Two Notre Dame faculty named IEEE Fellows

Martin Haenggi, left, and J. Nicholas Laneman

Martin Haenggi, professor of electrical engineering, and J. Nicholas Laneman, associate professor of electrical engineering, have been named fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The IEEE is the world’s major expert association for advancing technological innovation for humanity. Through its 400,000 members in 160 nations, the association is a top authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace methods, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electrical power and customer electronics. IEEE fellow is the highest grade of membership and distinction, reserved for pick members who have established an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.

A University of Notre Dame faculty member given that 2000, Haenggi was honored for contributions to the spatial modeling and examination of wireless networks. Specifically, he has devised sophisticated versions for cellular, cognitive, ad hoc and sensor networks and created mathematical strategies that permit network performance analyses that explicitly account for the spatial distribution of wireless nodes or customers.

Haenggi also serves as a concurrent professor of applied and computational mathematics and statistics. He received the Nationwide Science Basis Occupation Award in 2005 and the 2010 IEEE Communication Society Best Tutorial Paper Award. He is the author of the textbook “Stochastic Geometry for Wireless Networks” (Cambridge, 2012), two other books and much more than 180 publications in journals and conferences. He at the moment serves as the chair of the Executive Editorial Committee of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. Haenggi received his Ph.D. degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1999.

Laneman was recognized for contributions to multiphop relaying and cooperative communication for wireless networks, pioneering new approaches for trading off signal strength and spatial diversity rewards with bandwidth expenses when several wireless transmitters relay signals for each and every other to combat multipath propagation effects. Laneman also developed a wireless network testbed, based on software-defined radio (SDR), to foster the implementation and verification of communications algorithms and to enhance SDR technology.

The founding director of the Wireless Institute at Notre Dame, Laneman also is a fellow of the Reilly Center for Science, Engineering and Values at Notre Dame. He has acquired the 2006 Presidential Early-Profession Award for Scientists and Engineers, a 2006 NSF Profession Award and a 2003 Oak Ridge Connected Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. The author or co-writer of a lot more than 115 publications, he was recognized by Thomson Reuters as a 2010 ISI Extremely Cited Researcher. He is also the co-inventor on five U.S. patents and has numerous patents pending. Laneman acquired his Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technologies in 2002.

Haenggi and Laneman join numerous other Notre Dame faculty who have been named IEEE fellows, like Panos Antsaklis, Peter Bauer, Gary H. Bernstein, Kevin Bowyer, Daniel J. Costello Jr., Patrick Flynn, Thomas Fuja, Yih-Fang Huang, Peter M. Kogge, Ruey-Wen Liu, James L. Merz, Anthony Michel, Wolfgang Porod and Alan Seabaugh.

Two Notre Dame faculty named IEEE Fellows

Notre Dame-Rutgers the only bowl with graduation rates higher than 85 percent

The New Era Pinstripe Bowl matchup in between the University of Notre Dame and Rutgers will be the only publish-season university football game in which the two applications have graduation charges of much better than 85 %, according to an yearly survey.

Notre Dame, with a 94 percent price, and Rutgers, at 85 %, will meet Dec. 28 (Saturday) at Yankee Stadium. None of the other 34 bowl video games functions each teams with this kind of large graduation prices for football student-athletes.

The survey of the academic applications between college football gamers was performed by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida.

TIDES noted that the gap amongst the graduation charges for African-American and white football players stays a concern. Nearly half of the bowl teams have a charge for African-American student-athletes at least twenty % lower than for their white counterparts.

At Notre Dame, nonetheless, the 97 percent graduation rate for African-Americans is actually 8 percentage factors higher than for white players. Rutgers graduates 88 percent, making the Pinstripe Bowl the only bowl in which both plans have African-American graduation costs of greater than 85 percent.

In the most recent NCAA report, Notre Dame posted a 99 % graduation fee for all pupil-athletes, the highest in the nation — and the highest for a seventh consecutive 12 months.

A year ago, Notre Dame grew to become the very first university to concurrently rank No. one in the graduation price of its football gamers and in the Bowl Championship Series standings.

Notre Dame-Rutgers the only bowl with graduation rates higher than 85 percent

Notre Dame to remember Nelson Mandela with Mass, film

Nelson Mandela

The University of Notre Dame will offer a Mass for peace and justice in memory of Nelson Mandela at 5:15 p.m. Friday (Dec. 13) in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Rev. Emmanuel Katongole, a priest of the Ugandan Archdiocese of Kampala, will preside and be assisted by Deacon Melvin Tardy.

Mandela, the longtime anti-apartheid leader and the president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, died Thursday (Dec. 5) at age 95.

Notre Dame also will mark Mandela’s passing with the screening of the film “Mandela: Extended Stroll to Freedom” on Thursday (Dec. 12) at the DeBartolo Executing Arts Center, to be followed by a presentation by a panel of scholars who will talk about the film and the significance of Mandela’s daily life and perform. Panelists will incorporate Father Katongole, Thomas Hibbs from Baylor University and Thomas Allen of Allied Faith and Household. Sponsored by the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, the film and panel presentation are offered out.

Even though Mandela never visited the Notre Dame campus, the University hosted his presidential successor, Thabo Mbeki, and other members of his African Nationwide Congress (ANC) for a landmark conference in 1991. Titled “The ANC and New Investment in South Africa,” the conference brought with each other officials from the ANC, U.S. government and much more than 40 major U.S. firms to discuss for the initial time a policy for investment in the quickly-to-be post-apartheid South Africa.

Notre Dame to remember Nelson Mandela with Mass, film

Notre Dame’s Reilly Center releases list of emerging ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology

As a new year approaches, the University of Notre Dame’s John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values has released its yearly checklist of emerging ethical dilemmas and policy concerns in science and engineering for 2014.

The Reilly Center explores conceptual, ethical and policy issues exactly where science and technological innovation intersect with society from various disciplinary perspectives. Its goal is to encourage the advancement of science and technology for the frequent very good.

The center generates its annual list of emerging ethical dilemmas and policy troubles in science and technology with the help of Reilly fellows, other Notre Dame specialists and buddies of the center.

The center aimed to present a listing of items for scientists and laypeople alike to take into account in the coming months and years as new technologies create. It will function 1 of these troubles on its website each and every month in 2014, providing readers more data, concerns to ask and sources to check with.

The ethical dilemmas and policy troubles are:

Predictive policing

The National Institute of Justice defines predictive policing as “taking data from disparate sources, analyzing them and then using the final results to anticipate, prevent and reply a lot more properly to potential crime.” Some of these disparate sources include crime maps, targeted traffic camera information, other surveillance footage and social media network analysis. But at what stage does the chance of a crime need intervention? Ought to somebody be punished for a crime they are very likely to commit, based mostly on these sources? Are police essential to inform prospective victims? How far in advance can crimes be forecasted?

Do-it-your self cyborgs

The organization Backyard Brains will release a kit by the finish of 2013 known as “Robo Roach” that makes it possible for users to “briefly wirelessly management the left/proper movement of a cockroach by microstimulation of the antenna nerves.” Claiming that their Robo Roach is “a wonderful way to discover about neural microstimulation, finding out and electronics,” purchasers are encouraged to anesthetize and complete surgical treatment on an adult cockroach so electrodes can be glued onto, and grounding wire inserted into, the thorax. The kit is currently offered for $ 99, is backed by the Nationwide Institute of Psychological Health and is marketed as an educational item. It’s legal to destroy a cockroach — so at what point does therapy turn into unethical? Does turning animals into cyborgs deal with animals as “toys” or give folks a new appreciation for their complexity (as Backyard Brains claims)?

Data chip implants

From finding lost young children to trying to keep economic data and medical records handy, individuals are about to see a surge in data chip implants. Capable to transmit and shop information, chips will quickly allow individuals to confirm their identities, see if their children have traversed the boundaries (or “hopped the geofences”) set for them, give paramedics and medical professionals quick entry to their health care information, permit folks to go wallet-free of charge as they pay for groceries via a handswipe, or even store educational and employment information for a occupation interview. But what if the police can use it to track how quickly an individual is driving or monitor a person’s whereabouts? Can these implants grow to be a mandatory type of ID? How do people defend their privacy from hackers? Can this information be sold to law enforcement or other companies? Does the very good outweigh the poor?

Sexbots

So-referred to as “sexbots” have been produced because 2010, when engineer Douglas Hines developed a gynoid bot named “Roxxxy” for the company Correct Companion. Although no sexbots have been sold however (either by Accurate Companion or any other organization), the infrastructure (and presumably the technologies) exists to create a robot with synthetic skin and artificial intelligence capable of understanding owners’ preferences. Probably the most exciting component of the “sexbot” phenomenon is that bot prototypes are not limited to sexual employs, but developed to express really like and affection and develop a vocabulary suited to the buyer’s interests. Apparent problems that accompany the introduction of such robots incorporate changing norms and values in human interaction the attainable formation of social bonds or unique sexual relationships with robots intercourse addiction transference of expectations from robot relationships to human relationships (like issues of dominance, behavioral expectations and consent) the further commodification of sex and attachment problems.

Virtual currency

Bitcoins are currently the most common kind of virtual currency. According to its internet site, Bitcoin is a lower-expense way for folks to exchange money on the internet, without the interference of banks or any centralized authority. Bitcoins are made on the internet and can be bought by any individual. On the web business can accept bitcoins as payment or the coins can be converted into dollars, euros or other currencies. The value of bitcoins is stored in a heavily encrypted online wallet, from which any individual can send and receive the currency. However, at the moment, bitcoin is nevertheless deemed a large-chance investment as the price/value of the coins is not regulated and can fluctuate wildly over brief intervals of time. Even though the makers of Bitcoin see it as a revolution of the global economic system, there are dozens of ethical and policy troubles surrounding this new currency, which includes how to tax it, income laundering, the purchase of illegal items and hacking into bitcoin wallets. The anonymous nature of bitcoin exercise helps make transactions quite tough to track.

Neuroenhancement

“Smart pills” — stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall — are now previous tech. Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, this kind of as transcranial magnetic stimulation, which makes use of the concepts of electromagnetic induction to focus currents in the brain, are now commercially available for non-health-related improvement (such as memory and cognition boosting). Brain stimulation units are most generally used in treatment method for different neurological and behavioral circumstances, but the exact same engineering can be utilized to increase the human brain beyond its all-natural skills. So far, study demonstrates these strategies to be low-risk. Neurostimulation can be utilised to boost motor function, boost memory and even modify behavior. But should it? And at what level is the line crossed? Do men and women have a obligation to be the very best humans they can be?

Geoengineering

Geoengineering is the deliberate massive-scale manipulation of environmental processes to fight international warming. It involves two varieties of processes — carbon dioxide elimination and solar radiation management (SRM). SRM, the more controversial prospect, is a kind of climate modification that minimizes the quantity of sun hitting the earth’s surface. Sulfate Aerosol Geoengineering (SAG-SRM) would inject the stratosphere with aerosols and could be accomplished at such a realistic expense ($ 8 million per year) that it is feasible a single nation could consider action for the total planet. No matter whether employed locally or globally, adopting a SAG policy would have long-term and far-reaching consequences. A single nation’s policy decision could immediately and adversely affect an additional country’s financial nicely-getting as nicely as impact human well being more than the two the brief and lengthy term. Calls for environmental justice and adopting ethical suggestions have been raised.

Residence rights in space

Private firms are reinvigorating human room travel, and in return, at least a single business seeks rights to mine the moon. Why cease with the moon when there’s the possibility of mining planets and other bodies? Asteroids are known to be rich in aspects uncommon on earth this kind of as platinum, iridium and palladium, and it has been estimated that one large metallic asteroid could yield $ 50 million well worth of platinum. Home rights of outer room will increasingly become characteristics in enterprise plans and not too long ago this facet of Room Law has acquired better interest from legal firms and the American Bar Association. What rights do personal companies have to outer area if they give the principal, or even sole, implies to reach it?

Automated law enforcement

Police are previously experimenting with robots, each armed and unarmed, and it’s only a matter of time prior to robots turn out to be standard in the surveillance, examination and enforcement of crimes. They are in no way tired, irritable, in need to have of a break, or biased, but neither are they ready to get in the context of any given circumstance. Police know there is future for robotic law enforcement in targeted traffic violations (for instance, will a car’s onboard pc merely shut the vehicle down as soon as it commences speeding?), but how far will this extend? At what level is human instinct and judgment required in the enforcement of law or prevention of crimes? Is it most efficient to create a supposedly bias-free system of law that is responsible for figuring out, adjudicating and punishing crime?

Human-machine interfaces

Thus far, the primary purpose for building brain-computer interfaces has been to enable amputees and people who suffer from paralysis to mentally handle a mobile robot or robotic prosthesis. They have currently created attainable some impressive feats, such as partial restoration of hearing in the deaf, direct brain handle of a prosthesis, implanting false memories in a rat, and downloading a rat’s memory of how to press a lever to get meals and then uploading the memory following the authentic memory has been chemically destroyed. If this sounds like science fiction, consider that scientists have presently moved past the interface technology and into nanoscale wiring implanted in synthetic tissue. A joint MIT, Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital research team led by Robert Langer, Charles Lieber and Daniel Kohane developed a technique for developing synthetic biological tissue on a substrate containing biocompatible, nanoscale wires. This announcement came seven weeks right after the announcement in London of the first-ever effective implantation of a synthetic organ, a entirely practical trachea grown from the patient’s own stem cells, function led by the pioneering researcher Paolo Macchiarini. And if scientists can implant wiring, then, in principle, they can flip the entire body or any component of it into a laptop. But although most men and women have no dilemma with prosthetic limbs, even people straight actuated by the brain, nor with pacemakers or cochlear implants, people may really feel unpleasant becoming element machine. At what stage does the interface in between body and machine dissolve? When bodies can be created component machine, is it necessary to redefine personhood? Will men and women all be assimilated?

Much more details on these troubles is offered at reilly.nd.edu/list14. Vote on the more compelling problems right here.

Get in touch with: Jessica Baron, 574-631-1880, baron.17@nd.edu

Notre Dame’s Reilly Center releases list of emerging ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology

Notre Dame, on religious liberty grounds, sues for relief from federal mandate

The University of Notre Dame on Tuesday (Dec. 3) re-filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana for relief from a mandate by the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Solutions (HHS) that, contrary to Catholic educating, demands Notre Dame and related religious organizations to supply via their insurance plans or third-get together administrators contraceptives, sterilization procedures and drugs that some assert induce abortions.

“Our abiding concern in each the original filing of Might 21, 2012, and this re-filing has been Notre Dame’s freedom — and without a doubt the freedom of a lot of religious organizations in this nation — to live out a religious mission,” Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president, mentioned. “We have sought neither to avoid girls from having entry to services, nor even to avert the government from delivering them.”

Notre Dame and government administration officials have been in conversation for a lot more than a 12 months to resolve the matter.

“We think the participants undertook these discussions in good faith, and we are grateful to the administration for the time it gave to this matter and for its efforts to accommodate our worries,” Father Jenkins stated. “We have concluded, nevertheless, the government’s accommodations would call for us to forfeit our rights, to facilitate and become entangled in a plan inconsistent with Catholic teaching and to generate the impression that the University cooperates with and condones actions incompatible with its mission. In these methods, we contend, the laws compel us to violate our religious beliefs.”

In its filing Tuesday, the University asked, amongst other factors, that the court enter declaratory judgments that the HHS mandate violates Notre Dame’s rights below the 1st Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and that the court enjoin the government from enforcing the mandate. The lawsuit names as defendants Overall health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew and their respective departments.

Citing the Nov. 13 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Unique Message with regards to the mandate, Father Jenkins explained that “Notre Dame wholeheartedly supports, in accord with Catholic teaching and in union with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the effort to offer ‘accessible, lifestyle-affirming wellness care’ for everybody. It is deeply regrettable that rather than joining with the Catholic Church, which has lengthy been a leader in supplying this kind of care, the Department of Well being and Human Providers by means of this mandate has developed a conflict that has demanded time, energy and sources and distracted all events concerned from in search of ways to supply such care.”

Father Jenkins extra: “As I stated relating to our original filing, simply because at its core this filing is about the freedom of a religious organization to reside its mission, its significance goes well beyond any debate about contraceptive companies. For if we concede that the government can choose which religious organizations are sufficiently religious to be awarded the freedom to comply with the concepts that define their mission, then we have begun to walk down a path that in the long run will undermine individuals institutions. For if one presidential administration can override our religious function and use religious organizations to advance policies that undercut our values, then definitely another administration will do the exact same for yet another extremely diverse set of policies, every single time invoking some idea of well-known will or the public excellent, with the outcome these religious organizations turn out to be mere tools for the exercise of government electrical power, morally subservient to the state, and not free of charge from its infringements. If that transpires, it will be the finish of genuinely religious organizations in all but identify.”

In an Interim Last Ruling issued Aug. three, 2011, the federal government needed employers to supply providers that religious organizations found objectionable. A narrow exemption was given to religious institutions, this kind of as homes of worship, that serve and utilize mostly members of their very own faith, but, departing from a prolonged tradition in federal law, organizations like Notre Dame — schools, universities, hospitals and charitable organizations that serve and use individuals of all faiths and none — had been granted no exemption, but alternatively were manufactured topic to the law to the same extent as any secular organization.

On Sept. 28, 2011, Father Jenkins submitted a formal comment encouraging the administration to stick to precedent and adopt a broader exemption. Regardless of some optimistic indications, the administration announced on Jan. twenty, 2012, that its interim rule would be adopted as ultimate without change. Soon after an outcry from across the political spectrum, President Barack Obama announced on Feb. ten, 2012, that his administration would attempt to accommodate the worries of religious organizations. Encouraged by the announcement, Notre Dame engaged in conversations with administration officials to uncover an acceptable resolution. Regrettably, the HHS Superior Notification of Proposed Rulemaking on preventive solutions policy, issued on March 16, 2012, supplied tiny in the way of a particular, substantive proposal or a definite timeline for resolution.

Consequently, Notre Dame filed suit Could 21, 2012, difficult the regulation as an infringement of the University’s religious freedom. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana dismissed the preliminary suit, indicating that the regulation was not sufficiently ultimate, or “ripe,” for judicial overview. Once again the University engaged in discussions with the administration, urging adoption of a rule that would completely respect the proper of religious organizations to live in accordance to their beliefs. These discussions continued until the adoption of the ultimate regulation on June 28, 2013. Now, against the threat of punitive fines, Notre Dame’s third-celebration administrator, Meritain, is essential to notify all females of child-bearing age among the University’s workers and their dependents of the availability of the objectionable solutions. As this recognize must be provided by Jan. 1, 2014, the University has re-filed its suit, looking for relief from the courts.

Notre Dame, on religious liberty grounds, sues for relief from federal mandate

Notre Dame to host Catholic-Mormon conference

An ecumenical group of religious historians and other scholars will convene at the University of Notre Dame’s McKenna Hall on Dec. five-6 (Thursday-Friday) for a conference titled “Catholics and Mormons: A New Dialogue.”

The conference will check out relationships amid Catholics and Mormons as their churches are increasingly allied in common social, political and relief efforts. Its themes will incorporate “The Lay of the Land: Modern Mormonism and Catholicism,” “Catholicism and Mormonism in Historical Context,” “Revelation: Scriptures, Traditions, and Authoritative Teachings” and “Theologies of Experience, Unity, and Diversity.”

The conference will start at five p.m. Dec. five (Thursday) in the McKenna Hall auditorium with a keynote address by Terryl Givens, James A. Bostwick Professor of English at the University of Richmond. A scholar of 19th-century literature and literary concept, Givens also is the author of several books and content articles on Mormon history, culture and theology.

“Catholics and Mormons: A New Dialogue” is sponsored by Notre Dame’s Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, the Center for the Research of Religion and Society and by Brigham Youthful University’s Wheatley Institution and Religious Schooling plan.

The conference is free and open to the public, and a schedule is obtainable online at rooneycenter.nd.edu/information-and-events/2013-mormon-catholic-conference.

Notre Dame to host Catholic-Mormon conference

NASA awards career fellowship to Notre Dame astrophysicist

Justin Crepp

NASA has awarded Justin R. Crepp, the Freimann Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Notre Dame, with an Early Occupation Fellowship. He is the only awardee in the nation to acquire the fellowship in the Origins of Solar Techniques system. Crepp’s task, “Working at the Diffraction Limit: New Exoplanetary Science in the Era of ‘Extreme’ Adaptive Optics,” was chosen by means of a competitive proposal process, followed by peer overview in a second round of evaluation.

With funding from NASA, Crepp will construct the world’s very first diffraction-constrained Doppler spectrometer. The instrument notion, named “iLocater”, will record ultra-exact radial velocity measurements of close by stars at infrared wavelengths, and uncover Earth-like planets orbiting the smallest and most common stars in the galaxy — the so-called “M-dwarfs.” It will also characterize their orbits and possibly the planets’ atmospheres to search for indications of daily life.

ILocater will be designed and constructed at the experimental astrophysics laboratory in Nieuwland Science Hall at the University of Notre Dame. Crepp and his crew aim to check a prototype model of the instrument employing the new .8-meter Sarah L. Krizmanich telescope situated on the rooftop of the Jordan Science Hall. ILocater will ultimately be delivered to the Huge Binocular Telescope in southeast Arizona, with first-light observations slated for spring 2016.

“This is not only a wonderful honor for Professor Crepp, but it will let Notre Dame to construct an instrument for the Big Binocular Telescope that could revolutionize the search for Earth-like exoplanets,” mentioned Christopher Kolda, chair of the Department of Physics.

Gregory Crawford, dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, stated, “Justin Crepp’s revolutionary iLocator is an example of the large-impact science that the University of Science accomplishes to lead the area of astronomy forward in technologies and strategies.”

Get in touch with: Justin Crepp, 574-631-4092, jcrepp@nd.edu

NASA awards career fellowship to Notre Dame astrophysicist

In memoriam: William O. "Captain" McLean, associate dean emeritus of the Notre Dame Law School

William O. “Captain” McLean

William O. McLean, associate dean emeritus of the University of the Notre Dame Law School, died Nov. 19 (Tuesday). He was 91.

A native of Greenville, Sick., McLean was a 1957 graduate in college administration from the University of New Mexico and held master degrees in international affairs and education from George Washington University and Notre Dame, respectively. He also was a graduate of the U.S. Naval War School.

McLean entered the U.S. Navy in 1943 as a naval aviation cadet and retired at the rank of captain 32 many years later on. He came to Notre Dame as a professor of naval science and commanding officer of the Navy ROTC following having served as the senior Navy member of the U.S. delegation to the 1969-1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with the Soviet Union. He received the Legion of Merit, a presidential award, for his part in people negotiations.

Following his retirement from the Navy, McLean worked for a few months in Notre Dame’s economic support office ahead of joining the Law College as assistant dean in 1975. McLean had agreed to a short, six-month appointment, but was persuaded to stay in the Law College administration for the following 19 many years, overseeing a dramatic expansion of services, an boost in applications and the acquisition of new computer technological innovation.

At Notre Dame, each prior to and soon after his retirement from the Navy, McLean was universally and affectionately acknowledged and addressed as “Captain,” and he remained a conspicuous presence on campus in the many years following his retirement from the faculty. “The Captain loved our students,” stated Rev. David T. Link, former dean of the Law College. “From his first glimpse of them in their application papers, via their graduation and past, Captain served as friend, mentor and even surrogate father. He rendered reliable advice, emotional support and tireless work. And the students loved him.”

In 1993, people students established in the Captain’s honor the William O. McLean Award, to be given annually to the person who has manufactured the greatest contribution to the lives of Notre Dame Law College students. They named McLean its first recipient.

McLean is survived by his daughter Mary Leigh Hennings of Dayton, Ohio son and daughter-in-law Danny and Cyndi McLean of Poulsbo, Wa. grandchildren Holly Gossett and Norm Lacey, Deborah and Cameron Allen, Kerrigan Hennings and Kyle Bonnici, Kevin and Katie McLean, Brian and Katie Sprague, Max Milligan and Tom Gossett excellent-grandchildren Lexi and Casey Gossett, Morgan, Maddie and Connor McLean, Ethan and Lucas Sprague and Lucy McLean Allen.

Donations in McLean’s memory may be made to the Notre Dame Law School’s McLean Fellowship, 2100 Eck Hall of Law, Notre Dame, IN 46556.

In memoriam: William O. "Captain" McLean, associate dean emeritus of the Notre Dame Law School

Notre Dame mechanical engineer Gretar Tryggvason named AAAS Fellow

Gretar Tryggvason

Gretar Tryggvason, Viola D. Hank Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and division chair at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in honor of his efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.

AAAS, founded in 1848 as a nonprofit association, is the world’s largest scientific society and publisher of the prestigious journal Science.

Tryggvason was cited for “the advancement of numerical approaches to track the motion of fluid interfaces and innovative approaches to undergraduate engineering schooling.”

Tryggvason is best recognized for creating a front-tracking approach for direct numerical simulations of multiphase flows and the use of this approach to examine a number of techniques, which includes bubbly flows, droplet movement and boiling. His investigation interests encompass multiphase and totally free surface flows phase modifications, which includes boiling and solidification vortex flows and combustion and numerical approaches. He is the author of a lot more than one hundred journal papers and numerous other publications, is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Computational Physics and has supervised more than twenty doctoral dissertations. He holds two patents.

Tryggvason is a fellow of the American Bodily Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and his other study recognitions incorporate the Computational Mechanics Award from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2005 and the ASME’s Fluids Engineering Award in 2012. He has been concerned in several curriculum reforms at each the undergraduate and graduate level, which includes assisting to set up the initial U.S. undergraduate system in robotics engineering. He also served as the general chair of the 2008 Global Mechanical Engineering Education Conference.

Prior to joining the University, Tryggvason served as head of the Division of Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and as an assistant, associate and full professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics at the University of Michigan. He has also held quick-term visiting positions at the California Institute of Technological innovation, NASA’s Lewis Research Center, the University of Marseilles and the University of Paris VI.

Tryggvason earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Iceland in 1980. He earned his master’s and doctorate in mechanical engineering at Brown University in 1982 and 1985, respectively.

The tradition of AAAS fellows began in 1874, and this 12 months the association is honoring 388 individuals as fellows. At the moment, members can be regarded for the rank of fellow if nominated by the steering group of the association’s 24 sections, by 3 fellows, or by the association’s chief executive officer. Each and every steering group then reviews the nominations of individuals inside of its respective segment and forwards a last record to the AAAS Council.

The AAAS Council votes on the last aggregate record. The council is the policymaking physique of the association, chaired by the president, and consisting of the members of the board of directors, the retiring section chairs, delegates from each electorate and every regional division, and two delegates from the Nationwide Academies of Science.

Tryggvason will be presented with an official certificate and gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pins on Feb. 15 (Saturday) for the duration of the 2013 AAAS annual meeting in Chicago.

Notre Dame mechanical engineer Gretar Tryggvason named AAAS Fellow

Notre Dame Army ROTC to receive Order of the Founders and Patriots of America Award

The University of Notre Dame Army ROTC will be presented with the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America Award at halftime of the Notre Dame vs. Army men’s basketball game at two p.m. Sunday (Nov. 24) at the Purcell Pavilion.

The award, considered the Heisman Trophy of Army ROTC, is given by the Buy of the Founders and Patriots of America. The Buy was founded in 1896 and is manufactured up of “associates” who trace their ancestry back to the very first colonists and who have forefathers who served in the American Revolution.

The Buy presents the award to “the very first-area winner for the 12 months of U.S. Army ROTC units, possessing excelled both in the Military Science plan and in academic endeavors.” The Notre Dame Army ROTC unit joins an elite group of colleges that have won this award, which recognizes both Notre Dame’s historical contributions to Army ROTC and the excellence of the current Notre Dame Army ROTC plan.

The award will be presented by Rev. Edward A. “Monk” Malloy, C.S.C., president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. Lt. Col. John A. Polhamus, professor of military science at Notre Dame, will accept the award.

This is the third time the Notre Dame Army ROTC has acquired this prestigious award. Earlier many years contain 1986 and 1988.

The University of Notre Dame has a single of the strongest and oldest lineages tied to the Reserve Officer Instruction Corps in the United States, dating back to 1853 with the establishment of the Continental Cadets. Notre Dame President Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., sent 7 Holy Cross priests, like Rev. William Corby, to serve the needs of the Union Army. Father Corby was with the Irish Brigade at Gettysburg and later on returned to Notre Dame. He grew to become the University president and supported the creation of several military instruction units. The contemporary Army ROTC started its current chapter at Notre Dame in 1951.

Notre Dame Army ROTC to receive Order of the Founders and Patriots of America Award

Worker killed at Notre Dame construction site

At roughly ten:forty a.m. Thursday (Nov. 21), a guy was killed at Twyckenham Drive and Bulla Road on the eastern perimeter of the University of Notre Dame campus, where a crew was clearing trees for a parking whole lot growth. He was struck by a tree as it was felled and died at the scene, despite efforts by 1st responders to resuscitate him. The identity of the victim, who was employed by an spot excavating organization contracted by the University, is being withheld pending household notification. Perform on the website has been suspended.

“We lengthen our deepest condolences to his loved ones, and to all people concerned in this morning’s horrible accident,” Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president, said, incorporating, “Reminded how valuable and fragile lifestyle is, we pray for power and peace for all who are suffering as a consequence.”

Worker killed at Notre Dame construction site

Notre Dame to remember President John F. Kennedy

President John F. Kennedy is presented the 1961 Laetare Medal in the Oval Workplace. Attending the presentation (L-R): unidentified man Father Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., vice president of Notre Dame Rep. John Brademas, Indiana Kennedy Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president of Notre Dame and two unidentified males.

On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the University of Notre Dame will ring bells and supply Mass in his memory.

The bells of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart will toll in tribute to the president at two p.m. EST Friday (Nov. 22), the time of his death on Nov. 22, 1963. Masses at the Basilica at 11:30 a.m. and five:15 p.m. will be presented for justice and peace and will incorporate an intercession for him.

Notre Dame also will understand the anniversary prior to the Irish football game Saturday (Nov. 23) against Brigham Young University when the flag will be presented by G. Robert Blakey, one particular of the nation’s top authorities on the tragic events 50 many years ago. Blakey was the chief legal counsel and employees director for the U.S. Residence Select Committee on Assassinations and helped draft the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Data Assortment Act of 1992. A graduate of the University, Blakey was elevated to emeritus status a year ago following educating for far more than 35 many years in the University’s Law College.

Kennedy received Notre Dame’s highest honor, the Laetare Medal, in a White Property ceremony two many years to the day prior to his assassination. He received an honorary degree from the University in 1950.

Notre Dame to remember President John F. Kennedy

BYUtv to feature "American Ride" program on Notre Dame

BYUtv, the nationwide television network of Brigham Youthful University, is presently featuring the University of Notre Dame in a particular thirty-minute episode of “American Ride,” an Emmy Award-winning series that highlights historic folks and locations in American history.

The Notre Dame episode will air on many events prior to the Nov. 23 football game between the Fighting Irish and BYU. The routine is accessible on the “American Ride” web site.

Even though “American Ride” usually focuses on pivotal events in U.S. history, the football game in between two religiously affiliated universities inspired BYUtv to inform Notre Dame’s story, from its founding to nowadays.

“The University of Notre Dame has a rich and inspiring background that interweaves faith, support and football with the world’s highest academic rigor,” mentioned Derek Marquis, managing director of BYUtv. “We share a vision of producing educational institutions based mostly on the notion that faith and intellect are each critical and defining elements of increased understanding. Whilst Notre Dame is an undisputed NCAA legend, the University stands for one thing much, much much more and is a powerful signifies of carrying out excellent in the country and the world. That mission resonates with us at BYUtv.”

“American Ride” is hosted by Stan Ellsworth, a former history instructor and football player and coach who tours the country on his Harley-Davidson, exploring America’s past. He and a production crew spent a number of days on the Notre Dame campus last fall and in the summer season gathering data. The completed product involves a extensive overview of Notre Dame’s previous and present, with a emphasis on its founding, growth and academic mission as a Catholic university.

BYUtv gives around 1,000 hours yearly of original programming dedicated to seeing the “good in the planet.” It is carried to a lot more than 53 million houses in all 50 states.

BYUtv to feature "American Ride" program on Notre Dame

New Notre Dame research offers new insights into the nature of important human pathogen

Shahriar Mobashery

New investigation from a staff led by Shahriar Mobashery, Navari Family members Chair in Life Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, delivers an insight into cell wall recycling and virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an important human pathogen. The analysis offers a street map for how the publish-genomic analyses of biochemical processes will get spot to elucidate essential metabolic processes.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the result in of the bacterial infections that are challenging to treat clinically and is the infectious agent that in the long run kills cystic fibrosis individuals by colonizing their lungs. This organism has designed an elaborate procedure that links recycling of its cell wall the two to antibiotic resistance and to virulence. Mobashery and his staff studied the functions of three homologous enzymes, AmpD, AmpDh2 and Amp3, that are existing in the organism. The genomic evaluation had revealed the existence of the three, but their roles were not known.

The researchers’ biochemical analyses exposed that the enzyme AmpD is involved in the recycling processes, however AmpDh2 and AmpHh3 degrade the cell wall in a method that implicates them in virulence by the organism. Virulence is the basis for how an organism is a tough pathogen.

Mobashery points out that the initial genomes of bacteria were finished in the mid-1990s, but scientists are even now clueless on the functions of many of the genes from the bacterial genome. He stresses that the offered genetic data requirements to be followed by biochemical studies, like that completed by his team on the P. aeruginosa technique in elucidation of the functions of complex systems in bacteria.

The study appeared in a series of 3 papers published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 4950-4953 J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 10318-10321 J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135, 12605-12607).

New Notre Dame research offers new insights into the nature of important human pathogen

Notre Dame geologists’ discovery should cause earth scientists to rethink chemical makeup of Earth’s mantle

Ol Doinyo Lengai, Tanzania

A new discovery by researchers from the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences could modify prevailing assumptions about the chemical makeup of the Earth’s mantle.

Antonio Simonetti, an associate professor in the department, and his doctoral student Wei Chen worked in cooperation with Vadim Kamenetsky of the University of Tasmania, Hobart (Australia) to learn the art of conducting chemical and mineralogical analyses of melt inclusions within crystals of the mineral magnetite (Fe3O4).

Simonetti factors out that the magnetite crystals are hosted within igneous rocks (rocks resulting from the melting of the Earth’s mantle) referred to as carbonatites.

Antonio Simonetti

“The latter are an exceptional and intriguing sort of igneous rock since they are composed primarily of calcium carbonate, or Calcite-CaCO3, rather than silicate minerals, which are the predominant minerals in the Earth’s crust and oceanic rocks,” Simonetti mentioned. “Despite the modest quantity of carbonatite occurrences globally compared to their volcanic counterparts in the previous and existing day, carbonatites carry on to receive considerable deserved interest since of their unique enrichment, relative to crustal abundances in incompatible trace aspects, this kind of as niobium and the rare Earth components.”

To date, most of the geological community believed that the sodium- and potassium-wealthy magmas being erupted at the Earth’s sole lively carbonatite volcano at Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania were distinctive, given that all other carbonatite occurrences globally are dominated by calcium-wealthy carbonate or calcite.

In an attempt to resolve this question, Wei sought to figure out the initial melt composition that gave rise to the Oka carbonatite complex, which is positioned in southeastern Quebec.

“We approached this concern by examining the nature and chemical composition of melt inclusions within person magnetite crystals present in carbonatites,” Simonetti said. “Melt inclusions are micron-sized ‘pockets’ present within minerals that represent a blend or mechanical mixture of co-trapped crystals and melt engulfed and isolated early in the crystallization historical past of the magma whilst the magnetite crystals had been forming. Consequently, investigating melt inclusions represents a strong tool for determining the chemical composition of the first carbonatite magma at the Oka complex.”

Wei and Simonetti’s analysis uncovered that the chemical composition of minerals trapped inside the melt inclusions at the Oka complicated are alkaline in nature and similar in composition to the minerals present at Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano. The finding will have a significant impact in relation to deciphering and modeling chemical processes taking area in the Earth’s mantle during geologic time.

“This has some significant consequences as to how earth scientists must view the total chemical budget of the Earth’s mantle considering that this is in which carbonatite magmas are developed,” Simonetti mentioned. “We are not attributing enough alkalies in the area of the mantle where carbonitite melts kind.”

In addition to its significance for the area of earth science, the finding also has essential practical and strategic relevance. Carbonatites are of essential relevance in the continually evolving fields of superconductors, electronics and computing. Numerous nations this kind of as the USA, China, Brazil and Canada are host to carbonatite occurrences, and there is active exploration in numerous of these nations to locate new deposits offered the ever-escalating demand for the manufacturing of sophisticated electronic parts.

The paper describing Wei and Simonetti’s investigation seems in the journal Nature Communications.

Make contact with: Antonio Simonetti, simonetti.3@nd.edu

Notre Dame geologists’ discovery should cause earth scientists to rethink chemical makeup of Earth’s mantle

Notre Dame Campus Ministry to host Mozart festival at conclusion of Year of Faith

Notre Dame Folk Choir

The University of Notre Dame Office of Campus Ministry will host a special musical celebration at 8 p.m. Nov. 22 (Friday) in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to honor the conclusion of the globally Yr of Faith. The Notre Dame Liturgical Choir, Folk Choir and Women’s Liturgical Choir will every single perform an personal piece of sacred music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart before coming together to sing the Mozart Coronation Mass with orchestra.

“This 12 months of Faith has been an opportunity for us to focus our faith and deepen our relationships with Jesus Christ,” mentioned Rev. James King, C.S.C., director of Campus Ministry. “Specifically, the 12 months of Faith served as a call for us to pray more difficult, listen more intently and reside with hearts open to God. This concert is an opportunity for us to celebrate our faith and acknowledge our relationships with Christ and the Church.”

The Year of Faith started on Oct. 11, 2012, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and will finish on Nov. 24 (Sunday), which coincides with the Solemnity of Christ the King and the end of the Church 12 months.

The Notre Dame Liturgical Choir, Folk Choir and Women’s Liturgical Choir are all housed within Campus Ministry. The Liturgical Choir, underneath the direction of Andrew McShane, provides music for the Sunday 10 a.m. Masses in the Basilica and for Sunday Vespers. It also provides musical leadership at a range of University liturgies at Notre Dame.

Beneath the path of Steve Warner, the Folk Choir offers music for the Sunday 11:45 a.m. Mass in the Basilica and for numerous University occasions. This ensemble is composed of 60 musicians who use four-element vocal harmony accompanied by strings, flute, guitar, harp, organ, conga and bodhran (Irish drum).

The Women’s Liturgical Choir, under the course of Daniel Bayless, offers music for the Saturday 5 p.m. Vigil Liturgy in the Basilica and can be heard at other special University liturgies. For more details about the Basilica Choirs, please go to campusministry.nd.edu.

Notre Dame Campus Ministry to host Mozart festival at conclusion of Year of Faith

Notre Dame a partner in NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute

The University of Notre Dame will be a partner in NASA’s Solar System Exploration Analysis Virtual Institute (SSERVI), a new organization that expands the scope of the NASA Lunar Science Institute to a single that contains close to-Earth asteroids and the moons of Mars.

Clive R. Neal, a Notre Dame planetary geologist, was part of a Universities Area Analysis Association (USRA) crew that was chosen for SSERVI membership. Scientists from USRA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute, the Johnson Space Center and the Arecibo Observatory and researchers from six universities, like Notre Dame, will be 1 of eight first teams in SSERVI.

Beneath the auspices of SSERVI, the staff will proceed to integrate the science and exploration activities in a coordinated research of the moon and the asteroids that bombard the Earth-moon technique. Those studies will include observations of present near-Earth asteroids, studies of past collision occasions in the Earth-moon technique and the collisional evolution of the asteroid belt that delivers those objects to near-Earth space.

Neal is a member and former chair of NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, which is responsible for analyzing scientific, technical, commercial and operational issues connected with lunar exploration. The group provides findings from these analyses to NASA through the NASA Advisory Council.

He also is a member of NASA’s Lunar Science Institute, which is a pick group of scientists tasked with increasing the nation’s technical abilities in lunar science and establishing educational possibilities in space science.

Contact: Clive R. Neal, 574-631-8328, Clive.R.Neal.one@nd.edu

Notre Dame a partner in NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute

Notre Dame a partner in NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute

The University of Notre Dame will be a spouse in NASA’s Solar Method Exploration Investigation Virtual Institute (SSERVI), a new organization that expands the scope of the NASA Lunar Science Institute to 1 that includes close to-Earth asteroids and the moons of Mars.

Clive R. Neal, a Notre Dame planetary geologist, was portion of a Universities Space Research Association (USRA) crew that was selected for SSERVI membership. Scientists from USRA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute, the Johnson Space Center and the Arecibo Observatory and researchers from 6 universities, which includes Notre Dame, will be one particular of eight initial teams in SSERVI.

Under the auspices of SSERVI, the team will continue to integrate the science and exploration pursuits in a coordinated research of the moon and the asteroids that bombard the Earth-moon technique. These scientific studies will incorporate observations of current close to-Earth asteroids, scientific studies of past collision occasions in the Earth-moon program and the collisional evolution of the asteroid belt that delivers people objects to near-Earth area.

Neal is a member and former chair of NASA’s Lunar Exploration Evaluation Group, which is accountable for analyzing scientific, technical, industrial and operational concerns linked with lunar exploration. The group provides findings from these analyses to NASA by means of the NASA Advisory Council.

He also is a member of NASA’s Lunar Science Institute, which is a decide on staff of scientists tasked with expanding the nation’s technical capabilities in lunar science and developing educational opportunities in area science.

Speak to: Clive R. Neal, 574-631-8328, Clive.R.Neal.1@nd.edu

Notre Dame a partner in NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute