

Guhin earned her bachelor’s degree in theology and public service last year from Providence College. Before entering Notre Dame, she served as a Jesuit Volunteer Corps participant at Mustard Seed School for Homeless Children in Sacramento, Calif.

Kolar earned his bachelor’s degree in theology from Loyola University in 2007 and served as a Lasallian Volunteer for two years, teaching 12th grade government and 9th grade religion at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore.

FTE awards fellowships to talented undergraduate and seminary students—selected competitively from a pool of applicants from across the United States and Canada—who have intellectual and interpersonal gifts for pastoral leadership. The 2009 FTE fellows were chosen by a national committee of theological educators and church leaders.

FTE awards the fellowships, which are funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., to increase the number of highly capable young people exploring or preparing for ordained ministry as a profession.

For additional information:

FTW fellowships: http://www.thefund.org
Notre Dame’s master of divinity program: http://mdiv.nd.edu/

Originally posted on Notre Dame’s News and Information website.

Notre Dame Akai 5K Run/Walk

2009-07-10T13:17:01-04:00

The Summer Session Office and the Office of the Registrar will host the inaugural Notre Dame Akai 5K Run/Walk on July 16 at 6 p.m. The event will benefit a graduate student scholarship fund set up in memory of Dr. Terry Akai, former associate dean of the Graduate School, who passed away in February.

This event is open to the public, as well as to Notre Dame, Holy Cross and St. Mary’s community members.

When: Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 6 p.m. Note: There are no refunds if the event is canceled. Weather conditions do vary and the event could potentially be canceled if severe weather occurs.

Registration: $15. Click here to register online. or register on-site, beginning at 4:30 p.m. (Please note that if you register on-site, you may forfeit the right to receive a T-shirt.)

Location: South Quad, in front of the South Dining Hall at the University of Notre Dame.

Course Characteristics: The 5K (3.1 mile) course will take runners/walkers past many famous Notre Dame landmarks. Participants will start on the South Quad, proceed past 100+ year-old residence halls, such as Walsh Hall and Alumni Hall. The course then heads up the Main Quad and circles around the famous Golden Dome. Participants then are treated to a beautiful figure eight loop around the two scenic and serene lakes on Notre Dame’s campus. Finally, runners/walkers proceed past the Golden Dome for a second time and down to the finish on the South Quad. The course is relatively flat and only has one hill about 50 yards in length. For more information, consult the course map.

Water Stations: There are two opportunities to obtain water on the course from a water station.

Prizes: Trophies to the 1st Place male and female. This fall, a new plaque in the Office of the Summer Session, bearing Terry Akai’s likeness, will also note the race winners.

Parking: If you are coming from off campus, you can park in the D6 parking lot located behind the WNDU Studios, off State Road 933. From the D6 lot, it is about a 200 yard walk to the start/finish line located near the South Dining Hall. See the parking map for more detail.

Special Announcement: Although the Akai 5K Run/Walk is open to the public, we have a special event planned specifically for Notre Dame, Holy Cross and St. Mary’s students. Following the 5K on Thursday, July 16, 2009, the Student Activities Office will host a Quad Party outside of the South Dining Hall only for students, featuring live music from Kennedy’s Kitchen, and quad games. Please join us for a full evening of fun! The Quad Party will commence at 6:30 p.m.

Research on Lead Poisoning by Psychology Graduate Student Benefits Science, Community

2009-07-06T12:27:01-04:00

Jody Nicholson is known around South Bend as “the lead lady.”

Nicholson, a graduate student in developmental psychology, is completing her dissertation on a project called “Get the Lead Out,” a University of Notre Dame Center for Children and Families community-based research project that aims to test the effectiveness of various interventions on 84 local families whose young children have subclinical lead exposure.

“Get the Lead Out,” funded by 2006 and 2008 Rodney F. Ganey Collaborative Community-Based Research Mini-Grants through Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, offers a prime example of how the Center for Children and Families research benefits both the scientific community and the community at large says director Julia Braungart-Rieker.

“The umbrella term is ‘translational research,” Braungart-Reiker says. Research findings are translated into real-world applications.

Nicholson’s research targeted families whose young children have low levels of lead exposure. Low levels of exposure are not reportable, Nicholson notes, and the children, who are not at high risk, are not eligible for government intervention programs. Still, even low levels of lead are associated with developmental difficulties in children.

One of the strengths of the project was the collaboration between University departments and community partners, including St. Joseph County Head Start, the St. Joseph County Health Department and Women, Infants and Children (WIC), says Nicholson.

Nicholson needed to recruit candidates for the study, and children entering Head Start needed to have their lead levels tested—a requirement for starting the program. “I was able to organize lead testing through the health department and WIC.” In addition, WIC shared prenatal growth data on the children for Nicholson’s research.

Nicholson’s research focused on low-income families in South Bend, specifically recruiting Hispanic families because some cultural practices—home remedies and imported food products that contain lead, and lead-glazed pottery used for cooking—put children at higher risk.

The project compared three intervention strategies. A control group of families was given a brochure from the Environmental Protection Agency. “We just give them knowledge about lead,” Nicholson says. The second group received cleaning kits—including vacuums—and instructions on how to clean around the house to reduce the level of lead dust in the child’s environment. A third group received a professional risk assessment that determined where lead was present in the house, while the fourth received a combination of all three.

Preliminary results, says Nicholson, suggest that as a result of the interventions, children’s blood lead levels were reduced, parental knowledge of lead risks and protective factors increased, and home cleaning frequency and quality increased.

But interestingly, all the interventions proved effective. “Which seems to imply that participating in the project alone helped,” Nicholson says. Based on these results, it might seem that the most cost-effective strategy might be handing out brochures alone. “But I don’t think that would achieve the same results.”

Because low levels of lead exposure aren’t reported, through “Get the Lead Out,” parents became aware of their children’s exposure, and the potential risks.

“Just telling them the test results may be effective in getting parents to enact change,” she says. The findings may also suggest that policy might need to be changed to require that even low levels of lead exposure be reported, before children suffer lead poisoning.

Original news story courtesy of Carol C. Bradley and Notre Dame’s ND Works.

Graduate Alumnus Michael T. Good a Member of the Atlantis Hubble Mission

2009-07-01T15:04:01-04:00

University of Notre Dame alumnus Michael T. Good, an Air Force colonel, was a member of the Space Shuttle Atlantis Mission STS-125 crew that successfully repaired and upgraded the Hubble telescope last month. The flight was Good’s first shuttle mission. He took a Notre Dame pennant with him into space.

The 11-day mission included five spacewalks to refurbish Hubble with state-of-the-art science instruments. The telescope is now 90 times more powerful than when it was launched in 1990 and should function for another five to 10 years. The mission, considered one of NASA’s most challenging yet, had been scheduled for last fall, but a breakdown of the telescope delayed it.

Good, a native of Broadview Heights, Ohio, was graduated through Notre Dame’s ROTC program in 1984 with a degree in aerospace engineering and earned a master’s degree in the same field from the University in 1986. He was then assigned to Elgin Air Force Base, Fla., as a flight test engineer for the cruise missile program.

He earned his wings in 1989 as a weapons system officer and flew F-111s. In 1993, he was selected to attend the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and was graduated the following year.

Good was selected by NASA as a mission specialist in 2000 and, following completion of two years of training and evaluation, he was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Advanced Vehicles Branch and subsequently served in the Space Shuttle Branch.

Original news story courtesy of William G. Gilroy and ND Newswire.

Ph.D. in Literature Student Hannah Zdansky wins Jacob K. Javits Fellowship

2009-06-10T15:21:01-04:00

Hannah Zdansky, who just completed her first year in Notre Dame’s Ph.D. in Literature Program, has won a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship—one of 40 awarded nationwide thus far out of more than 700 applications. The fellowship will pay her tuition, fees, and a living stipend for the next four years.

Zdansky, of Lyford, Texas, has been successful in fellowship competition in the past. After graduating magna cum laude in May of 2006 from Baylor University, where she was a member of the University Scholars Program, she studied at the National University of Ireland in Galway as a Fulbright Scholar, taking an M.A. in Old and Middle Irish with First Class honors.

In her studies at Notre Dame, Zdansky has been focusing most of her attention on the intersection of multiple literary and cultural traditions in medieval texts. She has done extensive research on the twelfth-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes because, as she explains, “by examining his work, we can unravel the way in which various literary traditions were appropriated with all of the implications this elicits. The results, in turn, tell us something about the author and the audience who made it their own.” To carry out her detailed philological analyses, Zdansky has worked with texts in a broad range of languages, including Latin, Old French, Old and Middle English, as well as Old and Middle Irish.

Zdansky says that she chose Notre Dame for graduate school “because in addition to being one of the nation’s top universities, it is one of the very few that teaches Irish or anything Celtic. In addition, the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies and the Medieval Institute are incredible resources for students in many areas of inquiry. While I chose to do my work in the Ph.D. in Literature Program for the flexibility it allows between my fields of interest, through the Keough-Naughton Institute, I am able to maintain my Old and Middle Irish language study while pursuing Modern Irish in more depth. The Medieval Institute also provides me with the means to explore a variety of other disciplines integral to my research.”

In announcing Zdansky’s Javits Fellowship, Prof. Joseph Buttigieg, director of the Ph.D. in Literature Program, said: “The College of Arts and Letters faculty has a remarkable record of success in obtaining external funding for their research. It is important that we now help our graduate students in the humanities develop the skills needed to write grant proposals. The rewards are not just financial: in the process of writing a good grant proposal one is able to refine one’s ideas and develop more coherent research projects.”

The Javits Fellowship is open to application from students the year before entering graduate school or during the first year of graduate studies. For more information, see the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program website.

Andrew Forbes (Ph.D. Biological Sciences 2008): Dissertation Research Published in Science, Noted in New York Times

2009-06-04T11:55:00-04:00

Andrew Forbes, who received his Ph.D. in biology from Notre Dame in August 2008, is the first author on a recent publication based on his doctoral dissertation research in the journal Science, one of the premier science journals in the world. The article was featured as part of a special speciation tribute to Charles Darwin on February 6, 2009, and was highlighted in the New York Times’ science section.

Now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of California at Davis, Forbes’ discoveries occurred while he was a member of a Notre Dame laboratory team headed by Biological Sciences Professor Jeffrey Feder. In the Science article, Forbes and his co-authors demonstrate that the introduction of apples to America almost 400 years ago may have ultimately changed the behavior of a fruit fly, leading to its modification and the subsequent modification of a parasitic wasp that feeds on it. The result is a chain reaction of biodiversity where the modification of one species triggers the sequential modification of a second, dependent species.

“The research shows the process of speciation in action and might tell us more about why certain groups of organisms are more diverse than others,” says Forbes. “It also suggests why certain areas and/or biotic regions may have more species than others.”

Feder explains that the research of Forbes and others on his team is important because it provides insights into solving Darwin’s mystery of the origins of new species. “Andrew’s work is a nice demonstration of how the initial speciation of one organism opens up an opportunity for another species in the ecosystem to speciate in kind. Biodiversity in essence is the source for new biodiversity.”

Praising Forbes in particular, Feder says: “Andrew is an unusually creative and diverse thinker. He is also an energetic and effective field and bench scientist. This combination of talents is rare but gives him all the components for a very bright future.”

Work in Feder’s laboratory was supported by the National Science Foundation, including a 2007 Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant for Forbes. The NSF posted an article on Forbes’ research that was the lead on its website. The NSF also interviewed Feder about the work of Forbes and others in his laboratory and broadcast that interview as a pod cast.

Forbes was the first author on a total of five papers stemming from his work at Notre Dame and a co-author of six additional peer-reviewed articles and one book chapter. While a student at Notre Dame, he was the organizer of an evolutionary discussion group and an active and highly praised teaching assistant in biology recognized with the Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dean Gregory E. Sterling said: “Andrew Forbes reflects the caliber of student whom we value highly at Notre Dame. He not only has exceptional ability, but he is creative and energetic. The combination of his ability and work ethic enabled him to make a real contribution while a student and is a strong statement about his future promise. He is one of many excellent graduate students at Notre Dame who are making seminal scientific contributions to our understanding of life and making the world a better place in which to live."

Learn more:

Two Notre Dame Alumni among Ambassadorial Nominees

2009-06-01T14:21:01-04:00

Two distinguished alumni of the University of Notre Dame’s Graduate School have been nominated by President Barack Obama for prominent ambassadorial positions: Miguel H. Diaz is the nominee for ambassador to the Holy See, and former Indiana Rep. Timothy J. Roemer is the nominee for ambassador to India.

Diaz, a professor of theology at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Notre Dame in 1992 and 2000, respectively. His theological studies principally concerned the works of the German theologian Karl Rahner and Virgilio P. Elizondo, professor of pastoral and Hispanic theology at Notre Dame, and his doctoral dissertation eventually became a widely acclaimed and award-winning book, On Being Human: U.S. Hispanic and Rahnerian Perspectives.

Ebullient when he heard of the Diaz nomination, Father Elizondo pronounced it “a wonderful moment for Miguel, for Hispanic theology, for Hispanic people in general and certainly for all of us at Notre Dame. Miguel is a brilliant theologian who is also a humble man with his feet on the ground.”

Father Elizondo’s praise for his student, friend and colleague was echoed by Timothy Matovina, professor of theology and director of Notre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism. “Among his friends and colleagues,” Matovina said, “Miguel is highly regarded as a systematic theologian, a Latino Catholic leader, a dedicated husband and father, and a human being who lives for others.”

Roemer, now president of the Center for National Policy (CNP) in Washington, D.C., earned master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from Notre Dame in 1981 and 1985, respectively. Elected in 1990 to represent Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District, he served six terms and later was a member of the 9/11 Commission.

Peri Arnold, professor of political science at Notre Dame, taught many of the courses Roemer took as a graduate student and directed his doctoral dissertation, The Senior Executive Service: Retirement and Public Personnel Policy.

“As a graduate student in political science Tim Roemer was most interested in ways to improve government,” Arnold said. "That focus is illustrated by his dissertation research examining the incentives guiding the career paths of high level civil servants in the federal government. Upon completing his Ph.D., Tim used his education to pursue public leadership roles rather than an academic career. His subsequent accomplishments as a thoughtful statesman in Congress and then an engaged member of the 9/11 Commission give me confidence that he will ably fill the very sensitive post of U.S. ambassador to India.”

Congress is in the process of scheduling hearings for both Diaz and Roemer, along with those for several other ambassadorial nominees.

Courtesy of Michael O. Garvey and ND Newswire

Graduate Students Fare Well in National Security Innovation Competition

2009-05-27T09:55:00-04:00

Andrew Blaich and Qi Liao, graduate students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, took second place in the third annual National Security Innovation Competition (NSIC) held May 1 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Their innovation, Enterprise Network Activities Visualization (ENAVis), streamlines the way in which network administrators can view a complicated network. Using ENAVis, administrators can gain greater insights about the connectivity between hosts, users and applications that is often lost in multi-user systems deployed in an enterprise network. Thus, they can better manage and track user identity to determine “who” is doing “what” on the network. This is particularly important as the U.S. continues to focus on implementing strategies and security measures to protect the nation from terrorist attacks or threats.

Sponsored by the Colorado Homeland Defense Alliance, Colorado Springs Technology Incubator and National Homeland Defense Foundation, the contest was open to full-time students at U.S. universities. The competition stimulates interest by college students in national security-related innovations and exposes novel technologies to a broad audience including industry, academic and government organizations involved in aerospace, defense, security and first-responder activities.

The 2009 competitors featured some of the nation’s top schools, including Air Force Institute of Technology, Arizona State University (first-place winners), Colorado School of Mines (third-place recipients), Colorado State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Michigan Technological University, Pennsylvania State University, Rice University, University of Arizona, University of Buffalo, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, University of Denver, University of Washington, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Washington State University.

Participating teams developed an original idea, submitted a written paper describing the innovation and presented an oral overview of their project to a group of judges, end users and potential funding sources. The 2009 panel of judges included security and defense experts from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Northern Command, Raytheon and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Each submission was judged on its technical capabilities: Is the innovation truly unique and appropriate to an existing or emerging security problem? Market and industry analyses were part of the mix: Do the participants demonstrate an awareness of market need, as well as an understanding of major trends or other forces that affect the security industry? Participants also were judged on the development of a reasonable action plan and their presentation skills.

All teams also were required to have faculty advisors. Advisors to the Notre Dame team were Aaron Striegel and Douglas Thain, associate and assistant professors, respectively, in Notre Dame’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Courtesy of Nina Welding and ND Newswire

2009 Graduate Commencement Address: Don Randel

2009-05-20T11:01:00-04:00

Degree recipients and your family members and friends; members of the faculty and all who form part of the university community; Father Jenkins and distinguished guests and honorees: To all of you I say, “Congratulations.” Although the pursuit of an advanced degree can often seem painfully lonely, it is in the end a collective effort requiring not only the talent and perseverance of the degree candidate but also some combination of patient support, affection, and nudging by a range of others. All are entitled to take pride in this moment. The question is, “What next?”

If not further study, then a good job, one hopes. This will make you eligible to pay taxes, serve on numerous committees, and undertake burdens of a kind that will make your years as a graduate student seem utterly and perfectly blissful. This is not entirely a joke, for you may not soon or ever again have quite so much time in which you are expected principally to think about interesting things and attempt to find or make order or meaning in them that no one had quite seen before. This is the activity that is at the heart of the contemplative life, which Aristotle describes as the life most likely to produce happiness as opposed to mere pleasure. And it is an activity that is much undervalued and too little practiced in our society. What do I mean by that?

This country is now deeply and appropriately concerned about its economic circumstances, which daily threaten the well being of millions and especially of those who were already among the less fortunate in our society. The distribution of wealth in the richest country the world has ever known was an embarrassment before the current crisis, and it has now become a catastrophe. In the effort to find solutions, we hear a great deal about economic stimulus through investment in our crumbling infrastructure. This usually means projects to improve bridges and highways and the like, especially if those projects are “shovel ready.” And this is all well and good. I wish simply to assert, however, that those of you receiving degrees today are among the “shovel readiest” projects of the most important part of the national infrastructure, an infrastructure that is being allowed to crumble just as surely as countless bridges and miles of highway. I refer to the deep intellectual infrastructure of the nation, which has been the engine of such strength and prosperity as we have known and which is crucial to maintaining such strength and prosperity as we may wish to enjoy in the future. But I mean even more than that.

When I say “deep intellectual infrastructure,” I mean truly deep. It is easy, though no less important, to speak about the intellectual life of the nation in instrumental terms. The support of science is often justified in terms of its likely contribution to the gross domestic product or to the national defense. Even advocates for the arts have often been glad to justify their support in terms of the contributions of the arts to local economies through tourism and the like. But we must think, too, about what kind of nation we want this to be. Will we decline to settle for being the strongest and richest nation in the world and insist in addition on being the most thoughtful and humane of nations in the treatment of its own people and in its relations with the other peoples with whom we share the globe? If we are to insist on this higher aspiration, we will need to insist on a greater investment in people like yourselves. And we will need for every one of you to be not just able professionals in whatever field but to be as well examples of and promoters of the life of the mind that must characterize more aspects of our society than it does today. You are part of that deep intellectual infrastructure of the nation, and you must simultaneously be its guardians.

To be its proper guardians, it will be necessary to overcome some of the boundaries that conspire to separate you from one another. If we truly care about the quality of the nation’s intellectual life, we must recognize that the natural sciences, and the social sciences, and the humanities, and the arts as well share profound attitudes and beliefs about how human beings ought to go about life and what ought to characterize the nation’s intellectual life. Too often we have believed, following C. P. Snow and others, that there are two (or more) cultures and that the sciences and the humanities broadly defined embody fundamentally different ways of thinking. If we can put aside certain enmities that arise over the relative size of the budgets of the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts and over whether the Department of Chemistry in this or that university has much more money than the Department of Classics, we are bound to recognize that we all have essentially the same complaint about the national life. Not enough people remain driven by the native curiosity with which we are all born and in the process remain open to the possibility of new and better ideas, to the possibility that one might improve on the ways one thinks about things, to the possibility that we can all learn from one another and that our own intellectual tools may blind us on some occasions as well as enable us to see on others.

This is not about whether enough of our fellow citizens remember that F=ma and that 1789 is the date of the French Revolution. It is about whether enough of our fellow citizens remain passionate to know more about anything and everything than they know at any given moment—about whether they remain open to the beauties of nature and of human intellectual and artistic creation and of one another. In this we are all one in spirit if not necessarily in opinion, as the founding president of the University of Chicago famously remarked. And it is the responsibility of each of us who has been blessed with the kind of education that you have received to live these values and propagate them among those around use, whether they be students or colleagues or our own children.

A crucial part of this is to maintain an appropriate modesty with respect to our own ways of thinking and accomplishments. Since the Enlightenment, a powerful strain of thought has held that there is only one way of knowing, which fundamentally differs from believing, that thinking and doing are radically different from one another, that the rational is easily distinguished from the irrational, which can simply be dismissed for most purposes. This has too often been a prison with traditional academic disciplines as it inmates. The arts provide a powerful illustration. In the tradition of the nineteenth-century German university, which still has a much greater hold on our affairs than one might think, it is perfectly appropriate to study the arts with proper scholarly tools such as philology, but the actual making of art is not something to be recognized as central to the pursuits of a university but is instead an ornament to which refined people ought perhaps to be exposed.

Other nice illustrations of the confusion between thinking and believing and of assuming rationality and dismissing irrationality are to be found in the writings of John Maynard Keynes, a man once again much in the news (and a good deal wittier than his reputation as an economist might suggest). In his The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, he speculates about how the classical theory that he sought to overturn could have been justified. The point here is not whether one agrees with Keynes (though it resonates eerily with present circumstances) but rather how one might be tempted to advance beliefs or principles to justify something that could be shown to be incorrect. Of this classical theory he writes:

That it reached conclusions quite different from what the ordinary uninstructed person would expect, added . . . to its intellectual prestige. That its teaching, translated into practice, was austere and often unpalatable, lent it virtue. That it was adapted to carry a vast and consistent logical superstructure, gave it beauty. That it could explain much social injustice and apparent cruelty as an inevitable incident in the scheme of progress, and the attempt to change such things as likely on the whole to do more harm than good, commanded it to authority. That it afforded a measure of justification to the free activities of the individual capitalist, attracted to it the support of the dominant social force behind authority.

As to the power of rational analysis in the affairs of society he writes, pointing clearly toward the kind of behavioral economics that is now becoming increasingly prominent:

A large proportion of our positive activities depend on spontaneous optimism rather than on a mathematical expectation, whether moral or hedonistic or economic. Most, probably, of our decisions to do something positive, the full consequences of which will be drawn out over many days to come, can only be taken as a result of animals spirits—of a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities.

Finally, on the inappropriateness of certain kinds of analysis to certain kinds of subjects, he describes “the statement that Queen Victoria was a better queen but not a happier woman than Queen Elizabeth” as “a proposition not without meaning and not without interest, but unsuitable as material for the differential calculus.”

I quote Keynes at such length not only because we have all been obliged to think about him again these days but also because he suggests ways in which even some of the most rational and beautiful of our intellectual tools may not be the equal of all that we would like to know and understand, and he suggests ways in which we might be tempted to justify social ills in terms of our abstract theories.

his brings me to Silas Marner. Silas Marner, you ask? Yes, Silas Marner. You see, for many of the fifty-five or so years since I was compelled to read it as a sophomore in high school, I have wondered what ever made anyone think that boy sophomores in high school would be likely to get anything out of it. Despite an unnatural conscientiousness at that age, I certainly did not get much out of it then, hence the question that has nagged ever since. I recently determined that I could no longer leave this question suspended over my intellectual life and so read it again. Now, if you do not particularly remember Silas Marner and/or found it much less interesting than, say, baseball when you were first made to read it, let me hasten to say that it is something of a page turner and at moments quite moving.

I raise Silas Marner now because it captures quite beautifully and very nearly explicitly something of what I am trying to say about what we claim to know, how we claim to know it, and the limitations to be guarded against in our academic lives. In response to life’s unfair treatment of him, Silas becomes reclusive, devoting himself relentlessly to his weaving and to accumulating the money that his efforts bring him. George Eliot writes:

His life had reduced itself to the functions of weaving and hoarding, without any contemplation of an end towards which the functions tended. [She continues,] The same sort of process has perhaps been undergone by wiser men, when they have been cut off from faith and love—only, instead of a loom and a heap of guineas, they have had some erudite research, some ingenious project, or some well-knit theory.

Elsewhere she writes, “Every man’s work, pursued steadily, tends in this way to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life.” One is bound to be reminded in these passages of Casaubon in Middlemarch, the paradigmatic obsessive but hollow academic. Here the person of Dorothea makes the point still more powerful. (Parenthetically, let me say that Middlemarch also comes to mind in a different context. Many recent critiques of higher education contend that the problem is in its entirety the faculty. It is as if all of the faculty were Casaubons and all of the students Dorotheas. This is hardly true in either case.)

Faith and love, broadly defined, almost certainly are the things that make life most worth living and provide the surest guides to how one might actually go about the world, and we must guard against letting ourselves be cut off from them by our high professional aspirations and what we think our disciplines enable us to know. We must certainly not run the risk of cutting others off from them by exaggerating the importance of our high professional aspirations (whether academic or not).

This, then, is a plea for you to cultivate and be guardians of the nation’s intellectual life but to do so with modesty and to shun arrogance—to recognize the limits of what you know and to be open to what others may know and to their ways of knowing—to recognize that your academic training in whatever field is almost certainly not the equal of the most fundamental questions about how one ought to live one’s life. You have had the good fortune to study at a university that forcefully proclaims faith and love as foundational values. Do not let those values be overwhelmed by anything that your advanced degrees might enable you to undertake.

I leave you with a short poem by A. R. Ammons:

May happiness
pursue you,

catch you
often, and,

should it
lose you,

be waiting
ahead, making

a clearing
for you.

Don M. Randel
President, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
University of Notre Dame
May 16, 2009

Don Michael Randel Addresses Graduating Class

2009-05-18T16:30:01-04:00

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation President Don Michael Randel told 2009 University of Notre Dame master’s and doctoral degree recipients during his commencement address on Saturday, May 16th, that they are part of the deep intellectual infrastructure of the nation and that they must also be its guardians. (See full text.)

Randel, a prolific and internationally prominent historian of music, also received an honorary degree Sunday, May 17th, during the University’s 164th Commencement exercises.

The University’s Graduate School recognized 399 master’s and 167 doctoral recipients and presented several special awards during the Joyce Center event.

Randel referenced America’s current economic crisis and noted, “In an effort to find solutions, we hear a great deal about economic stimulus through investment in our crumbling infrastructure. This usually means projects to improve bridges and highways and the like, especially for those projects that are ‘shovel ready.’ And this is all well and good.

“I wish to assert, however, that those of you receiving degrees today are among the ‘shovel readiest’ projects of the most important part of national infrastructure, an infrastructure that is being allowed to crumble just as surely as countless bridges and miles of highways. I refer to the deep intellectual infrastructure of the nation, which has been the engine of such strength and prosperity as we have known and which is crucial to maintaining such strength and prosperity as we may wish to enjoy in the future.”

Randel said that when he used the term “deep intellectual infrastructure,” he meant something truly deep.

“Will we decline to settle for being the strongest and richest nation in the world and insist in addition on being the most thoughtful and humane of nations in the treatment of its own people and in its relations with the other peoples with whom we share the globe?,” he said.

“If we are to insist on this higher aspiration, we will need for every one of you to be not just able professionals in whatever field, but to be, as well, examples of and promoters of the life of the mind that must characterize more aspects of society than it does today. You are part of that deep intellectual infrastructure of the nation, and you must simultaneously be its guardians.”

Randel also cautioned the degree recipients not to let the boundaries of their professional disciplines cut them off from their calling to be broader guardians of the nation’s intellectual life.

“Faith and love, broadly defined, almost certainly are the things that make life most worth living and provide the surest guides to how one might actually go about the world, and we must guard against letting ourselves be cut off from them by our high professional aspirations and what we think our disciplines enables us to know,” he said. “We must certainly not run the risk of cutting others off from them by exaggerating the importance of our high professional aspirations (whether academic or not).

“This, then, is a plea for you to cultivate and be guardians of the nation’s intellectual life but to do so with modesty and to shun arrogance — to recognize that the limits of what you know and to be open to what others may know and to their ways of knowing — to recognize that your academic training in whatever field is almost certainly not the equal of the most fundamental questions about how one ought to live one’s life. You have had the good fortune to study at a university that forcefully proclaims faith and love as its foundational values. Do not let those values be overwhelmed by anything that your advanced degrees might enable you to undertake.”

The recipients of several Graduate School awards were also recognized during the Commencement ceremony.
The top graduating doctoral degree students in the humanities, social sciences, science and engineering were honored with Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Graduate School Awards. The honorees were Rachel B. Gettman in chemical and biomolecular engineering, David Andrew Teeter in theology, Stacy L. Hoehn in mathematics, and Naomi V. Ekas in psychology.

Danny Z. Chen, professor of computer science and engineering, was presented with the University’s Rev. James A. Burns, C.S.C., Graduate School Award. The award is given annually to a faculty member for distinction in teaching or other exemplary contributions to graduate education and honors the first Notre Dame president with an advanced degree.

The recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award, Matthew O’Donnell, Frank and Julie Jungers Dean of Engineering at the University of Washington, also was recognized during the exercises. O’Donnell, who was graduated from Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in 1972 and a doctorate in 1976, is a biomedical engineer who is renowned for his interdisciplinary focus.

Graduate School Names Shaheen Award Winners

2009-05-18T11:45:00-04:00

Four doctoral candidates at the University of Notre Dame who received the 2009 Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Graduate School Awards were recognized at the school’s commencement ceremony on May 16th in the Joyce Center.

Named in honor of a Notre Dame alumnus and his wife, the award recognizes the top graduating doctoral degree recipients in the humanities, social sciences, science and engineering. Nominated by their departments, the Shaheen Award winners are chosen for their superior ability as exhibited by grades, research, and publication records, fellowships and other awards received during the course of study at Notre Dame, as well as teaching ability.

The Shaheen Award recipients are:

Rachael Getman

Getman, in chemical and biomolecular engineering, has developed quantitative, atomistic-based models that relate the chemical composition of a material to its ability to catalyze, or accelerate, a chemical reaction. The work is a major step forward in the goal of designing chemical catalysts computationally.

She has received both local and national recognition for her work, winning three awards in just one year, including the Computational Molecular Science and Engineering Forum Graduate Student Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. She has published five peer-reviewed papers in top tier journals, including an invited Centennial Feature Article in the Journal of Physical Chemistry. In addition, she has served as a popular co-instructor in an engineering first-year course, as well as a developer of a new departmental course on applications in computational chemistry.

Getman has accepted a postdoctoral position at Northwestern University beginning this fall.

Andrew Teeter

Teeter, in theology, explores the relationship among textual production, interpretation and religious identity in antiquity. More specifically, he has shown how the production of texts has a direct bearing on their interpretation. He also has demonstrated the importance of a systematic investigation of secondary uses of texts to determine their earlier forms and meaning.

Teeter is the author of an article in the current issue of Textus and a forthcoming article in the “Dictionary of Early Judaism.” He was a highly respected teacher in two sections of a Notre Dame Foundations of Theology course in the spring of 2008, with student evaluations placing him in the top 10 percent of all instructors at the University, including faculty, for one course and the top 20 percent in the other.

Completing his doctoral program in five years, Teeter received multiple offers, including a tenure-track position at McMaster University and a tenure-track position at the Divinity School of Harvard University. He accepted the professorship at Harvard, thus becoming the first Notre Dame theology doctoral student to assume a position there.

Stacy Hoehn

Hoehn’s (mathematics) research and dissertation focus on geometric topology, which involves investigating mathematical objects, called high-dimensional manifolds, that do not have boundaries. In her dissertation, she solved a problem related to a theory of higher order algebraic K-theory that had puzzled mathematicians for many years.

In her first year of graduate studies, Hoehn received a prestigious three-year Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF). She also won the Department of Mathematics’ Richard Sady Prize for best performance in the first-year courses. Her work has attracted the attention of researchers both at Notre Dame and elsewhere. She has been invited to deliver talks on her area of expertise at five other institutions and has given eight talks at seminars at the University.

Hoehn has been awarded an NSF postdoctoral fellowship to study at Vanderbilt University. She is the first Notre Dame mathematics student to win this highly prestigious award.

Naomi Ekas

Ekas, in psychology, has broken new ground in the mental health field by exploring why some mothers of children with autism cope better than others with the daily stress of raising special needs children. Her findings are that mothers who are generally optimistic in their outlook on life and who feel that they exercise control over their lives report lower levels of negativity in their day-to-day lives that their less optimistic counterparts.

Ekas is the first or co-author of six peer-reviewed publications and has completed 18 presentations at national conferences. In addition, she has won two teaching awards, served as an active and popular mentor for undergraduates and almost single-handedly transformed the weekly graduate student developmental psychology studies group into a vibrant setting for smart conversation, constructive feedback and professional development.

Completing her doctoral work in only four years, Ekas has accepted a two-year postdoctoral research position at the University of Miami.

After earning his bachelor’s and law degrees from Notre Dame in 1934 and 1936, Eli Shaheen taught at the University for five years, then served as an officer in the Army during World War II. A community leader in Sturgis, Mich., he was owner and president of the Sutton Tool Company from 1945 to 1986, at which time he sold the company and formed Sturgis Enterprises.Add 3/Shaheen

Shaheen was an honorary member of the Notre Dame Monogram Club and served as secretary/treasurer, trustee and adviser to the Notre Dame Council of the Knights of Columbus for more than 50 years. In recognition of his service, the Knights of Columbus building on campus was dedicated in his honor in 1969.

Shaheen, who died in 1993, and his wife, Helen, supported the University in many ways, including four fellowships in the Law School, the Shaheen-Mestrovic Memorial on campus, and the Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Endowment for Architecture.

The Shaheen Graduate School Awards were established by an endowment from their daughters, Christine Broussard and Paula Eide.

Originally posted on the News and Information website.

2009 Distinguished Alumnus: Matthew O’Donnell
2009 James A. Burns, C.S.C. Graduate School Award: Danny Chen