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Voters’ views of Mormonism still stumbling block for Romney, new study shows

2012-05-22T07:00:00-04:00

Though the social barriers of race and gender were largely overcome during the last U.S. presidential campaign, religious affiliation (in this case, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormonism) is still a significant hurdle, according to a new study by University of Notre Dame Political Science Professor David Campbell and colleagues from Brigham Young University and the University of Akron.

Campbell also is co-author of “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us,” (Simon and Schuster, 2010).

A “stained glass ceiling” — one that John F. Kennedy famously shattered in 1960 — may still be an obstacle to Mitt Romney’s 2012 bid for the White House, just as it was for his 2008 presidential aspirations, according to the study, published today in the journal “Political Behavior.”

To many voters, Mormonism remains unpopular and mysterious because of the relative social insularity of the group — that is, followers are most likely to marry within their religion and have the fewest friends and family members outside of the faith. The lack of social contact means that most people have little personal knowledge and experience with Mormons, and are thus susceptible to persuasion by negative information about the group in question.

Campbell and his colleagues conclude that Romney’s religion is likely to remain a potential stumbling block in 2012 unless public attitudes toward Mormons change. Such changes have occurred in the past, as with Kennedy and Catholicism in 1960.

“In 1960, John F. Kennedy famously said, ‘For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been — and may someday be again — a Jew, or a Quaker, or a Unitarian, or a Baptist,’” Campbell says. “In 2012, we can add ‘Mormon’ to that list. However, our research shows that ‘the finger of suspicion’ can be overcome through meaningful relationships between Mormons and their non-Mormon neighbors, co-workers, friends and family members.”

Previous research suggests that sustained contact across religious boundaries — interreligious bridging — fosters religious tolerance in the political sphere. This study, however, takes that one step further by showing that passing contact with a religious out-group can exacerbate unease with that group, at least as it applies to electoral politics. Furthermore, this analysis underscores that campaign information does not circulate in a vacuum. The impact of the framing and counter-framing of Mormonism depends on a voter’s personal experience with Mormons.

Contact: David Campbell, 574-631-7809, Dave_Campbell@nd.edu

What baboons can teach us about social status

2012-05-21T11:05:00-04:00

Turns out it’s not bad being top dog, or in this case, top baboon.

A new study by University of Notre Dame biologist Beth Archie and colleagues from Princeton and Duke Universities finds that high-ranking male baboons recover more quickly from injuries and are less likely to become ill than other males.

Archie, Jeanne Altmann of Princeton and Susan Alberts of Duke examined health records from the Amboseli Baboon Research Project in Kenya. They found that high rank is associated with faster wound healing. The finding is somewhat surprising, given that top-ranked males also experience high stress, which should suppress immune responses. They also found that social status is a better predictor of wound healing than age.

“In humans and animals, it has always been a big debate whether the stress of being on top is better or worse than the stress of being on the bottom,” said Archie, lead researcher on the study. “Our results suggest that, while animals in both positions experience stress, several factors that go along with high rank might serve to protect males from the negative effects of stress.”

“The power of this study is in identifying the biological mechanisms that may confer health benefits to high-ranking members of society,” said George Gilchrist, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Division of Biology, which funded the research. “We know that humans have such benefits, but it took meticulous long-term research on baboon society to tease out the specific mechanisms. The question remains of causation: Is one a society leader because of stronger immune function or vice versa?”

The researchers examined 27 years of data on naturally occurring illness and injuries in wild male baboons, which is a notably large data set. Although research of health and disease in animals in laboratory settings has been quite extensive, this study is one of most comprehensive ever conducted on animals in a natural setting.

The research team investigated how differences in age, physical condition, stress, reproductive effort and testosterone levels contribute to status-related differences in immune functions. Previous research found that high testosterone levels and intense reproductive efforts can suppress immune function and are highest among high-ranking males.

However, Archie and her colleagues found that high-ranking males were less likely to become ill and recovered faster from injuries and illnesses than low-ranking males. The authors suggest that chronic stress, old age and poor physical condition associated with low rank may suppress immune function in low-ranking males.

“The complex interplay among social context, physiology and immune system-mediated health costs and benefits illustrates the power of interdisciplinary research,” said Carolyn Ehardt, NSF program director for biological anthropology, which co-funded the research. “This research begins to tease apart the trade-offs in both high and low status in primates, including ourselves, which may lead to understanding the effects of social status on death and disease — not inconsequential for society as a whole.”

Contact: Beth Archie, 574-631-0178, earchie@nd.edu

Contrary to popular belief, investment banks do add value to M&As, new study shows

2012-05-21T09:00:00-04:00

Investment bankers often are stereotyped as greedy, overpaid leeches who will say or do anything for a quick buck.

However, despite certain biases, investment banks do add value to mergers and acquisitions and, in fact, produce important information for the M&A advisory process, according to new research by Matthew Cain, assistant professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.

The lead author of “Information Production by Investment Banks: Evidence from Fairness Opinions,” forthcoming in the Journal of Law and Economics, Cain analyzes a sample of more than 500 fairness opinion valuations that investment banks produce in relation to mergers and acquisitions, one of the primary business units of investment banking. Cain says the fairness opinion valuations they produce provide an objective product that can be analyzed to shed light on the motivations and value added by investment bankers.

“Investment banks do tend to produce valuations that are biased in a way that benefits their clients, which negatively affects their credibility,” Cain says. “They produce overly optimistic valuations when hired by bidders in mergers, which can justify overbidding, and by some measures they produce pessimistic valuations when hired by targets in mergers, which can justify the acceptance of offers. Both actions tend to push their clients to consummate mergers; they have incentive to do this because they often earn advisory fees only after a given merger is completed.”

However, Cain also finds that despite these potential biases, investment banks still produce new and valuable information through their valuations.

“They can be useful to boards of directors in evaluating merger proposals,” he says. “And when the valuations are made public, the stock market reacts to the information contained in these valuations. Therefore, investment banks do produce information that has value as part of the M&A advisory process.”
So, how can biased valuations be worth anything?

“Think of it this way,” Cain says. “The absolute level is shifted too far in one direction, but the relative difference among valuations has meaning. Stock analyst recommendations are similar. They tend to be slightly optimistic in their buy recommendations, so to correct for this, you can subtract one notch and then compare the relative recommendations among different stocks. Boards of directors and investors should do the same thing when they consider valuations contained in fairness opinions.”

Also the lead author of “Cleared for Takeoff? CEO Personal Risk-Taking and Corporate Policies,” Cain’s areas of specialty include mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and financial contracting.

Contact: Matthew Cain, 574-631-1492, mcain2@nd.edu

Notre Dame and Cleveland Clinic form health care innovation alliance

2012-05-17T17:00:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame has entered into a collaborative relationship with the Cleveland Clinic for joint development and commercialization of medical innovations.

Notre Dame will be the first university within the Cleveland Clinic Healthcare Innovation Alliance network, which includes the largest nonprofit health care system in the mid-Atlantic, MedStar Health and its MedStar Institute for Innovation; and the nation’s second-largest nonprofit, secular health care system, North Shore Long Island Jewish and its Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.

Through the Healthcare Innovation Alliance, Notre Dame will have access to Cleveland Clinic Innovations’ comprehensive technology and commercialization services infrastructure. Through streamlined integration of the various capabilities between all Alliance members, there will be a focus on the development and deployment of new medical innovations that are generated by faculty and researchers at Notre Dame.

In recent years, Notre Dame has demonstrated its commitment to strengthening its research enterprise by increasing investments in state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure. While Notre Dame does not have a medical school, the University has grown its funded research program significantly and now secures external funding totaling more than $100 million annually. The University has invested $80 million of internal funding through its Strategic Research Investment program to advance the scope, excellence and visibility of its research and scholarship.

With approximately 50 inventor disclosures annually, Notre Dame sees the Healthcare Innovation Alliance network as an opportunity to create a commercialization pathway for innovative technologies in the biotechnology and health science space.

“By collaborating with Cleveland Clinic Innovations, we are hoping to create marketplace opportunities for our biomedical and health innovations to be a force for good,” said Robert Bernhard, Notre Dame’s vice president for research. “We are extremely pleased to partner with Cleveland Clinic Innovations and the Alliance for the excellent complementary technology development and commercialization capabilities the alliance offers.”

Through the distinctive Healthcare Innovation Alliance, Cleveland Clinic Innovations will provide on-the-ground support to assist Notre Dame to advance the creative ideas of its researchers, faculty and staff. Cleveland Clinic Innovations will employ the same knowledge and resources that have helped it create a reputation as an industry leader in navigating the commercialization process, resulting in 48 spin-off companies and more than 300 licensed technologies.

“Cleveland Clinic and Notre Dame share in the commitment and responsibility in identifying, developing and making innovative technologies available to extend and improve patient lives,” said Thomas Graham, M.D., chief innovations officer, Cleveland Clinic. “We are honored to have such a well-respected and prestigious organization as the first university to become a part of the Alliance network.”

Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation.

More information is available online at http://www.clevelandclinic.org/innovations.

Contact: Julie Hail Flory, Notre Dame, jflory@nd.edu; Megan Pruce, Cleveland Clinic, prucem@ccf.org

Fourteen seniors receive national fellowships and scholarships

2012-05-17T14:00:00-04:00

The Fulbright Exchange Program, National Science Foundation and other national organizations have awarded postgraduate scholarships and fellowships to 14 members of the University of Notre Dame’s Class of 2012.

Additionally, two graduates of earlier classes also received prestigious fellowships and scholarships.

Two graduates received Fulbright Research and Study Grants. They are Mark Kettler, Whitefish Bay, Wis., to Germany, and Michael Fedynsky, Rocky River, Ohio, to Ukraine.

Two seniors received Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships. They are Jonathan Goetz, Wheaton, Ill., to Germany, and Nhu Phan, Arlington, Texas, to South Korea.

Katlyn Springstead, Kendallville, Ind., received a Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) Study Scholarship, which is awarded to graduating seniors with a well-defined study or research project that makes studies at universities in Germany essential.

Five students received French Government Teaching Assistantships, which are awarded to graduates who are proficient in French and who wish to teach English conversation classes in all regions of France. They are Jason G’Sell, Florissant, Mo.; Daniel Harper, Kensington, Md.; Phil McAndrews, Garden City, N.Y.; Shannon McNaught, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.; and Natalie Rosado, Jamestown, Ky.

Paul Barany, South Bend, Ind.; Adrianna Garcia, Kenai, Alaska; Nancy Paul, Mercer, Pa.; and Donna Grace Shrader, Chesterton, Ind., received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

Tracy Jennings, a member of the Class of 2010, received a Clarendon Scholarship. Oxford University recognizes the best students worldwide as decided by experts in each student’s field, awarding 100 scholarships each year divided equally among the four divisions of study at Oxford: Humanities, Medical Sciences, Math and Science and Social Sciences.

Jessica Nelson, a 2008 graduate, received a fellowship from the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program, which supports exceptionally well-qualified students who are entering doctoral or equivalent graduate programs in humanities and the arts and who are interested in becoming teacher-scholars at church-related universities in the United States.

Elizabeth Davis, Bozeman, Mont., received the Truman Award, which is presented to students nationwide based on leadership potential, intellectual ability and likelihood of making a difference.

Notre Dame’s Wireless Institute, National Instruments join forces to help develop next generation of wireless

2012-05-16T15:00:00-04:00

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame’s Wireless Institute and at National Instruments (NI) have entered into a research partnership that will accelerate innovations in future generations of wireless technology.

The researchers will join National Instrument’s RF (radio frequency)/Communications Lead User program to support their development of fourth-generation (4G) and beyond 4G technologies, initially focusing on relaying techniques in the context of the Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced standard.

Current cellular networks set up direct communications between mobile handsets and network base stations, which are very expensive and connected to a core wired network. Relaying allows intermediate nodes to assist communications between the mobile handsets and base stations, enabling improvements in network coverage and capacity, especially for mobile handsets farther away from a base station. Relays also have the potential advantages of being less expensive and more portable than base stations, which makes them easier to deploy rapidly as demand for voice and data services grow.

“NI’s Lead User program and combined hardware and software platform for wireless experimentation is an ideal foundation on which to build such advanced investigation of evolving wireless standards because the physical layer is closely based on the current LTE standard,” Nick Laneman, director of the Wireless Institute, said. “This platform allows us to develop and experiment with prototype LTE-Advanced devices supporting relevant bandwidths, data rates modulation techniques and relaying schemes.”

One area of research explores the trade-off between end-to-end delay and reliability in relaying, focusing specifically on optimizing relay processing to provide the best trade-off. The use of relays can result in increased delays due to the need to traverse an additional wireless hop. To mitigate this problem, a number of novel low-latency relay processing schemes have been developed and are to be experimentally validated using the Lead User setup.

Another area of research is opportunistic communication, which provides increased data rates in advanced wireless standards by dynamically scheduling the user with the strongest channel for a given resource. Relays provide additional flexibility in scheduling, creating the possibility of further opportunistic gains that can compensate for the loss in spectral efficiency entailed by relaying backhaul links. Experimental results from this type of scheduling will be analyzed to explore how relays can be intelligently deployed within the context of LTE-Advanced standard.

“This is an exciting opportunity for NI to be involved in progressive research that has a direct correlation to state-of-the-art wireless communications, which have become exponentially important in our world today,” James Kimery, director of the NI RF Communications division, said. “Our Lead User program and platform are designed to supplement these types of projects by providing the tools to accelerate engineering innovation.”

NI’s RF/Communications program was established in 2010 with a primary goal of advancing next-generation wireless research using NI tools and technologies. All projects accepted into the program possess a distinct emphasis on system prototyping. Researchers in the program gain access to NI’s leading-edge tools and technologies as well as the opportunity to collaborate with researchers from academia, industry and NI’s wireless experts conducting similar investigations. Since 2010, NI has collaborated on more than 20 projects from 14 academic and industry institutions with more than 20 research papers published.

Since 1976, National Instruments has equipped engineers and scientists with tools that accelerate productivity, innovation and discovery. NI’s graphical system design approach to engineering provides an integrated software and hardware platform that speeds the development of any system needing measurement and control.

The Wireless Institute, which is housed in Notre Dame’s College of Engineering, is a leading multidisciplinary research center focusing on wireless technology, economics and regulatory policy that actively collaborates with industry and government agencies to address major challenges and develop solutions of great impact on society.

Contact: Nick Laneman, 574-631-8034, jnl@nd.edu

Microfinance programs: Benefits not clear-cut, study shows

2012-05-10T15:00:00-04:00

Large-scale microfinance programs are widely used as a tool to fight poverty in developing countries, but a recent study by University of Notre Dame Economics Professor Joseph Kaboski and MIT colleague Robert Townsend suggests that microfinancing can have varying results for participants and may not be the most cost-effective use of funds for many situations. The study was published in a recent issue of Econometrica. Kaboski also is a faculty fellow of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Kaboski and Townsend used the Thai Million Baht Village Fund, one of the largest government microfinance initiatives of its kind, to evaluate and understand the benefits and disadvantages of microfinance interventions. Beginning in 2001, Thailand transferred one million Thai baht (Thai currency), or about $24,000, in government funds to create almost 80,000 village banks throughout the country. Its goal was to increase credit and stimulate the economy, but results varied significantly among and within these villages.

Some of the poorest households financed their needs with the additional available credit and did not invest it. Consumption grew, income for those in agriculture and other forms of business grew, and wages for laborers grew, but overall asset growth in the villages decreased. Other households didn’t borrow any money but increased their consumption — since they were aware of the available credit, they were more comfortable dipping into their “rainy day” savings. Still others reduced their consumption in order to save up for larger investments, and they ended up gaining substantially.

The study also identifies two major differences between the effectiveness of microfinance programs such as the Thai fund and direct transfer programs. First, a large-scale microfinance program is potentially less beneficial because households face the interest costs associated with the increased credit. As households borrow more and carry more debt, they are left with larger interest payments. Interest costs remain particularly high for otherwise defaulting households whose debts grow with the more liberal borrowing limit.

On the other hand, the authors argue, a large-scale microfinance program is potentially more beneficial than a direct transfer program because it can provide more options to those who can make the best use of the increased credit. As a result, the program is relatively more cost-effective for non-defaulting households with urgent needs for money for consumption and investment. Otherwise, the program costs 20 percent more than its benefits for defaulting households.

Contact: Professor Joseph Kaboski, 574-631-9906, jkaboski@nd.edu

EWiND facility aimed at improvements in wind energy

2012-05-07T14:00:00-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2012-05-07T10:00:00-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New book busts myths about sex, race and violence

2012-05-03T15:35:00-04:00

There are three pervasive myths about human nature centered on sex, aggression and race. They are:
1. Men and women are truly different in behavior, desires and wiring.
2. Humans are divided into biological races (white, black, Asian, etc.).
3. Humans, especially males, are aggressive by nature.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notre Dame student discovers rare star

2012-05-01T19:00:00-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Graphene-based terahertz devices: The wave of the future

2012-05-01T15:40:00-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unique research laboratory focuses on making aircraft engines more efficient

2012-04-30T16:00:00-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NDnano paper examines nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem

2012-04-27T15:00:00-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New study examines dire retirement security of Latinos

2012-04-25T09:00:00-04:00

As our nation’s youngest, longest-lived and fastest-growing labor force, understanding the savings and retirement security of Latinos is of national importance.

Confianza, Savings, and Retirement is a newly-published report examining the social, cultural, and economic factors influencing Chicago-area Mexican immigrants’ savings and preparedness for retirement. (“Confianza” means a “bond of mutual trust,” and is the word Mexicans use for the intangible resource or cultural capital that carefully builds to establish social wealth and security.)

Conducted by Karen Richman of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies and funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education, the study combines ethnographic research conducted in the Chicago metropolitan area in 2009 and 2010 with statistical analyses of large national, local, and comparative data sets.

According to the findings, Mexican Americans, who comprise two-thirds of the Hispanic or Latino population, have lower savings and pension participation rates than any other major demographic group in the United States. They are less likely to work for employers who sponsor pension programs, but even when they are eligible for employer-sponsored retirement savings programs, they are less likely to take advantage of the opportunity.

The study also notes that between 2005 and 2009, Latino households’ assets fell 66 percent, from $18,359 in 2005 to $6,325 in 2009, compared to a 53 percent decrease for black households and a 16 percent decline for white households.

Conventional economic theory attributes low retirement accumulation to poverty and insufficient lifetime resources. However, this study examines how cultural, social, and transnational factors influence savings, and the findings can complement and transcend conventional approaches to retirement research.

Mexican Americans often build “social wealth” as a substitute for financial assets in their retirement planning, making economic choices about how to build assets and resources based on non-economic factors. They “invest” in people, with the expectation of future return, by contributing gifts, services, money, time, as well as affective support. Mexicans’ culture of interdependence or collectivism, their extended family households, and their transnational social networks are key determinants of how they define investment and prepare—or do not prepare—for retirement.

The current recession has taken a devastating toll on Latinos’ ability to prepare for retirement. “Confianza, Savings, and Retirement” explores the dynamic nature of Mexican immigrants’ cultural values and practices in order to develop policies and communication programs that will help increase financial literacy and the likelihood of retirement coverage.

Contact: Karen Richman, principal investigator, Institute for Latino Studies, 574-631-8146, krichman@nd.edu

Notre Dame political theorist charts early global thinking on women’s rights

2012-04-24T13:00:00-04:00

Surprisingly soon after it was published in England in 1869, John Stuart Mill’s essay on women’s rights, “Subjection of Women,” was embraced by intellectuals around the world, according to University of Notre Dame political theorist Eileen Hunt Botting.

“I was really struck by its acceptance in non-Western cultures almost immediately,” said Botting, an associate professor of political science, who noted that an earlier feminist work, Mary Wollstonecraft’s “Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (1792), received scant attention outside of Britain, Europe and the United States.

In contrast, “Mill’s book was translated into 26 non-English editions by the early 20th century, with serious philosophical responses in Russia, Chile and India,” Botting said. “It really spurred a global cross-cultural dialogue on women’s rights.”

Botting used a grant for faculty fellows from Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies to commission translations of commentaries on Mill’s work by six influential feminist thinkers, both men and women. She studied Grigory Blagosvetlov, Nikolai Mikhailovsky, and Maria Tsebrikova (writing in Russian in 1869-70); Martina Barros Borgono (writing in Spanish in Chile in 1872); and Govind Vasudev Kanitkar and Jivabhai Revabhai Patel (writing in Marathi and Gujarati in colonial India in 1902-1908).

Her article comparing and analyzing these works, co-written with Notre Dame undergraduate political science major Sean Kronewitter, was recently accepted for publication as “Westernization and Women’s Rights: Non-Western European Responses to Mill’s ‘Subjection of Women,’ 1869-1908” in the academic journal Political Theory.

Among the lessons of this research is that “ideas matter, and they can be a powerful force for global political change,” Botting said. “The concept of women’s rights is central to peace studies, and this study explores the issue of how women came to be seen as human beings deserving of human rights and respect.”

Mill’s utilitarian arguments in favor of women’s rights got such a great international reception, Botting said, in part because he writes at a time when the means for distributing books is growing, and in part because he was already a prominent politician and philosopher (his influential work “On Liberty” was published in 1859).

“Also, of course, he was a man, and he garnered a lot of support and authority from his gender and his powers of persuasion among men,” she said. “Male legislators all over the world quoted him beginning in the 1890s, and then we begin to see women’s suffrage on a national level.” Mill’s Eurocentric perspective was sometimes mimicked by writers in non-European countries and other times was challenged and transcended by those in other cultures, Botting said.

“It’s important to know that, going way back, indigenous intellectuals had a lot to say about women’s rights in their own cultural contexts, and they were leaders in their own social movements to end the subjection of women,” she said. “Many of them engaged Mill critically and applied his ideas in creative and culturally sensitive ways.”

Mill’s writing was problematic for its European bias, she said, but “he also was an early model of the importance of cross-cultural dialogue with fellow intellectuals and activists on issues of social reform.”

Botting is now writing a book on how Wollstonecraft and Mill shaped the development of the modern concept of women’s human rights. She is also finishing editing a scholarly edition of Wollstonecraft’s “Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” the first philosophical book on women’s rights as human rights, which will be published by Yale University Press in 2013.

Contact: Eileen Hunt Botting, ehunt@nd.edu

Eck Institute for Global Health joins AMPATH Consortium

2012-04-23T11:00:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health is now a full member of the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) Consortium, led by Indiana University.

The Consortium works in collaboration with Moi University School of Medicine and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya to help build the care, education and research capacity of these institutions with the goal of providing access to health care for all persons throughout western Kenya. The Eck Institute will serve as the central coordinating body for Notre Dame activities within the AMPATH Consortium.

Notre Dame will specifically be involved in this partnership to expand the basic science research capacity at Moi University School of Medicine. Notre Dame has a unique niche in the Consortium in that it is the only member not focused on clinical care and brings a history of expertise in vector control and tropical disease research.

Notre Dame scientists are excited to participate in the partnership knowing they bring a history of experience and global leadership in the fight against tropical diseases including leishmania, malaria, dengue fever and lymphatic filariasis in addition to communicable diseases, tuberculosis and Ebola.

“The University of Notre Dame is committed to the ideals and goals of the existing partnership," said David Severson, the Eck Institute’s director. "We hope to bring our unique faculty and facility resources to the consortium to expand our research opportunities on the African continent and to bring Kenyan researchers to campus for academic exchange and collaboration. We strongly believe that lab to field research partnerships are critical to the institute’s mission.”

The Eck Institute will lead and coordinate research and training activities for Notre Dame that address constraints to health care in western Kenya, and simultaneously contribute to building scientific research capacity. Joint research activities, participation in seminars and academic meetings, student and faculty exchanges, and special short-term courses will be used to advance the mission of the Consortium. Members of the partnership are committed to observance of equity and mutual respect with a desire of common values resulting in maximum benefit for all involved.

The AMPATH Consortium is comprised of Brown University, Duke University, Indiana University, Lehigh Valley Health Systems, Providence Portland Medical Center, Purdue University, University of Utah, University of Toronto and now the University of Notre Dame.

In 1989, Indiana University School of Medicine and Moi University School of Medicine agreed to join together to develop leaders in health care for both the U.S. and Africa. That mission inspired this team to provide invaluable training to future generations of health care providers on both continents.

At the turn of the century, in the face of the deadliest pandemic in human history, Indiana University and Moi University responded by creating one of Africa’s largest, most comprehensive and effective HIV/AIDS control systems. This system is now expanding its scope to include delivery of essential primary care services and control of communicable diseases and non-communicable, chronic illnesses. The AMPATH Consortium in collaboration with Moi University, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, and the Kenya Ministry of Health delivers health services in more than 60 hospitals and clinics in rural and urban western Kenya, serving a population of 3 million people.

“As one of the premier universities in our nation with an outstanding commitment to health equity and a distinguished record of research in neglected tropical diseases, the University of Notre Dame complements the strengths of the other institutions in the AMPATH Consortium,” reported Bob Einterz, M.D., director of the AMPATH Consortium and the IU Center for Global Health. “My Kenyan and American colleagues and I welcome the students and faculty members of the University of Notre Dame, and we look forward to working with them to solve many of our world’s most vexing health problems.”

Study finds mild winters are detrimental to butterflies

2012-04-20T15:00:00-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Legal scholar publishes research on Shariah in America

2012-04-17T13:00:00-04:00

In 2003, with heated debates about Shariah law raging around the U.S. and Canada, legal scholar Julie Macfarlane set out to find out what the controversy was all about. Several years and many hundreds of interviews later, her quest to document and analyze the North American notion of Shariah — Islamic principles that are part of a voluntary system of personal obligation — has resulted in a new book and two new reports for policymakers, religious leaders and the public.

“At first, there was no data on Shariah at all, just negative speculation,” said Macfarlane, a law professor at the University of Windsor (Canada) and adjunct professor of the practice at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. “News reports implied that terrible things were happening, but it was unclear what the reality was.”

Her report, “Shari’a Law: Coming to a Courthouse Near You?” is the first empirical study to ask North American Muslims what Shariah means in their everyday lives. The study shows that, for North American Muslims, Shariah is a private system of morality and identity, focused primarily on family issues such as marriage and divorce, which most understand as fully compatible with the American legal system.

“In the American Muslim community, which is very highly educated, many people, including those who rarely go to the mosque, still turn to traditional processes to formalize Islamic marriage and divorce,” Macfarlane said. “Most get married, or divorced, twice — once according to their religious tradition and once by the courts.”

In an analysis of American jurisprudence, Macfarlane found no evidence of a takeover of courts by Islamic law. In fact, not one of her interviewees — including imams, legal scholars, Muslim lawyers and others working in the legal system — suggested that the courts should directly apply Islamic law to Muslims or non-Muslims.

Another report, “Understanding Trends in American Muslim Divorce and Marriage: A Discussion Guide for Families and Communities,” is the first empirical study of significant size to examine how North American Muslims approach marriage and divorce.

Macfarlane’s book on the same topic, “Islamic Divorce in North America: A Shari’a Path in a Secular Society,” has just been published by Oxford University Press. The book is “a comprehensive, honest and deeply sensitive study of some of the most challenging and contentious issues facing North American Muslims,” writes Shahina Siddiqui, president and executive director of the Islamic Social Services Association of Canada.

Macfarlane said her goal in writing was to “take the lid off of a taboo topic in a kind and sensitive way, and to encourage the conversation to keep going within the Muslim community — as well as inform discussion inside the non-Muslim community.” The book “reminds us how similar we are across our religious identities,” writes John Paul Lederach, professor of international peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute, “and how important and relevant it is to constructively address the relationships between faith, meaning and place in contemporary secular democracies.”

Macfarlane has researched and written extensively on dispute resolution and the role of lawyers. An active mediator and consultant, she has conducted skills-based training for lawyers all over the world. She also is the author of “The New Lawyer: How Settlement Is Transforming the Practice of Law.” At the Kroc Institute, she co-teaches a graduate-level course on conflict resolution, along with her husband, Bernie Mayer, also an adjunct professor of the practice.

Contact: Julie Macfarlane, Julie.M.Macfarlane.3@nd.edu

Harper Cancer Research Institute plans public Research Day

2012-04-13T15:00:00-04:00

Harper Cancer Research Institute (HCRI) Research Day on April 23 (Monday) will gather cancer researchers from the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend (IUSM-SB) in an afternoon of exchange and discussion. A keynote address by Beatrice Knudsen, M.D., Ph.D., will discuss “Tissue Banking for Genomic Research and Personalized Medicine.”

Knudsen is the medical director for Cedars-Sinai Advanced Biobank, director of translational pathology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a member of the HCRI external advisory committee. Her presentation is free and open to the public.

All events for Research Day will take place in Raclin-Carmichael and Harper halls at IUSM-SB, where the cancer research institute is headquartered. Notre Dame and IUSM-SB faculty and research staff who are currently engaged in cancer research or who are interested in forming cancer-related research partnerships are encouraged to attend. Undergraduate, graduate and medical students and postdoctoral fellows and staff also are welcome.

Activities planned for the afternoon include:

A display and judging of student and post-doctoral fellow posters, 1:15 to 2:45 p.m., Harper Hall
Welcome and presentations by recipients of Walther Advancing Basic Cancer Research Grants funding,
3 to 4 p.m., Raclin-Carmichael Auditorium
Knudsen address and poster contest awards, 4 to 5 p.m., Raclin-Carmichael Auditorium
Reception, 5 to 6 p.m., Raclin-Carmichael Atrium

The poster contest will display the work of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows engaged in cancer research in Notre Dame and IUSM-SB laboratories.

HCRI, a joint partnership between IUSM-SB and Notre Dame, was inaugurated March 8, 2011, with the opening of Harper Hall. The Institute serves as the locus of cancer research activity for IUSM-SB, Notre Dame and the regional medical community with efforts that promise to quicken the pace at which new treatments and diagnostics are discovered, developed, tested in clinical trials and ultimately used to improve and save lives.

Contact: Gail Hinchion Mancini, 574-631-5625, gmancini@iupui.edu; Andy Bullock, 574-631-2136, sabullock@nd.edu