Susan Ostermann, associate professor of global affairs at the , has been appointed director of the effective July 1, 2026. She will succeed Michel Hockx, who joined Notre Dame in 2016 as the founding director of the Liu Institute. 

“Susan is an exceptional scholar and a deeply engaged teacher whose work reflects the Keough 91��Ƶ’s commitment to rigorous, interdisciplinary research with real-world impact,” said Mary Gallagher, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ. “Her long-standing engagement with Asia, combined with her collaborative leadership style, makes her an outstanding choice to lead the Liu Institute into its next chapter.”

A political scientist who studies state capacity, law and regulatory compliance, brings deep regional expertise and an interdisciplinary approach shaped by years of fieldwork across South Asia. Her book, “Capacity beyond Coercion: Regulatory Pragmatism and Compliance along the India-Nepal Border,” introduced the concept of “regulatory pragmatism” to explain how states encourage compliance even under weak coercive conditions.

A graduate of Pomona College, Ostermann went on to earn a J.D. from Stanford Law 91��Ƶ and a Ph.D. in political science from UC Berkeley. Combined with early career experience as a practicing litigator, including on Asia-related cases, she brings together academic rigor, legal expertise and real-world experience. Her research has appeared in leading journals at the intersection of law and politics, and her National Science Foundation-funded research has led to new insights on housing resilience in multiple locales, knowledge that is increasingly important as climate change intensifies the impacts of natural disasters.

During her career, she has served as an expert witness regarding Nepali politics and the Maoist conflict and as a consultant for Population Council, Freedom House and the Bertelsmann Transformation Index. She is also the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the American Institute of Indian 91��Ƶ Junior Fellowship and a Simpson Research Grant in International 91��Ƶ and is co-editor in chief of the 91��Ƶ in Comparative International Development journal.

Ostermann joined Notre Dame in 2017 as one of the first professors hired for the opening of the Keough 91��Ƶ. An active faculty fellow for the Liu Institute, she has grown the institute’s South Asia Group and launched the University’s current summer study abroad program in India in 2024.

“Susan Ostermann was the first Asianist hired by the Keough 91��Ƶ, and I am delighted that she is now stepping into the role of Liu Institute director,” Hockx said. “In addition to being an excellent scholar, she has been an inspiring leader within the institute community through her role as convenor of our South Asia Group, as well as through her commitment to teaching our summer course in Mumbai.”

Founded in 2010, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian 91��Ƶ provides a University-wide hub for integrated, multidisciplinary research, teaching and engagement on Asia. Through innovative projects that bring together classroom learning, scholarly inquiry and social impact, the institute advances a holistic understanding of the region. It also promotes broader awareness of Asia by organizing public events and supporting student and faculty scholarship, as well as engagement with partners across Asia. The Liu Institute also administers a supplementary major and a minor in Asian 91��Ƶ.

Originally published by April Toler at on Jan. 8.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Traditional sampling is too labor-intensive for whole-forest surveys, while modern genomics—though capable of pinpointing active genes—is still too expensive for large-scale application. Remote sensing offers a high-resolution solution from the skies, but currently limited paradigms for data analysis mean the images obtained do not say enough, early enough.

A new study from researchers at the University of Notre Dame, published in , uncovers a more comprehensive picture of forest health. Funded by NASA, the research shows that spectral reflectance—a measurement obtained from satellite images—corresponds with the expression of specific genes.

Reflectance is how much light reflects off of leaf material, and at which specific wavelengths, in the visible and near-infrared range. Calculated as the ratio of reflected light to incoming light and measured using special sensors, reflectance data reveals a unique signature specific to the leaf’s composition and condition.

“This has the potential to revolutionize forest health monitoring,” said , the Gillen Director of the (UNDERC) who led the study. “By connecting reflectance with gene expression, we can get a real-time measure of forest health at the genomic level that picks up the early indicators of declining forest health and connects them back to real changes happening on the cellular level.”

While reflectance is a strong indicator of both physical and chemical leaf properties, the utility of knowing these features is limited without the ability to determine their molecular origin.

“We now have the ability to fly an airplane over a whole forest and rapidly document the traits of every tree’s canopy, but what we can actually say about a certain tree’s condition is still quite simple,” said Swenson, professor in the . “So, we wanted to go beyond that, asking: Is there a significant relationship between the reflectance of a leaf and its gene expression?”

In short, the answer is yes.

Swenson, with the help of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, collected leaf samples from two common tree species—sugar maple and red maple—at the University’s in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

At the point of collection, reflectance data for the surface of each leaf was measured and recorded, before the sample was preserved and processed for gene expression analysis. This analysis focused on genes related to water response, drought, photosynthesis and plant-pest or plant-pathogen interactions. The reflectance data was also processed to determine the wavelengths of light reflected or absorbed by a particular leaf.

For more than half of the genes analyzed, the researchers found a strong correlation with specific reflectance wavelengths. This means that across most of the trees surveyed, those whose leaves expressed a certain gene reflected or absorbed the same “signature” wavelengths of light as other leaves that expressed the same gene.

“We’ve done it here on just a small scale, but the potential for predicting the expression of hundreds to thousands of ecologically important genes from reflectance is immense,” Swenson said. “We could monitor whole forests on the genomic scale, via sensors on the international space station.”

To apply this newly-defined correlation to whole forests, Swenson is looking to scale previous research. A 2024 study combined satellite images with artificial intelligence-enabled computational networks to create tree species maps for the .

The AI model, developed by a multi-institutional team including Swenson, can be trained to identify particular trees by species using images of the whole forest’s canopy collected by sensors. When layered together with reflectance and gene expression data, the model has the potential to generate a complete profile for a single tree based on its species, reflectance signature and the gene expression map for that species. Doing so would allow researchers to single out struggling individuals or clusters more efficiently for intervention.

"You can take these models that we're generating at the leaf level and apply them to those new data sets of reflectance whether that's from an airplane or from a satellite. And then you can build a map of gene expression on the scale of a national forest,” Swenson said. “The end goal here is using the right data to rapidly assess how trees are responding to stressors, so that we can intervene before the forest hits a crisis point.”

Such an undertaking requires the input of experts in remote sensing, genomics and ecology, all of which are members of Swenson’s research team within the University’s . Co-authors of the Nature Communications study include postdoctoral scholar Yanni Chen, graduate student Alexander Cox, and former graduate students Logan Monks and Vanessa Rubio.

“This work doesn’t happen without scientists from vastly different fields, ecologists alongside genomicists alongside data scientists, sitting down at a table together and engaging with the same question from different angles,” Swenson said. “We need all of our individual strengths pulling together to meet these challenges.”

“Congratulations to Emmanuel Uzobuife, his professors and his family on this impressive accomplishment,” , said. “Emmanuel represents the very best of Notre Dame, epitomizing the commitment to scholarship and social engagement we seek to instill in our graduates.”

Born in Nigeria, Uzobuife, a and , moved to the U.S. at the age of 3, settling with his family in the Bronx section of New York as one of seven siblings.

A science-business major with minors in science and patient advocacy, chemistry and musical theater, his interests revolve around the question of how science can intervene where society has failed, with a particular focus on the development and equitable distribution of life-saving drugs to prevent and combat opioid and other substance use disorders.

“It is my honor to be a recipient of the Marshall Scholarship with which I will use to continue to advance Notre Dame’s mission of being a force for good in the world by ‘caring for the least of these,’” Uzobuife said. “I’m deeply grateful to my loving family, my professors, mentors and classmates at Notre Dame, as well as the Galvin Scholars and for supporting me throughout the years.”

A Transformational Leaders Program Scholar, Uzobuife is active in research and other endeavors at Notre Dame.

He is an undergraduate researcher in the Lieberman Analytical Chemistry Lab, conducts biological education research with , teaching professor in the , is co-director of Health and Wellness for and is a resident assistant in Baumer Hall. He is a member of the Notre Dame Glee Club and the Biotech Club and he worked as an operations supervisor at RecSports for three years.

In his role with the Lieberman Lab, he co-authored a peer-reviewed study evaluating fentanyl test strip efficacy along with the lab’s director, , the Nancy Dee Professor of Cancer Research at Notre Dame, and others. He is currently examining the sensitivity of test strips in detecting xylazine, a new and powerful adulterant in illicit opioids.

Away from campus, he is a research intern with the Mayo Clinic Otolaryngology Research Program and in the Walsh Lab at the Icahn 91��Ƶ of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In his free time, he volunteers with Our Lady of the Road, a Catholic drop-in center in South Bend.

His interest in substance use stems from his time growing up in the Bronx, where he witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of the opioid epidemic, as exacerbated by factors such as stigma, poverty and structural neglect.

As a Marshall Scholar, he intends to pursue master’s degrees in pharmacology and toxicology (year one) and drug discovery and artificial intelligence (year two) at the University of Liverpool. He will then return to the U.S. to attend medical school and continue building a career at the intersection of pharmacology, public health and equitable medical care.

“Manny brings his passion for science to bear on real problems in our community,” Lieberman said. “In his research, he helped evaluate the quality of lateral flow immunoassay test strips that are used to detect the presence of fentanyl and other harmful opioids in street drugs, which resulted in a co-authored paper in the journal Harm Reduction. After he learned about the risk of opioid-laced pills to the student community, he planned a series of workshops about opioid use, drug stigma and training in Narcan use for pre-professional undergraduates, dorm rectors and RAs. Through these workshops, 107 campus participants received training and free Narcan.”

Established in 1954 to commemorate the Marshall Plan, the Marshall Scholarship supports Americans of exceptional ability to pursue graduate-level studies in the U.K., covering university fees, cost of living, research and thesis grants and travel to and from the U.S., among other expenses.

In applying for the award, Uzobuife worked closely with the , which promotes the intellectual development of Notre Dame undergraduates through scholarly engagement, research, creative endeavors and the pursuit of fellowships.

“I am pleased to congratulate Manny on his selection as a 2026 Marshall Scholar, our third in four years,” said Emily Buika Hunt, assistant director of scholarly development at CUSE. “At Notre Dame, Manny has pursued academic excellence while also demonstrating a deep commitment to serving our community through research, outreach, mentorship and music. His dedication to saving lives is representative of Notre Dame's core values and we are excited to watch his continued growth as a Marshall Scholar.”

Buika Hunt thanked the Transformational Leaders Program, the Mary E. Galvin Science and Engineering Program, CUSE Associate Director of National Fellowships Elise Rudt-Moorthy “and the many mentors Manny has had both within and beyond the Notre Dame community for the advice and mentorship they've offered to him during his time at the University.”

For more on this and other scholarship opportunities, visit .

Contact: Erin Blasko, associate director of media relations, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

The new three-year program, called the St. Joseph County Universal Wellness Project, aims to help bridge the gap in local mental health care for young people through in-person or digital single-session interventions — evidence-based approaches that can make a meaningful difference in mental health in a short amount of time.

The program will train 75 local providers to offer a one-time, solution-focused meeting with youth in need of mental health support. It will also offer local youth access to an online platform that provides a self-directed experience, using videos, tips and suggestions on available resources to help create a plan for improving their mental health.

“We are taking evidence-based methods developed through rigorous research and creating a way to scale them so they reach the people who need them most,” said , a Notre Dame professor of psychology and director of the , which will lead the project locally. “In addition to giving local youth free and anonymous mental health support tools, we believe this project will strengthen our community and serve as a national model for scaling county-level interventions.”

Developed by — a Northwestern associate professor of medical social sciences and founding director of the — and her team, the digital and provider-delivered single-session intervention programs have shown through dozens of clinical trials to reduce youth depression and anxiety symptoms for up to 12 months and increase motivation to seek further care. Collectively, these brief, barrier-free programs have helped more than 100,000 individuals and families improve their coping abilities and have proven effective across a diverse range of youth populations.

Schleider’s free digital intervention platform, , will be adapted for St. Joseph County youth by the Veldman Clinic and community partners, and its clinical and implementation effectiveness will be evaluated over the course of a year.

“This is a dream project for me, and precisely the sort of work I’m in this field to push forward,” Schleider said. “Single-session interventions, because of how scalable they are, really fill these untouched gaps in the mental health care system that high-intensity treatments like weekly psychotherapy delivered by professionals were never built to address.”

The Veldman Clinic, opening this spring at 501 N. Hill St. in South Bend’s East Bank neighborhood, will significantly enhance the research of faculty in Notre Dame’s and offer immersive training for clinical psychology graduate students, who will be empowered to share pioneering evidence-based mental health practices with communities across the country. It is a key component of the in the University’s , which emphasizes a commitment to addressing the nationwide mental health crisis.

Schleider’s approach has already been effectively deployed through a program in Montana, and serves as an example of the effectiveness of implementation science — taking evidence-based methods developed through research and developing means of scaling them to maximize their reach and effectiveness.

“The St. Joseph County Universal Wellness Project is an incredible opportunity for the Veldman Clinic to implement evidence-based interventions and build strong community partnerships as it opens its doors,” said , the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the . “Dissemination work of this caliber will be a core component of the clinic’s efforts to enhance mental health care throughout the region and nationwide, and I can’t wait to see the transformative impact this program has for youth in our area.”

To tailor the program to the needs of the community and ensure its tools are accessible to and meet the needs of local populations, the Veldman Clinic will recruit four community advisory boards comprised of providers and leaders of local schools, community organizations, health care providers, parents and youth.

The program is actively seeking members for one-year terms on its community advisory boards. from individuals with lived, professional or community experience relevant to youth mental health — especially those connected to schools, pediatric/behavioral health, youth services and parent/caregiver networks.

Founded by Anita and Tom Veldman, the Valinhos Foundation is a private family foundation dedicated to improving the mental health and overall well-being landscape for youth, families and communities across Indiana.

Originally published by Josh Weinhold at on Dec. 22.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

The grant will also support the establishment of a robust, interconnected network that will provide practical resources to help navigate challenges posed by rapidly developing AI. Based on principles and values from Christian traditions, the framework is designed to be accessible to people of all faith perspectives.

“We are deeply grateful to Lilly Endowment for its generous support of this critically important initiative,” said University President “Pope Leo XIV calls for us all to work to ensure that AI is ‘intelligent, relational and guided by love,’ reflecting the design of God the Creator. As a Catholic university that seeks to promote human flourishing, Notre Dame is well-positioned to build bridges between religious leaders and educators, and those creating and using new technologies, so that they might together explore the moral and ethical questions associated with AI.”

With the support of a awarded in October 2024, ECG spent the past year mapping the landscape of faith-informed work in AI ethics. Drawing on insights from more than 200 conversations with representatives of these various constituencies, ECG created , a Christian-inspired ethical framework that stands for Dignity, Embodiment, Love, Transcendence and Agency. The framework was launched at the inaugural .

“Lilly Endowment’s continued support enables Notre Dame to address one of the defining questions of our time — how to guide the use of artificial intelligence with wisdom, responsibility and a commitment to human dignity,” said , the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “As a leading global Catholic research university with deep partnerships across technology, faith and academia, we are uniquely positioned to convene these conversations.”

“The depth of engagement and support from the wide variety of participants at the Notre Dame summit for further development of the DELTA framework was most compelling,” said N. Clay Robbins, Lilly Endowment’s chairman and CEO. “Lilly Endowment is pleased to support this effort that acknowledges the beneficial opportunities AI offers while encouraging uses of AI that align with important moral and ethical values that draw from religious insights and traditions.”

Notre Dame’s DELTA network will be organized around interdisciplinary and intergenerational communities of practice focused on education, pastoral ministry and public engagement. The communities of practice will come together to learn about and engage with the principles of the faith-based ethical framework. They will nurture relationships between those who are developing AI technology and those in education, workplaces, religious communities and a variety of public settings who must discern ethical ways to use AI.

As part of the project, ECG will launch a series of programs to encourage and support young adults to lead with convictions shaped by DELTA principles. In addition, by developing hubs in communities in Silicon Valley and the Northeastern U.S., the institute will invite tech leaders and the public to engage with DELTA principles through issue-focused events and retreats.

Each community of practice will be supported by a timely, high-impact slate of resources, programs and events that will enable and leverage sustained engagement with the DELTA framework, developing a common language and set of tools that will energize and guide conversations around the ethics of AI and its applications.

DELTA builds on collaborations already in place around technology ethics, including the University’s partnership with IBM through the Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab.

“Here at Notre Dame, we’re committed to shaping public thought about how humans can flourish in an AI-driven world by drawing upon our Catholic and Christian tradition,” said , the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of ECG and the . “With this work, Notre Dame and ECG will deepen our mission to grow networks of corporate leaders, faith leaders, educators, storytellers and others to advance ethics and the common good. Given the monumental impact that AI will have on our lives, this work is more vital than ever.”

Those interested in staying connected with DELTA and this work may visit to join the DELTA mailing list.

Notre Dame has always focused on ethics in both research and formation. In 2024, the University intensified its commitment to the field with the launch of the University-wide Ethics Initiative, which aims to establish Notre Dame as a premier global destination for the study of ethics, offering superb training for future generations of ethicists and moral leaders, a platform for engaging the Catholic moral tradition with other modes of inquiry and an opportunity to forge insights into some of the most significant ethical issues of our time.

A signature element of the Ethics Initiative, the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good facilitates interdisciplinary research in foundational and applied ethics, coordinates projects that cross departments and units and supports ethics-related education and public engagement efforts.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of religion and lift up in fair, accurate and balanced ways the roles that people of all faiths and various religious communities play in the United States and around the globe.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu

Today, the City of South Bend’s Redevelopment Commission pledged financial support for the development of Colfax Corner, a new 202,000-square-foot research and innovation hub led by in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame. The city’s financial support comes through an Innovation Development District (IDD) bond, which will be repaid by incremental tax revenue generated by the project. The IDD is a novel partnership between the City of South Bend and the State of Indiana that will be an asset for attracting additional jobs and investment into the community.

Colfax Corner represents the first phase of the DTSB Tech and Talent District, and was envisioned by the Downtown 2045 Plan to serve as a catalyst for broader revitalization activities.

The project will feature a restored South Bend Tribune building and an adjoining modern research and office facility. The two will be linked on the second floor, and together frame an outdoor public plaza designed for events, pop-up programming and everyday use. Vertical construction is anticipated to begin in summer 2026, with completion expected by summer 2028.

By locating more than 400 high-tech jobs to downtown South Bend and engaging the community with an active calendar of programming and events, Colfax Corner will spark renewed energy in the city, with a projected $750 million direct impact to the local economy over the next 10 years.

“This project shows what’s possible when a university, private partners and a city pull in the same direction — innovation speeds up, talent sticks and opportunity widens for South Bend,” said Josh Parker, chairman and CEO of Ancora, an investment management firm that partners with universities to deliver projects that support academic, research and community goals. Ancora is the development, construction, asset and property manager for the project.

More than a real estate project, Colfax Corner is the product of cross-sector collaboration among Notre Dame, Ancora, the City of South Bend, the State of Indiana, Lilly Endowment Inc. and the Judd Leighton Foundation. The announcement follows a $30 million grant from Lilly Endowment through its College and Community Collaboration program, aimed at fueling job creation, economic growth and improved quality of life in Indiana’s college towns.

“We are grateful for the support Colfax Corner has received from our public and nonprofit partners,” said , executive vice president of Notre Dame. “Together with other new developments in downtown South Bend, we look forward to the positive impact this project will have on advancing our region.”

“This game-changing project will not only reshape the landscape of our downtown, but also catalyze shared growth in our community.”

Notre Dame, as the anchor tenant, will work alongside Ancora to attract world-class research and talent while also welcoming educational programs, events, and dining and retail experiences — creating a vibrant district where innovation connects with the broader community. The district will also host ethics and leadership training through Holy Cross College and youth and early childhood programming through South Bend City Church.

“We are proud to partner with Ancora and the University of Notre Dame on this transformative investment in the heart of South Bend,” South Bend Mayor James Mueller said. “This game-changing project will not only reshape the landscape of our downtown, but also catalyze shared growth in our community.”

The Tribune building, acquired by Notre Dame in 2023 to preserve it from demolition, will undergo full historic restoration to provide classroom, research and innovation space. The new adjacent building will strengthen downtown South Bend as a hub for technological advancement and collaboration.

Phase Two of the project will expand west across Lafayette Boulevard, further extending the district’s economic and cultural reach.

To learn more about the project, visit .

Contact: Erin Blasko, associate director of media relations, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

This partnership builds on Notre Dame’s AI Conference and , hosted by the and the (HEAL), which explored the intersection of artificial intelligence and rural health in October.

“Notre Dame’s mission calls us to address society’s most pressing challenges, and improving rural health is certainly among them,” said , the John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research and professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame. “The R.I.S.E. AI Conference brought together researchers, clinicians, community leaders and entrepreneurs to identify real problems and explore innovative solutions. This partnership with Parkview Health and the 1842 Fund creates a powerful pathway to transform those insights into actionable ventures that can create lasting impact in rural communities across Indiana and beyond.”

Rural communities face unique health care challenges, including provider shortages, longer travel distances to care and higher rates of chronic disease. This collaboration aims to develop AI-enabled solutions that can help bridge these gaps and improve health outcomes.

“Parkview Health has a long-standing commitment to improving health and inspiring well-being across Indiana, including the rural communities we serve,” said Dr. Sarah GiaQuinta, senior vice president of community impact at Parkview Health. “This partnership with the 1842 Fund represents an innovative approach to addressing health care access and outcomes in rural areas. By combining our deep clinical expertise and understanding of community needs with Notre Dame’s research capabilities and the 1842 Fund’s venture-building model, we can develop scalable solutions that make a real difference for patients in underserved areas.”

The 1842 Fund is an inception, pre-seed and seed venture capital fund anchored by the University of Notre Dame and managed by Alloy Partners. The 1842 Fund co-creates and funds new startups through the 1842 Studio, a venture studio that works closely with Notre Dame faculty and researchers as well as industry partners such as Parkview Health to build mission-driven companies from the ground up.

“The 1842 Fund exists to create and fund startups that align with Notre Dame’s mission while generating meaningful impact in communities,” said Mike Joslin, partner at the 1842 Fund and director at Alloy Partners. “Parkview Health is an ideal partner for this work. They bring both deep clinical expertise and a genuine commitment to serving the rural community. By working together, we can build ventures that are not only commercially viable, but also serve as a force for good.”

Alloy Partners, the Indianapolis-based venture builder that operates the 1842 Fund and 1842 Studio, has co-created more than 35 companies and seven venture studios, with a deep background in health care and digital health. The 1842 Fund has invested in three health-related startups, and the Alloy portfolio includes 12 companies launched in the health care or life sciences areas.

“Rural health challenges require innovative thinking and collaborative approaches,” GiaQuinta added. “We’re excited to work alongside Notre Dame’s researchers and the 1842 Studio team to develop solutions that can scale and create meaningful change for the patients and communities we serve.”

Contact

Brandi Wampler at Notre Dame, brandiwampler@nd.edu

Kaitlyn Hughes at Parkview Health, kaitlyn.hughes@parkview.com

PANBlast for Alloy Partners / 1842 Fund, alloypartners@panblastpr.com

Originally published by Notre Dame News at on December 16, 2025.

In Mozambique, more than one in three children under five suffer from stunting, or impaired physical growth, a sign of chronic undernutrition. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that improving access to safe drinking water can reduce the odds of stunting by about 20 percent, making it the most effective (WASH) intervention for child growth.

, published in the journal Children, is one of the few studies to use nationally representative data from Mozambique to examine the independent and combined effects of access to water and sanitation on child growth outcomes (stunting and wasting). It also provides evidence-based policy recommendations for prioritizing clean water access, improving sanitation and tracking child growth to help guide interventions.

“Access to clean and safe drinking water is critical for preventing chronic undernutrition in children,” said , associate professor of development and global health economics at the University of Notre Dame’s . “In Mozambique, where millions lack safe water, focusing on water interventions can have the greatest impact on stunting.”

Malnutrition remains a critical global health challenge, with the highest rates in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. While the World Health Organization highlights WASH as essential to preventing malnutrition by reducing diarrheal disease, environmental enteric dysfunction (an intestinal condition that causes inflammation and damaged gut lining) and impaired nutrient absorption, large gaps still remain. Nearly 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and 3.6 billion lack access to safe sanitation.

Mozambique reflects this dual crisis. Recent data shows 56 percent of the population has access to basic drinking water and 31 percent to basic sanitation. In 2022, 37 percent of children under five suffered from stunting and four percent from wasting, or low weight for height. After steady improvements from 2000 to 2020, progress has since stalled. The economic impact of stunting is also high, with more than 11 percent of the gross domestic product lost due to undernutrition in Mozambique.

“There may be no perfect solution to stunting and wasting, but we can get as close as possible by following the evidence,” said Jailene Castillo, co-author of the study and a masters of global affairs student at the Keough 91��Ƶ. “In Mozambique, despite widespread WASH programs, rates of stunting and wasting remain high. We wanted to understand whether WASH alone is enough to reduce malnutrition, a question no one had rigorously tested before.”

Notre Dame researchers analyzed health data from more than 3,500 children, drawn from the Mozambique Demographic and Health Surveys. The survey was conducted by Mozambique’s National Institute of Statistics in collaboration with the Ministry of Health in 2022–23, with technical support from ICF International. Using rigorous econometric methods, the study assessed associations between improved drinking water sources, sanitation facility types and child stunting and wasting. Two key WASH indicators — source of drinking water and type of toilet facilities — were analyzed separately and together.

The study found that after accounting for household and child factors such as wealth, region and religion, improved water access was initially associated with a 20 percent reduction in the odds of stunting. Improved sanitation showed no independent effect on stunting, and neither water nor sanitation had a consistent association with wasting.

“For a parent or caregiver, this means something simple: The safety of the water a child drinks every day can shape that child’s development for years,” said William Pater, a study co-author and biological sciences student at the University of Notre Dame. “For communities and decision-makers, it means that investing in clean, consistent water access may have a bigger impact on long-term child growth than sanitation alone. And because wasting did not respond clearly to either water or sanitation, it reinforces the need for timely nutrition support, infection treatment and social protection programs.”

Policy recommendations

Based on their findings, the researchers recommend that policymakers:

• Prioritize clean water access by expanding safely managed and basic water services and strengthening water-quality monitoring in regions with high stunting.
• Continue sanitation improvements for broader health and dignity benefits, while recognizing these changes may not produce rapid gains in child growth.
• Track progress using clear indicators on WASH access, water quality, disease burden and child growth metrics.

By identifying whether water or sanitation investments have stronger impacts on stunting or wasting, the researchers noted that policymakers in Mozambique and in similar low- and middle-income settings can better allocate resources to reduce child malnutrition.

Study co-author Gautam is affiliated with the Keough 91��Ƶ’s as well as Notre Dame’s and Christina Molinaro, a graduate of Notre Dame, was also a co-author on the study.

Originally published by April Toler at on Dec. 11.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

A growing number of studies show that when investors pay close attention to individual stocks, it significantly impacts how they learn about and trade those stocks, which in turn drives stock price movements. In other words, what catches investors’ eyes directly influences their decisions and shapes the stock market.

However, not all investors watch the same things, and that variability creates very different outcomes in the market. New research from the University of Notre Dame looks at how investor buzz sways the stock market, revealing that attention on individual stocks might actually predict the entire market’s short-term future performance, and noting an interesting split between retail and institutional investors.

When everyday investors, known as retail investors, suddenly pay more attention to the market, returns over the next week tend to fall. But when professional investors such as mutual funds and hedge funds, known as institutional investors, start paying more attention, returns over the next week tend to rise — especially when big news is about to come out, according to , the Howard J. and Geraldine F. Korth Professor of Finance at Notre Dame’s . Da’s research, “,” is forthcoming in Management Science.

Da, with co-authors Jian Hua and Lin Peng from Baruch College and Tim Chih-Ching Hung from National Taiwan University, used Google’s daily search volume index to measure retail investor attention and Bloomberg’s “Daily Maximum Readership” score, which captures how often professional investors on Bloomberg are reading news about a particular stock, for institutional investor attention.

Rather than looking at each stock separately, the researchers averaged the abnormal attention measures across all stocks, allowing them to create two daily, market-level attention indexes: Aggregate Retail Attention (ARA) and Aggregate Institutional Attention (AIA). They tested whether these market-level attention measures can predict future stock market returns by running regressions of market returns on ARA and AIA.

“Investors have to notice a stock before they trade it, and trading is what moves prices,” Da said. “So it’s not surprising that attention can predict returns. What is surprising are two patterns we uncover.”

First, the study shows that different types of investors behave distinctly. Retail investors and institutional investors show opposite effects.

Retail attention predicts lower future returns, the researchers found. In other words, when everyone’s talking about a stock, it usually means it’s about to underperform. Popular stocks with lots of buzz often disappoint later because individual investors are late to the party and push prices too high initially. Once the hype dies down, prices fall back to earth, meaning lower returns for those who jumped on the bandwagon.

On the other hand, the researchers saw that institutional attention often acts as an early signal for higher future returns. Institutional investors start digging into a stock before major news breaks. When their interest is piqued, it’s often a signal that some uncertainty is on the horizon. This requires investors to demand a higher return for holding that stock around the time when the actual news comes out.

Second, the study reveals that looking only at market-level attention, such as searches for “Dow,” “S&P 500,” etc., doesn’t predict returns well.

“The market is really just the sum of many individual stocks,” Da said. “We measure attention at the stock level and then combine all that data into a bigger picture. This bottom-up attention measure works much better than the top-down approach.”

Da said identifying new factors that can forecast market ups and downs is valuable for two main reasons.

“It helps us understand what actually pushes the market higher or lower, and there’s the obvious practical perk — better predictions mean better decisions when we’re deciding where to put our money.”

Contact: Zhi Da, 574-631-0354, zda@nd.edu

With natural disasters striking communities across the U.S. at an accelerating pace, the question of how to build homes that can endure them has never been more critical.

New research spanning political science and civil engineering shows that the answer could lie at the intersection of smarter regulatory systems and stronger structures. While neither approach is sufficient on its own, together they offer a promising path toward safer homes.

University of Notre Dame political scientist  and civil engineering professors from California State University, Sacramento and from the University of Colorado Boulder have identified the building code features that have the biggest impact on hazard resilience and translated those features into tangible, practical building solutions. The findings from their National Science Foundation-funded study were published in the

A dual approach to resilience

Ostermann and Liel say that housing resilience is both a governance issue and a technical problem. Building codes, as written, already contain nearly everything one needs to build safe homes — but in many places, implementation remains a barrier.

“Regulations support the goals of safe, resilient housing, but they can also get in the way,” said Ostermann, associate professor of global affairs and political science at Notre Dame’s . “We need to understand how culture and local building practices interact with regulatory processes.”

A locally informed approach to regulation was especially important given the site of the study: Anchorage, Alaska. Geographically isolated from the continental U.S., its independent-minded population Even after more than 750 homes were destroyed or damaged by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 2018, many Alaskans have retained their libertarian-leaning views. In other words, simply strengthening building codes does not guarantee safer construction if the codes are not followed in the first place.

“People everywhere share a desire for safe housing, but communities vary in the degree to which they regulate and enforce building codes,” Ostermann said.

A pragmatic approach to regulation

To gain local expertise on the key features of hazard-resilient housing, the researchers conducted interviews with nearly 40 experts including structural and geotechnical engineers, builders, regulators, inspectors and others. Underlying this approach is a concept Ostermann developed to help governments regulate more effectively in places where traditional, top-down models fail.

“It suggests that we need to understand the context in which we regulate, and that we need to design regulation for that context — which means sometimes doing things that are a little bit weird,” Ostermann said.

The sheer complexity of building code poses a challenge in and of itself.

“If you were to print it out, it's multiple volumes,” Ostermann said. “It’s too big to be comprehended by almost anybody, whether it’s the government using it or a contractor trying to meet the code.”

Because few people can realistically utilize the entire code, Ostermann and Liel argue that local officials and other stakeholders must prioritize a smaller set of features that matter most for hazard safety in their particular environment.

Engineering insights: Why homes fail and how to fix it

Echeverría and Liel’s computational structural engineering analysis showed that many homes in Alaska do not perform well in hazardous conditions because key structural elements are missing due to lack of compliance.

In many two-story homes built over large, open garages — a common design in Alaska — the mass of the second floor sits on a first floor with limited lateral support. “You’re basically missing one side of that box,” Liel said. “That overstrains the other sides and creates a twisting torsion problem, so these homes do not perform as well during an earthquake.”

Echeverría and Liel identified a list of critical structural features that should be prioritized to maximize compliance and hazard resilience:

• Shear walls — walls that are designed to withstand lateral forces such as wind
• Proper framing around garage openings
• Hold-downs — steel connectors that anchor a wall to the foundation and keep it anchored amid shaking

Liel emphasized that these solutions are neither exotic nor expensive, but homeowners and builders often do not recognize their significance. Echeverría and Liel’s findings provided the very list of “critical features” needed to inform Ostermann’s pragmatic regulation.

Ostermann and Liel are studying housing not only in Alaska, but also in Puerto Rico, which is still rebuilding eight years after Hurricane Maria, and Lahaina, Maui, which suffered widespread damage during a 2023 wildfire.

“When communities, engineers, builders and policymakers work together, resilience stops being an abstract ideal and becomes a place people can safely make their home in,” Ostermann said. “If we keep listening, learning and adapting, we can build homes that not only endure the next disaster, but also give families the security and stability they need to plan for the future.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Dec. 5.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

The at the University of Notre Dame announced a major gift from the Marten Charitable Foundation through the stewardship of Gini Marten Hupfer, foundation leader and member of the museum’s Advisory Council. The tandem naming and endowment gift was inspired by the legacy of Virginia Marten (1925–2022), a long-standing former member of the Advisory Council and devoted museum supporter.

The gift will confer the name “Marten Family Gallery” on the current east gallery of European Art through 1700. Works by Vincenzo Spisanelli, Claude Lorrain, Giuseppe Ribera and Bartolomeo Veneto, among others, are featured. With the renaming, a permanent feature, centered in the gallery, will be installed. Called the “Marian Court,” it will be a display featuring Marian imagery from the Raclin Murphy’s extensive holdings to honor Virginia Marten’s particular devotion to Mary, the Mother of Christ, and her love of art. Currently, images based on Marian iconography, ranging from paintings by Francesco Francia to Hans Memling to Giorgio Vasari, are highlighted in this space.

Complementing the named gallery, the second part of the gift establishes the Marten Family Endowment for Marian Art. The new endowment will provide support for research, conservation, acquisitions, interpretation and programming to advance scholarship and appreciation of the traditions of Marian Art. A unique endowment to the institution, it underscores both the museum’s and the University’s commitment to research and inquiry.

"This gift is meant to honor my sweet mother, Virginia Marten’s love for both Notre Dame, the Blessed Mother and her passion for the arts. We believe we found the perfect space in which to do just that at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. I know my mother would be thrilled and humbled by this," Gini Marten Hupfer said.

“The support of the Marten Family, beginning with Virginia and steadfastly followed by her children, is truly remarkable and inspiring,” said Joseph Antenucci Becherer, director and curator. “The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art and the University of Notre Dame are uniquely positioned to facilitate and celebrate the study and appreciation of Marian imagery, thus truly honoring the legacy of Virginia and her family. Their gift and endowment mark an exceptional moment when love, devotion and scholarship converge.”

Admission to the Museum is free for all guests. For more information on hours of operation, exhibits and special events, visit

Contact: Gina Costa, Communications Program Director, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, 574-631-4720, gcosta@nd.edu

The beginning of Advent, Father Dowd noted in his homily, was a fitting time to celebrate the Mass.

“Advent is a season when, in a special way, we are called to prepare a place for the Lord Jesus in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives and in our communities,” Father Dowd said. “Advent is also a season when we are called to develop insight — a ‘holy insight’ — that allows us to recognize the Lord Jesus as he comes to us.”

Father Dowd observed that Jesus “comes to us in ways that are stunning for their ordinariness.” Referencing the Mass’ first reading from the book of Deuteronomy, he said that God’s people are to be especially attentive to the vulnerable in their midst, for “God continues to come to us in flesh and blood, especially the flesh and blood of those who struggle the most.”

“While there are many vulnerable people in our midst here in our country and elsewhere in our world — and we Christians are called to recognize Christ present in them all — this evening, as members of the Notre Dame family, we join with our Holy Father, Pope Leo, and our bishops to pray that we might recognize Christ present in our immigrant population, many of whom are especially vulnerable these days,” Father Dowd said.

Father Dowd noted that “it is important to recognize the right and responsibility of governments to decide who, when and how to allow people into a country, including this one.”

“There can be no doubt our immigration system in this country is broken, and has been for some time,” he said. “There is need for reform.

“However, it is imperative that we treat people who are in this country — many for several years, contributing to and enriching our country — with the respect that their God-given dignity demands.”

Father Dowd exhorted the hundreds of attendees to consider how the Notre Dame community can work together to address the brokenness of the immigration system.

“At Notre Dame, we must do more than complain. We must deepen our understanding of the complexity of the situation and work with others to propose sensible and humane solutions,” he said. “That’s what universities are for.”

Father Dowd concluded his homily with a call to pray for immigrants, for “sensible and humane immigration policy reform” and for “elected leaders and all who have the responsibility of governing and enforcing our country’s laws.”

“And, let us pray that those of us who call ourselves Christians might be cultivators of hope by recognizing Christ in the vulnerable, serving him there, learning from him there and standing with him there,” he said.

“May Notre Dame always be a community dedicated to growth, not only in knowledge, understanding and technical expertise, but in wisdom and insight — the holy insight to recognize the mysterious presence of Christ in our midst.”

, vice president for student affairs, closed the Mass with an invitation to join Father Dowd and himself in prayer at the Grotto, “to light a candle and to ask for the intercession of Our Lady as we navigate these conversations as a nation.”

Father Dowd’s full homily is available at .

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-993-9220

The percentage of American children raised in two-parent homes, however, is strikingly low. Nearly 30 percent of American children now live outside a married-parent home, with 20 percent living with only their mother. Research has shown that this gap in family structures contributes to class gaps in childhood resources, experiences and outcomes, which simultaneously reflect and exacerbate inequality.

In partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s , the has launched an interdisciplinary research endeavor aimed at addressing these issues by building and disseminating evidence that will inform policy to strengthen families, support parents and improve child well-being.

Led by , the Gilbert F. Schaefer Professor in the , the has developed an ambitious research agenda that will foster policy-relevant work by scholars in economics, psychology, anthropology and other disciplines.

“I am honored to join colleagues across the Notre Dame community in launching an initiative that takes up the need to strengthen families as a research and policy priority,” said Kearney, who joined the Notre Dame faculty this fall after 19 years at the University of Maryland. “Through rigorous scholarship and active engagement, this effort will deepen our understanding of the challenges facing families in America and identify solutions that promote healthy family formation and stability. This is a timely and important endeavor — and Notre Dame is exactly the right place for it.”

Kearney, who also directs the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, is the author of “The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind.” She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her work has been published frequently in leading academic journals, and she has contributed pieces to , and .

The Strengthening Families Research Initiative has identified three key social challenges affecting family well-being: the number of U.S. children living with married parents has declined in the past 40 years; family structures differ significantly by education, race and ethnicity; and children who grow up outside two-parent homes are at an elevated risk of poverty and other measures of economic and social disadvantage.

To address these challenges, Kearney and other scholars will examine fundamental questions that align with the University’s Catholic mission-driven commitment to fighting poverty, including:

• What are effective ways to improve the economic position of non-college-educated men, and to what extent do such efforts promote stable families and better outcomes for men, women and children?

• How should government tax codes and transfer programs be reformed to promote, rather than discourage, the formation of stable marriages and families?

• What is the causal link between the legal and institutional frameworks around marriage and divorce and the decline in marriage and married-parent homes? How do these legal and institutional frameworks affect child and parent well-being?

• What types of programs and interventions advance healthy relationship formation and effective co-parenting? How successful are such programs at improving children’s and parents’ outcomes?

• How can systems that interact with vulnerable families be reformed and leveraged to better serve and strengthen families?

“The challenges facing families are immense. Understanding what works to strengthen families is crucial in the fight against poverty,” said , professor of economics, director of the Notre Dame Poverty Initiative, and co-founder and director of the “The Poverty Initiative is proud to support the efforts of the Strengthening Families Research Initiative in their examination of what policies and programs best support family stability and social mobility.”

A focus on building strong families as part of an anti-poverty research and policy agenda is more complex than a focus on education, labor market, health care or housing interventions, Kearney said. Families are deeply personal affairs, and relationships are complicated, but they do affect economic realities, children’s life trajectories and societal outcomes.

Kearney believes that researchers, community leaders and policymakers must collaborate to address barriers many face in creating strong and supportive family environments for themselves and their children. With support from across the University, she believes Notre Dame can be the place where those connections are made.

“The Strengthening Families Research Initiative embodies what makes Notre Dame distinctive: a deep commitment to rigorous research, to the fight against poverty and to Catholic social teaching,” said , the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. “We are thrilled that a scholar and leader as exceptional as Melissa has chosen Notre Dame as the place to do this work, and I look forward to supporting her and her team as they use the best social science evidence to understand what truly helps families thrive in the real world.”

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

The United States Department of Defense has honored the University of Notre Dame’s (ROTC) as the nation’s top Navy collegiate program for the 2023-24 academic year. This comes after the Department of Defense, also called the Department of War, bestowed the same honor on the University’s Army ROTC program in May.

Presented annually, the Educational Institution Partnership Excellence Award recognizes the outstanding ROTC unit and host educational institution from each military department based on accomplishments in three areas: performance, educational institution support and other noteworthy achievements.

“We are proud of our Midshipmen and Navy ROTC leaders, whose character, discipline and concern for the common good represent the best of Notre Dame,” , said. “It is wonderful to see them recognized alongside our Army ROTC cadets, and on behalf of the entire campus community, we congratulate them on this prestigious honor.”

In a recent ceremony at the reflecting pool on campus, Midshipman Annika Kell, a senior environmental science major, presented Father Dowd with a certificate of recognition for the award.

They were joined by CAPT John Smith, commanding officer of the Naval ROTC unit; CDR Matt Wood, executive officer of the unit; senior mechanical engineering major Douglass Tackney, midshipman executive officer of the unit; and senior mechanical engineering major Charlie Alberino, midshipman operations officer of the unit, among others.

“The Naval ROTC program plays a critical role in developing our young men and women for service as commissioned officers in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, striking a balance between leadership, academics, physical fitness and community involvement,” Smith said. “The success of the program depends on many factors, most notably the selfless dedication of our students and staff and the unwavering support of the University. To that end, we are grateful to the Department of War for this recognition, which is a testament to the service and character of not just the unit, but Notre Dame as a whole.”

Notre Dame supports the Naval ROTC program in many ways. Historically, the University’s presidents have participated in the annual pass-in-review and presentation of the Commander’s Cup award. The University provides active-duty staff with parking, tuition assistance, facilities access and inclusion in faculty social events. And it recognizes active-duty staff during home football games. The University also supports midshipmen by counting naval science classes toward degree completion and providing access to campus facilities.

The Naval ROTC unit supports both Notre Dame and the local community. Midshipmen collectively average 40 hours per week of community service to seven organizations. They work in conjunction with the assistant Marine officer instructor to provide mentorship, advisement and evaluation to six high school Junior ROTC programs in the area. They also support veteran events, including memorials, holidays and ceremonies, and provide color guard service through Notre Dame’s .

“This recognition reflects the commitment our Midshipmen make to selflessly serve our nation, as so many of our Naval ROTC program graduates have done for decades,” said Kenneth Heckel, the Sergeant John F. Crowley Director of the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs. “We are deeply grateful for the collective dedication of our students, faculty and staff in the Naval ROTC program, combined with the University’s support, that ensures our motto of ‘God, Country, Notre Dame’ rings true across our campus.”

Notre Dame’s long history of military service and training can be traced back to the University’s founding by Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., in 1842. Just 16 years later, in 1858, a student military company called the Notre Dame Continental Cadets was formed. During the Civil War, many Congregation of Holy Cross priests and sisters served in varying capacities, with Rev. William Corby, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s third president, being the most notable for his granting absolution to the Union Army’s Irish Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg.

On Christmas Eve 1862, three Holy Cross sisters boarded the U.S. Navy’s first hospital ship, the Red Rover, to serve as nurses for the wounded on both sides of the war. They traveled the Mississippi River carrying sick and wounded soldiers to various military hospitals. In so doing, they became what U.S. naval history today hails as the forerunners of the United States Navy Nurse Corps.

In the 1950s, Notre Dame became one of the first universities to host all three military branches with an affiliated ROTC program, with former University President , signing official documentation in 1951 for the formal establishment of the Army ROTC program.

The association between the University and the Department of Navy began in September 1941 with the formation of an NROTC unit under the command of Captain H. P. Burnett. The program offered a four-year course in naval science and tactics that led to a reserve commission. It did not pay tuition and often did not entail active-duty service after commissioning.

As the U.S. entered World War II, many changes occurred. 91��Ƶ were accelerated for all students, enabling them to finish their degrees in three years or less. The Navy expanded its officer training at Notre Dame, beginning in February 1942, with the V-7 program. Under this program, officer candidates were indoctrinated at Notre Dame and continued their training at Abbott Hall in Chicago or on the USS Prairie State, anchored in the Hudson River.

In September 1942, Notre Dame became a Midshipman Training Center, one of four in the nation.

Midshipmen completed four months of training before receiving a commission. In January 1943, 1,100 ensigns graduated from the program and became the first group of officers to receive all their training and be commissioned at Notre Dame.

In 1943, the Navy further expanded its officer accessions with the V-12 program. This program offered two 16-week semesters of academics, followed by further studies and training depending on the officer’s specialty. With the V-12 program, Notre Dame acquired a Marine detachment under the leadership of Capt. John W. Finney, USMCR. During this time, the NROTC program remained active, graduating its first class in February 1944.

As a result of such extensive involvement with the Navy, Notre Dame’s student body had a large military relationship in World War II. In 1944, there were 2,610 students enrolled; 1,771 of whom were in the military. Six hundred and thirty-nine were civilians, and 200 were students of religion. During the war, Notre Dame trained nearly 12,000 naval officers.

As the war ended, the various officer accession programs were phased out, and by 1945, only the NROTC program remained. Under the Holloway Plan, Notre Dame NROTC continued to prepare officers for the Navy and Marine Corps.

Esteemed graduates of Notre Dame’s ROTC programs include the only three four-star flag officers in Notre Dame history:, a 1987 Army ROTC graduate and U.S. Special Operations Commander;, a 1984 Navy ROTC graduate, retired vice chairman and former acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Notre Dame’s 2025 Commencement speaker; and ADM. William J. Houston, a 1990 Naval ROTC graduate and director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. All are recipients of the.

The research group is led by Joseph Kahne, the Ted and Jo Dutton Presidential Professor at the UCR 91��Ƶ of Education, and is a joint effort with , the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy in Notre Dame’s , and David Kidd, the chief assessment scientist for Harvard’s Democratic Knowledge Project.

The Civic Impact Project will receive $500,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and $100,000 from the Stuart Foundation.

“This project will dig deep into understanding what America’s youth do and do not know about civic education,” said Campbell, who is also the director of Notre Dame’s . “To do so, we will develop new ways of measuring what young people are learning.”

Historically, funding for both civic education and civic education research has been limited. As a result, those seeking to make decisions on civic education often lack the evidence required to productively guide policy and practice, Kahne said. This funding aims to change that. The metrics developed will clarify ways in which education can support the pursuit of a more democratic society.

“The Civic Impact Project gives us the opportunity to bring researchers from many disciplines together with those working for change in schools to create new measures and then put them to use,” Kahne said.

This work will align with the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, a nonpartisan framework designed to improve K-12 civics and history education in the U.S. It was launched in 2021 with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education, and was developed by more than 300 scholars, educators and practitioners from across the political spectrum.

“Many Americans are concerned about the state of civic education,” Campbell said. “But to improve it, we need to have yardsticks to know if we are making progress. This project will enable us to see what works to ensure that today’s youth are prepared to be active, engaged citizens.”

The Civic Impact Project is organizing scholars to develop research briefs and essential next steps for metric development. The briefs will be discussed and refined over the course of the project at two convenings. Building on the work completed during the grant period, the project plans to field-test the metrics in partnership with key stakeholders and districts.

Campbell, who will direct the effort alongside Kahne and Kidd, said that the grant will allow Notre Dame to host these convenings with civic education scholars.

“Many people are concerned about the state of the American republic,” Campbell said. “We see this as an opportunity to revive civic education. Our aim is to help America’s schools foster an informed, engaged citizenry.”

The was launched as part of the to establish Notre Dame as a global leader in the study of democracy, a convenor for conversations about and actions to preserve democracy, and a model for the formation of civically engaged citizens and public servants.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

University of Notre Dame faculty members , , and have been inducted into the in recognition of their outstanding scholarly achievement.

Fassler, the Keough-Hesburgh Professor Emerita of Music History and Liturgy; Girgis, a professor of law; Gregory, a professor of history; and Kamat, the Rev. John A. Zahm Professor of Science; were recognized during an investiture ceremony on November 12 at the historic Decatur House in Washington, D.C.

They join a prestigious list of AASL members including Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Haidt, Steven Koonin, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Steven Pinker, Akhil Reed Amar and Nobel laureate scientists Arieh Warshel, Jennifer Doudna and David W.C. MacMillan.

Fassler is renowned for her work at the intersection of musicology, liturgical studies and theology and is a specialist in sacred music. She is a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy, a former president of the Medieval Academy of America, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an honorary member of the American Musicological Society. Her 2010 book “The Virgin of Chartres: Making History through Liturgy and the Arts” was awarded both the ACE/Mercers’ Award and the Otto Gründler Prize.

Girgis, who teaches constitutional law, is the author of “Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination,” among other works. His work in constitutional law and theory has appeared in venues including the Columbia Law Review, the New York University Law Review, the American Journal of Jurisprudence and the Harvard Law Review Forum. Prior to his academic career, he clerked for both U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

A historian of Western Europe in the Reformation era, Gregory has analyzed the effects of early modern religious disagreement and religiopolitical conflict in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as in the long-term shaping of Western modernity up to the present. His books have been awarded numerous prizes, including the Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities of the Council of Graduate 91��Ƶs, the John Gilmary Shea Prize of American Catholic Historical Association and the Thomas J. Wilson Prize of Harvard University Press.

Kamat’s research aims to elucidate the mechanistic and kinetic details of charge transfer processes in nanostructured assemblies with an objective to improve energy conversion efficiencies. He is a fellow of numerous societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society. Among other honors, he has won the Richard E. Smalley Award of The Electrochemical Society and the Henry H. Storch Award in Energy Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.

Four Notre Dame faculty were also invited to join the academy in 2024: Gary A. Anderson, the Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Thought; Paolo Carozza, a professor of law and concurrent professor of political science; Richard Garnett, the Paul J. Schierl Professor of Law and a concurrent professor of political science; and Christian Smith, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology.

The American Academy of Sciences and Letters promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences and learned professions. It supports learning by encouraging the exchange of ideas within academia and in society at large, and by sponsoring occasions for scholarly interaction and providing platforms for the presentation and dissemination of scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-993-9220

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, schools around the globe had to switch from regular, in-person classes to online learning overnight. This introduced numerous operational challenges, particularly in equipping students with quantitative skills essential for the labor market.

New research from the University of Notre Dame looks at how the abrupt move from classroom teaching to online learning during the lockdown affected college students’ performance in China.

Surprisingly, the undergraduates performed better in math after switching to online classes — improving their scores by about eight to 11 points on a 100-point scale, according to , the Howard J. and Geraldine F. Korth Associate Professor of Marketing at Notre Dame’s . Lu’s research, “,” is forthcoming in Production and Operations Management.

Along with Xintong Han from Laval University in Quebec City, Shane Wang from Virginia Tech and Nan Cui at Wuhan University in China, Lu analyzed more than 15,000 course records from nearly 8,000 students across nine universities. They compared students’ grades from before the pandemic, when they learned in person, to those during the lockdown when all classes moved online.

Results varied depending on the subject and the lockdown environment. Online learning worked especially well for reasoning-based subjects such as mathematics, where students could pause lectures, rewatch examples and practice problems at their own pace. In contrast, courses such as English that rely on discussion and interpretation, and are challenging to replicate effectively in virtual environments, benefited much less from the online format.

“Contrary to the widespread belief that online education is less effective than face-to-face instruction, our findings show that students actually performed better online, at least in quantitative subjects during the pandemic,” said Lu, who specializes in business analytics and digital marketing. “This challenges the traditional view that in-person learning is always superior and suggests that, under certain conditions, well-structured online environments can enhance learning outcomes.”

Results were linked to the strictness of stay-at-home orders or transportation bans to see how different types of governmental lockdown policies shaped learning outcomes. Using rigorous econometric methods, the researchers made sure that the improvements they observed were due to the switch to online learning and not other unrelated factors.

They found that stricter stay-at-home orders issued by the government raised psychological stress and reduced the effectiveness of online learning. However, these negative effects were partially offset when workplace closures and public transportation suspensions helped some people maintain focus and discipline.

One possible explanation is that as parents were more frequently home due to employment interruptions, they were better positioned to ensure their children attended virtual classes, remained focused on tasks and followed a structured schedule. Meanwhile, suspension of public transportation reduced opportunities for social outings and non-academic distractions, effectively creating a quieter, more focused study environment at home.

“Our results show that online education when done thoughtfully can be more than just a backup plan during emergencies,” Lu said. “It can be an effective tool for learning, especially in analytical subjects.”

For educators, this means designing online courses that take advantage of digital tools — such as interactive exercises or on-demand videos — rather than simply moving lectures onto Zoom. For policymakers, it highlights that not all lockdown policies have the same effect on educational outcomes. Strict stay-at-home orders hurt learning, but moderate workplace closures that allow parents to supervise their children help to improve outcomes.

“These insights can help schools and governments better prepare for future disruptions — whether from pandemics, natural disasters or other emergencies — by understanding how to balance safety and learning effectiveness,” Lu said.

The study shows that online learning programs need to be flexible and designed with the specific course material and students’ physical location in mind.

Contact: Shijie Lu, 574-631-5883, slyu@nd.edu

Forced displacement has surged in recent years, fueling a global crisis. Over the past decade, the number of displaced people worldwide has nearly doubled, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. In 2024 alone, one in 67 people fled their homes.

A new study co-authored by University of Notre Dame researcher shows that analyzing social media posts can help experts predict when people will move during crises, supporting faster and more effective aid delivery. The study highlights how powerful computational tools can help address major global challenges to human dignity.

“Traditional data, such as surveys, are extremely difficult to collect during forced migration crises,” said Marahrens, assistant professor of computational social science in Notre Dame’s . “As early warning systems evolve, artificial intelligence and new digital data can help improve them. Ultimately this can help strengthen humanitarian responses, saving lives and reducing suffering.”

Providing timely aid to displaced people

The study, published in , analyzed three case studies. In Ukraine, 10.6 million people were displaced following Russia’s 2022 invasion. In Sudan, approximately 12.8 million people were displaced following a civil war that broke out in April 2023. And in Venezuela, about 7 million people have been displaced in recent years because of multiple economic crises.

Researchers reviewed almost 2 million social media posts in three languages on X (formerly Twitter). They found that sentiment (positive, negative or neutral) was a more reliable signal for predicting when people were about to move than emotion (joy, anger or fear). Sentiment was particularly helpful at predicting the timing and volume of cross-border movements.

After comparing several approaches for analyzing social media posts, researchers found that pretrained language models provided the most effective early warning. These AI tools are trained on massive amounts of text using deep learning, a method that helps computers learn patterns much like the human brain.

“Our findings will help researchers refine models to predict how people move during conflict or disasters,” Marahrens said.

Social media analysis seems to work best in conflict settings such as Ukraine, Marahrens said, but not as well in economic crises such as the ones Venezuela experienced, which unfolded more slowly.

He cautioned that such analyses can trigger false alarms. They are most valuable as an early trigger for deeper investigation, he said, particularly when combined with traditional data sources such as economic indicators and on-the-ground reports.

Future work could explore connections between sentiment and emotion, focusing on where they connect and diverge, Marahrens said. It could also examine how automated translation services could help researchers analyze more languages. Finally, future research could include data from additional social media networks.

“Together, these improvements could help strengthen these tools,” Marahrens said, “making them more helpful for policymakers and humanitarian organizations that work with displaced people.”

Marahrens, who joined Notre Dame this fall, works on a variety of issues related to globalization and inequality, applying his computational social science expertise to a range of research projects. He is affiliated with the Keough 91��Ƶ’s as well as the University’s .

The study received funding from the National Science Foundation and from Georgetown University’s Massive Data Institute.

Originally published by Josh Stowe at on Nov. 17.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

, vice president and associate provost for academic space and support at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed the Edward H. Arnold Dean of the by University President

Meserve, who has served as interim library dean since August 2024, now begins a five-year term.

“The Hesburgh Libraries are vital to Notre Dame’s aspirations to be the leading global Catholic research university,” Father Dowd said. “Over her 20-year career at the University, Margaret has demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication to Notre Dame’s mission, including most recently as interim dean, earning the respect and admiration of her colleagues. I am confident that under her guidance, the libraries will continue to advance the University’s research, teaching and learning goals while fostering Notre Dame’s engagement with the global scholarly community.”

, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, said Meserve was well-suited to her new role. “Margaret is an unusually gifted administrator,” he said. “She possesses vision, superb communications skills and a deep commitment to Notre Dame. All of this has been in evidence in her multiple roles at Notre Dame.”

Meserve was appointed vice president and associate provost for academic space and support in 2023. Prior to that, she served as associate dean for the humanities and faculty affairs and director of space planning in the and co-director of the .

“A professor of history, Margaret is passionate about rare books and special collections, sophisticated in her use of data and a leading scholar of the history of the book,” McGreevy noted. “The search committee praised her work as interim dean, her compelling vision for the library and her commitment to deepening the engagement of the libraries with all of Notre Dame’s colleges and schools.”

In her continued capacity as vice president and associate provost, Meserve will maintain oversight of the , the and the . She will be handing off her current duties related to academic space and support to Vice President and Associate Provost by the end of the academic year.

As dean, Meserve will lead a team of nearly 140 faculty and staff members at the flagship Hesburgh Library — which houses the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship, the Medieval Institute Library, the University Archives and Rare Books & Special Collections — and three specialty libraries located across the Notre Dame campus (architecture, business and music).

“I’m honored and excited to continue working with our expert library faculty and staff to strengthen support for research, teaching and the preservation of knowledge at Notre Dame for generations to come,” Meserve said. “And I look forward to advancing new initiatives in information literacy, digital collections and scholarly communication that will advance the Hesburgh Libraries as a leader among university research libraries.”

Meserve received her bachelor’s degree in classics from Harvard and her master’s and doctorate in Renaissance history from the University of London. She taught at Princeton for two years before coming to Notre Dame in 2003. She has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies, and she is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

In her research and teaching, Meserve focuses on the Italian Renaissance and the histories of printing and book production, history writing, humanist culture and the papacy in the 15th and 16th centuries. Both her undergraduate and graduate courses often make use of the Hesburgh Libraries’ rare books and manuscripts as a way to introduce students to the material evidence of history. Her most recent book, “Papal Bull: Print, Politics, and Propaganda in Renaissance Rome,” for the most distinguished work in Italian history published in 2021.

She is currently working on a translation of the “Commentaries” of Pope Pius II, a Renaissance pope known for his scholarship and the only pope ever to compose an autobiography while in office.

Father Dowd extended to the Holy Father the good wishes, prayers and support of the entire Notre Dame community. The discussion centered on the role Notre Dame and other Catholic universities can play in serving the Church, addressing the challenges of our times, and fostering human flourishing. The Holy Father expressed gratitude for Notre Dame’s many contributions as a global Catholic research university, and he encouraged Notre Dame to continue its efforts to build bridges.

Father Dowd presented Pope Leo with a sculpture of St. John Henry Newman, created by the late Rev. Anthony J. Lauck, C.S.C., a longtime professor of art at Notre Dame. St. Newman was named co-patron saint of Catholic universities, colleges and schools and declared a doctor of the Church by Pope Leo on Nov. 1.

The audience concluded with Pope Leo bestowing a blessing upon those gathered and upon all who are part of the Notre Dame family.

In the course of a four-day visit to Rome, the Notre Dame delegation also met with Vatican officials from the various dicasteries — departments within the Holy See — with whom the University has established partnerships.