For people living with HIV, the road to a promising cancer treatment can be longer than it should be, literally.

According to a new multi-institutional , HIV-positive cancer patients face significantly longer travel times than cancer patients without HIV to receive chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, an experimental treatment that may help target cancer cells while resisting HIV infection.

The University of Notre Dame's (C-GALL) teamed up with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, University of Notre Dame, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Virginia Mason Medical Center, University of Washington Positive Research, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to examine whether geography may create an additional barrier to accessing CAR-T clinical trials.

CAR-T therapy, which uses engineered white blood cells (T-cells) to recognize and target cancer cells, has transformed treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and may provide life-saving care for people living with HIV.

The study was co-led by , director of C-GALL and associate professor of the practice in the , and Luke Maillie, M.D., a hematology/oncology fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Together, they brought clinical and geospatial perspectives to a question of equity in access to emerging cancer therapies.

“Access to clinical trials for CAR-T therapy is particularly important for people living with HIV, who face higher cancer mortality rates than people without HIV and for whom NHL remains a leading cause of cancer-related death,” said Maillie.

Yet of CAR-T trials have excluded people living with HIV, highlighting their continued underrepresentation in cancer clinical research. That gap prompted Maillie, Sisk, and colleagues to examine not only whether people with HIV were eligible for CAR-T trials, but also how easily they could access those trials geographically.

Geospatial analysis uses location-based data to examine patterns and relationships across geographic areas, helping researchers understand how factors such as distance and accessibility vary by where people live.

“We know that generally there is a link between longer travel times to care and poor health outcomes. Our goal was to apply geospatial analysis to investigate how much more difficult it is for individuals with HIV to reach the nearest clinical trial than the general population,” Sisk explained.

By surveying the National Institutes of Health’s clinical trials for all trials related to the treatment of NHL with CAR-T therapies, the researchers found that people living with HIV experienced a median travel time of 1.15 hours to the nearest CAR-T clinical trial that included them, compared with 0.84 hours for trials that excluded them. In the US South, where HIV prevalence is highest, the gap was even greater: 1.70 hours compared with 0.92 hours.

The analysis included 80 interventional CAR-T trials enrolling adults and with at least one trial site in the U.S. Of those, only 11 (13.8 percent) included people living with HIV, while 58 (72.5 percent) explicitly excluded them. Another 11 trials did not mention HIV in their eligibility criteria.

Access to HIV-inclusive trials was lower across nearly all racial and ethnic groups, income levels, insurance types, and geographic regions. Lower household income was also consistently associated with longer travel times to CAR-T clinical trials across regions.

“These findings highlight a significant gap in access to CAR-T clinical trials for people with HIV, both through exclusion from trials and longer travel times to the trials that include them,” Sisk said. “Expanding HIV-inclusive eligibility criteria and increasing access through decentralized trial sites or partnerships between academic and community centers could help reduce these barriers and ensure that this population has more equitable access to emerging CAR-T therapies.”

“Geospatial data can reveal dimensions of inequality that are difficult to see in the numbers alone,” said , the Joe and Jane Giovanini Professor of IT, Analytics and Operations in the and director of the . “The work of C-GALL shows how putting data on the map can help us understand not just who has access to care, but where barriers exist and how those barriers affect communities. This human-centered approach to data is central to the interdisciplinary research that we are driving within the Lucy Family Institute.”

To learn more about the geospatial research within C-GALL, please visit the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society .

Contact: Brandi Wampler, associate director of story development, 574-631-2632,��brandiwampler@nd.edu

The drug belzutifan, sold under the name Welireg, is partially effective in treating this cancer, according to , the John M. and Mary Jo Boler Collegiate Professor and associate chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame. Unfortunately, some tumors are inherently resistant to the drug while others can develop resistance. Lu and collaborators determined that combining it with a laboratory-made protein called recombinant tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) significantly increased the death of tumor cells in laboratory tests and in��models.

Most people who develop clear cell renal cell carcinoma have von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome, which is caused by a mutation in a tumor suppressor gene VHL, though other people can develop the cancer as well.

Lu and collaborators discovered that losing the VHL gene ignites another protein, HIF-2-alpha, causing it to create high levels of natural TRAIL inside the cell. TRAIL normally triggers cell death, called apoptosis, when it locks onto receptors on the cancer cells. However, the high level of TRAIL traps its own “death” receptors deep inside the cell, preventing any external treatments from reaching them. It also speeds up the cell cycle, causing tumors to increase in size.

Using a recombinant form of TRAIL—essentially a lab-produced version of the protein—and combining it with the belzutifan was key: The belzutifan reduced the HIF-2-alpha protein. This also reduces the amount of natural TRAIL inside the cell, freeing up the hidden death receptors and sending them back to the surface, said Lu, who is affiliated with the�� as well as the , and the .

After reducing the amount of the natural TRAIL protein, Lu and collaborators then introduce the recombinant TRAIL to latch onto the newly exposed receptors.

“This is really kind of magical, because when you reduce TRAIL, you can reduce cell division, cell proliferation, and make the cell more vulnerable to apoptosis,” he said. “You really kind of force the cells into this corner where they can’t divide well.”

Because belzutifan is already FDA-approved and TRAIL-activating therapies are undergoing clinical trials, this combination therapy is a hopeful step in treating clear cell renal cell carcinoma, Lu said.

When he presented the research at a major urology conference, "the physicians, they're excited about this," he said. "They all know this belzutifan resistance is something they have to overcome."

In addition to researchers at Notre Dame, other collaborators included researchers from the University of Galway in Ireland. Support for the project came from the Boler Family Foundation, the Naughton Faculty Research Accelerator Program, and the .

Contact: Brandi Wampler, associate director of story development, 574-631-2632,��brandiwampler@nd.edu

Originally published by Deanna Csomo Ferrell at on September 09, 2026.

Most people have a certain set of standards about what they believe and how to live their lives. But most people don’t bother to write out each one—with citations—on the internet.

isn’t most people.

On his , the University of Notre Dame professor of philosophy details 100-plus philosophical views that he has published in books or journal articles, covering topics from deontology (No. 17) to supererogation noninheritance (No. 72).

“In philosophy, you take your views—about how you ought to live, what to believe, what does and doesn’t exist, whether you have free will, the place of science—and try to make that all coherent,” Portmore said.

Now, he’s compiled many of his views into a book, , forthcoming with Oxford University Press. In it, he shares his personal worldview, which combines the principles of utilitarianism and consequentialism with the ideas of 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Consequentialism defines the moral value of an action by its consequences, and utilitarianism applies consequentialism by assigning value to actions that maximize happiness. Based on utilitarianism, the ends always justify the means, and a person is only as valuable as they are happy.

“It’s very important for all of us to be critical thinkers.”

Conversely, Kantianism asserts that people are inherently valuable, regardless of the happiness they bring, and therefore should always be respected.

In Kantsequentialism, Portmore seeks to combine the best parts of those often-at-odds philosophies.

“In my view, one thing that matters is respecting people’s decisions,” said Portmore, who came to Notre Dame in 2025 after spending 20 years at Arizona State University and five at California State University, Northridge. “But another thing that matters is how much good there is in the world.”

Looking at the world through Portmore’s view involves more nuance than one sentence can contain—hence the 106-item list and 500-page book. But what he wants from the study of moral philosophy can be put simply: “Tell me how I want the world to go, and then tell me which of my options will make the world go that way.”

Unlike other academic fields, philosophy can’t give Portmore answers through observation or experimentation. Therefore, his research goal is to compile a worldview, and as a professor, to help students find their own worldviews, too.

In addition to the individual research and teaching, Portmore is developing a research program in ethics as a program chair for the . His work aligns with and enhances the , which supported his recruitment and appointment last year.

As part of the initiative, Portmore recently convened a two-day workshop that brought together ethical philosophers, including faculty and graduate students, from the University of Michigan and Notre Dame for a weekend of intellectual exchange in Saint Joseph, Michigan. All attendees presented work in progress across a broad range of topics and received feedback from peers.

“Michigan is not only geographically convenient, but both of our schools have an incredible department of ethicists and philosophers,” said , associate professor of philosophy at Notre Dame and one of the workshop co-planners. “People put a lot of effort into their feedback, making it sharp, but constructive in spirit—and multiple attendees said it was the best feedback they’ve received on their work.”

Portmore is also shaping philosophical conversation globally as editor-in-chief of Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy, which has published scholarly work for over a century. He reviews more than 700 papers submitted each year, helping both rising and established philosophers make their mark in the field.

“It’s a way to pay back the community that gave me this wonderful profession,” Portmore said. “My life as a philosopher changed when I got my first publication in the journal that I now edit.”

Complete understanding

At the beginning of his scholarly career, Portmore traveled to Australia to study under the famous utilitarian Peter Singer at Monash University’s Centre for Human Bioethics.

Singer is known for his belief that an individual’s value is solely dependent on how happy they are—going so far as to claim a happy rabbit’s life is considered more valuable than an unhappy human.

Portmore initially agreed with him, because he was fully aligned with utilitarianism at that time and was determined to bring all other philosophers into the fold. He wanted all to agree that actions and their consequences—and the worlds they create — should be ranked according to the point of view of the universe.

But as Portmore learned from and debated other Monash faculty, it became difficult to convince himself of utilitarianism, let alone other scholars.

“The more I thought about it, I thought, ‘Why should I do that?’” he said. “I have reasons to want some worlds more than others that have nothing to do with the point of view of the universe.”

That realization put Portmore on the path towards developing Kantsequentialism. It wasn’t his first turning point; in fact, when he started his undergraduate studies at the University of California, San Diego, he thought understanding the world would be fulfilled by studying science, not philosophy.

But Portmore realized the field wasn’t for him when he saw how many assumptions scientists take for granted. For example, one philosophical theory called idealism suggests that reality is entirely made up of ideas and thoughts, not anything physical. While Portmore admits he personally thinks idealism is patently false, he argues it’s still a perspective that needs to be considered.

“Some people think philosophy doesn’t make any progress because we’re still talking about the same things that Plato and Aristotle talked about thousands of years ago. I make progress when I see students open their eyes and start questioning the assumptions of the previous generation.”

“Scientists don’t argue that their view is better than idealism; they just assume that idealism is false and move on,” he said. “So if I want to understand the world completely, science is not where it’s at.”

That’s an easier process with support from one of the world's largest philosophy departments. Notre Dame’s continued investment in the humanities, Portmore said, has attracted and developed a strong cohort of other ethical philosophers with whom he can discuss ideas. It’s a place where he has found others like him who seek understanding.

Understanding the world is more than a matter of intellectual curiosity, Portmore said, because society can make grave errors when things go unquestioned. Ideas ranging from geocentrism to enslavement were once widely accepted norms, he said, and philosophy seeks to root out other harmful ideas from modern society.

And that’s why Portmore believes philosophy isn’t just for philosophers.

“It’s very important for all of us to be critical thinkers—ones who don’t just accept something because your parents accepted it or the generation before you accepted it or your culture or your nation accepts it,” he said. “It’s important to learn to question those things.”

Teaching disagreement

A large part of Portmore’s role as a philosopher is teaching his students how to question everything, whether they’re first-years completing the or accomplished Ph.D. candidates.

He gets particularly energized when students begin examining all areas of their own lives: Should we be eating meat? Does God exist? Should we be giving to charity? Is science infallible? How do we know we’re not dreaming?

“I’m not there to teach them certain facts,” Portmore said. “I’m teaching them a set of skills and trying to elicit some intellectual curiosity in them, a willingness to be open-minded and to critically reflect on what they were brought up to believe.”

That can be difficult in introductory courses full of students with no particular interest in philosophy, and especially with those hesitant to openly disagree with their professors. When Portmore brings up something like idealism, he doesn’t want his students taking notes—he wants them to say, “That’s insane!”

Once students learn that it’s OK to disagree, Portmore said, he can teach them how to disagree properly and express themselves effectively. Those are key skills for every student, no matter their major.

Everyone should spend time thinking about how they should live their life, Portmore said. and that process moves forward every time someone asks a question.

“Some people think philosophy doesn’t make any progress because we’re still talking about the same things that Plato and Aristotle talked about thousands of years ago,” he said. “I make progress when I see students open their eyes and start questioning the assumptions of the previous generation.”

Originally published by Adah McMillan at on September 29, 2026.

After more than 18 years of service to the , including 15 years as its executive director, Dolly Duffy ’84 will retire effective June 30, 2027, concluding a tenure defined by faith, service, innovation, and an abiding belief in the power of the Notre Dame family.

From her roots in the small town of Fort Pierre, South Dakota, to Notre Dame communities in nearly every corner of the world, Duffy has spent her career bringing people together around a University and a mission she loves deeply.

Duffy joined the Alumni Association in 2008 and was named executive director in 2011, becoming the first woman to lead the Notre Dame Alumni Association. Over the ensuing 15 years, she helped guide the Alumni Association into an era of global and digital connection while preserving what has always made the Notre Dame family distinctive: relationships rooted in faith, friendship, service, and a desire to be a force for good.

Today, the Notre Dame family includes more than 160,000 alumni and 262 clubs around the world. Under Duffy’s leadership, the Alumni Association has found new ways to help alumni, parents, and friends remain connected to Notre Dame wherever life takes them.

“When Father Sorin envisioned that Notre Dame would become a great force for good, he could not have known the impact our alumni would have in every corner of the world,” said University President “Thanks to Dolly’s extraordinary leadership over the past 15 years, the Notre Dame family across the globe is more connected than it has ever been, bound together by cherished friendships, a desire for lifelong learning, a shared commitment to serve others, and an unfailing dedication to and love for the mission of Our Lady’s University. We could not be more grateful for Dolly’s many invaluable contributions, and we look forward to celebrating her in the months ahead.”

During her tenure, the Alumni Association broadened the ways the Notre Dame family engaged with the University in faith, learning, service, and professional life. FaithND, the Alumni Association’s spiritual outreach program, has grown into a worldwide community, with its Daily Gospel Reflection alone reaching more than 100,000 subscribers. ThinkND, the association’s free online learning community, opened the intellectual life of the University to learners around the world, while the career-focused IrishCompass created new opportunities for alumni and students to mentor, network, and support one another professionally.

Duffy also championed opportunities to put faith into action through service. Family Volunteer Camp brings generations of Notre Dame families together to serve the South Bend community each summer, and the Notre Dame Global Day of Service each spring mobilizes thousands of volunteers through hundreds of projects across the United States and around the world.

Together, those efforts reflect a conviction at the heart of Duffy’s leadership: A relationship with Notre Dame is meant to deepen over a lifetime.

“Dolly has spent her career strengthening what we believe is the greatest alumni network in the world,” said , vice president for University Relations. “Numbers alone cannot capture her impact. Dolly understands that Notre Dame has always been about people, caring for and accompanying one another through life, and finding ways to serve something larger than ourselves. She has brought an uncommon combination of faith, energy, and love for this University to everything she has done.”

That spirit has carried Duffy across the globe, meeting alumni, parents, and friends where they live and helping connect local communities more deeply with Notre Dame and one another.

“Dolly helped us think more expansively about what it means to belong to the Notre Dame family,” Dick Nussbaum, former Alumni Association president and current Hesburgh Trustee, said. “Whether you are 10 miles from the Golden Dome or 10,000 miles away, she wanted you to know that Notre Dame was still your home. And then she challenged all of us to take the gifts of the Notre Dame community back into the world. Dolly did the impossible. She became an ND legend after replacing an ND legend, [former Alumni Association Executive Director] Chuck Lennon.”

Whether welcoming families home for Reunion, joining the Notre Dame community in prayer, gathering Notre Dame communities thousands of miles from campus, or accompanying members of the Notre Dame family through moments of celebration and loss, Duffy has embodied the Alumni Association’s commitment to keep Notre Dame close to its people and its people close to one another.

“Serving the alumni, parents, and friends of the University has been the privilege of a lifetime,” Duffy said. “I truly have the best job at the University. I get to meet the most amazing people and help them connect with each other and Notre Dame. As I tell our volunteer leaders and the incredible staff at the Alumni Association, we are keeping the Notre Dame spirit alive all over the world. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

A global search will commence shortly to identify the next executive director of the Notre Dame Alumni Association.

, professor and director of the doctoral program in the at the University of Notre Dame, will receive the 2026 Ratzinger Prize in Theology, widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the field.

Pope Leo XIV will present the prize to Cavadini at the Vatican Apostolic Palace on December 19.

Cavadini is the third theologian from Notre Dame to win the Ratzinger Prize, following professors emeriti (who received the award from Pope Francis in 2024) and (honored by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012).

“I am very humbled to receive this award, especially after two truly giants in our field and members of our department have received it,” Cavadini said. “I have sought to live out my vocation as a theologian following the example of Origen of Alexandria, a third-century theologian, who repeatedly declared that he wished to be a vir ecclesiasticus, a man of the Church. At Notre Dame, I have been able to live out my vocation as a man of the Church and, at the same time, as a man of the academy.”

Since 2011, the Ratzinger Prize has been annually awarded to scholars, both Catholic and of other faiths, who have made significant contributions to the study of theology in fields such as philosophy, law, and sociology. In recent years, the scope has also expanded to honor musicians, architects, and sculptors.

In announcing the award, the Vatican recognized Cavadini for his work in patristic theology, with a focus on St. Augustine.

“Cavadini is highly regarded for the rigor of his theological publications, his commitment and zeal in university teaching, his academic expertise, his pastoral passion, and his lifelong service to the Church," said Roberto Regoli, president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation.

In addition to his work on Augustine, Cavadini’s research focuses on early medieval theology and the history of biblical and patristic exegesis. His scholarship includes books such as Visioning Augustine (John Wiley & Sons Ltd.: 2019), more than 50 articles in refereed journals or edited collections, and a forthcoming work titled Augustine’s On the Trinity: A Companion.

Cavadini received his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, a master’s degree from Marquette University, and a doctorate from Yale University. He came to Notre Dame in 1990 and has since served in a number of administrative and scholarly positions, including chairing the theology department from 1997 to 2010 and directing the for 26 years. In 2009, Cavadini was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to a five-year term on the International Theological Commission, and since 2003, he has been a consultant for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.

In addition to his leadership appointments, he has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses and directed nearly 40 dissertations.

“I would hope that honored with this award are all of my students—past and present and future, graduate and undergraduate—all of my colleagues in the Department of Theology to whom I owe so much, and all of the faculty and staff of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, of whose gifts I have been the beneficiary for the last 26 years,” Cavadini said. “Most of all, perhaps, I hope this award redounds, with gratitude, to the credit of Our Lady, the patroness of our University, under whose protection we have flourished for the last 183 years, and may it be so for the next 183 years.”

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

After the Mass, there will be a procession to the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue for the consecration, where Bishop Rhoades and University leaders will pray for healing, for an end to divisions, and for strength to follow Christ’s call to selfless love.

“Since my days as an undergraduate student, one of my favorite places on campus is the area around the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in front of the Main Building at the center of campus,” Father Dowd said. “Jesus is depicted with open arms and an open heart. I have always found that area to be a place of peace and inspiration. Under the statue are the words, ‘Come to me, all!’ This flows from Fr. Sorin’s founding vision for Notre Dame to create a place where God’s love is at the center of our life and who we strive to be.

“Like Jesus, we are called to have a heart that is wide open to God and to others, especially those who are most vulnerable and on the margins of our society. And, at Notre Dame, it is important that head and heart are always working together to address the world’s most important challenges.”

What it means to be consecrated

The concept of a consecration is simple, said , vice president in the Office of Mission Engagement and Church Affairs.

“It means to set something apart to be sanctified or to be made holy—and individuals consecrate themselves all the time,” he said. “I’m a consecrated religious in the Congregation of Holy Cross, which means that by my vows, I attempt to set myself apart and try to be a priest who has a heart like the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”

Individuals, institutions, or countries can also be consecrated to the Blessed Mother or to a particular saint, Father Haake noted, but the Sacred Heart holds special significance for the University because the priests of Holy Cross have a devotion to it.

“The Sacred Heart is a devotion that focuses on love, mercy, forgiveness, and sacrifice,” he said. “It’s focused on the offering that the Lord made for us on the cross—and we’re called to imitate that for God and for our neighbors, just as any Christian would.”

A student-led devotion

The consecration, which was inspired by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ decision to consecrate the United States to the Sacred Heart in June, is a student-led initiative—which makes it all the more meaningful, Father Haake said. It is also the first time in living memory that the University has been consecrated.

“Students from a variety of groups and backgrounds came together to focus on this devotion,” he said. “And, if they are called to the Sacred Heart, to me that means they want to bring God closer to them and to feel more tangibly the abundant love of God and to imitate it.”

The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center will host (Sacred Heart: His Reign Has No End) at 6:30 p.m. Friday, October 2; the film is free, but ticketed.

The honor adds to Notre Dame’s recent recognition as an employer. Last year, the University was ranked No. 1 on Forbes’s America’s Best Large Employers list, placing Notre Dame among the nation’s leading large employers.

“This recognition is especially meaningful because it is largely based on responses from our employees,” said Shannon Cullinan, the University’s executive vice president. “We believe our people are our greatest asset, and we're pleased they feel a sense of belonging and purpose here.”

Notre Dame Human Resources Vice President Heather Christophersen said the recognition reflects the strength of Notre Dame’s workplace culture and the people who shape it.

“What makes Notre Dame distinctive as a workplace is that people come here not only to do meaningful work, but to be part of something larger than themselves,” Christophersen said. “That shared sense of purpose creates a remarkable community. We’re proud to see that recognized again by Forbes, and even prouder of the people who create that experience for one another every day.”

For more than 180 years, Notre Dame has contributed to the economic, intellectual, and cultural vitality of the South Bend region and the state of Indiana. As one of the state’s major employers, the University supports communities through employment, education, research, service, and partnerships.

Forbes’s Best Employers by State ranking is based on an independent survey conducted with market research firm Statista. For the 2026 ranking, more than 245,000 employees of US organizations participated in the survey. Respondents evaluated their employers on factors including wages and benefits, workplace culture, management, career advancement opportunities, and working conditions. They also evaluated former employers and organizations they knew through their industry, friends, or family. Responses were combined with survey data from the previous three years, with greater weight given to recent responses and feedback from current employees within each state.

To find your golden opportunity, visit .

In July 2026, the Lab convened two workshops in collaboration with , a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing people together to tackle difficult technological questions and advance a technological future aligned with overall public interest. One workshop brought together mid-level professionals tasked with implementing AI on their teams, while the second convening featured senior and executive leaders making decisions about AI adoption across the organization. Both groups were asked a mirrored set of questions to assess understandings of how AI is reshaping their work or workplace.

The findings illuminated disparities in overall views and experiences of AI adoption based both on individuals’ positions within organizations and their identities and roles beyond the workplace. These findings, along with key recommendations for organizations looking to support employees in these transitions, are published in a .

"While we continue funding longer-term research on AI's impacts on workers and workplace dynamics, [IBM director of the Lab] and I felt a sense of urgency to understand how people are experiencing these transitions right now," said , Notre Dame director of the ND-IBM Tech Ethics Lab. "What we learned about things like grief, invisible labor, and this fundamental gap between how leaders and workers describe what's going on in their organizations are insights that matter and are important to illuminate in the present moment."

Key Findings

With the advent of generative and agentic AI, both cohorts reported speed and productivity increasingly becoming the most important values at work, with overall standards decreasing and an attitude of “good enough” work becoming the norm across the organization. At the same time, workshop attendees reported that rolling out AI across the organization created a new subset of tasks essential to AI transformation, which were often not tracked in formal job descriptions, performance reviews, or key organizational performance metrics. Examples of these hidden tasks include validating and reviewing AI outputs, translating high-level strategy into practice, cross-functional coordination, and employee training. Collectively, researchers referred to this as “glue work.”

Middle managers frequently reported taking on this extra work, with some participants describing new labor falling disproportionately to women across the organization.

Simultaneously, executive leaders questioned whether AI-enabled organizations would need the middle management tier in the future, while also worrying about “distributed deskilling,” the loss of formal and informal avenues where workplace expertise develops, like mentoring, knowledge transfer, and training. The workshops exposed a growing tension between the two viewpoints: the skillsets executives feared losing were already being performed, often invisibly, by the middle management tier whose utility was being questioned.

The Way Forward: Key Recommendations for Leaders

"A technology’s existence or capabilities doesn’t automatically determine what our AI future looks like—that’s a convenient, but powerful narrative created to offload responsibility," said . "Nothing is decided for us. There are many futures in front of us, as a collective. Leaders, however, do shape these futures, whether they acknowledge it or not. The real questions are whose voices get incorporated into these visions, and what (or who) we are actually optimizing for when decisions get made about what work matters and why."

Participants in the workshops were not all pessimistic, with some offering a vision of what better AI adoption could look like, ideally centered around greater organizational coherence and policies supporting human agency. Participants suggested that increased deliberation before adoption was key, including discussion on which aspects of work should remain human, protecting opportunities to fail and learn from mistakes, gains in efficiency returned to workers as time for higher-level work and more work-life balance, and quality standards that stay high regardless of AI use.

The final list of recommendations for business leaders that emerged centered two core themes: leaders must be more deliberate and transparent about what they measure and recognize, and they must be more thoughtful and intentional about who has a voice in the AI decisionmaking process. If and how leaders act on these themes, the findings suggest, may meaningfully shape what AI adoption at work looks like in practice, and how it’s experienced by the people it impacts the most.

To learn more about the findings, recommendations for leaders navigating AI transitions, and ideas for further research, read the .

Originally published by Ian Husler������ on September 15, 2026.

, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering and associate dean for faculty advancement and inclusion in the College of Engineering, has been named vice president and associate provost for faculty recruitment support at the University of Notre Dame. His appointment begins January 1, 2027.

Schmiedeler will lead the Office of the Provost’s efforts to assist colleges, schools, and departments with hiring for Notre Dame’s Catholic mission—including working with units to create proactive hiring strategies, offering deans and search committees guidance on best practices, and identifying potential candidates. His work will support Notre Dame’s continued commitment to an academic environment nurtured by a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals as well as scholars of various backgrounds and perspectives who contribute to the University’s Catholic mission.

He will also partner with the to support its work in nurturing engagement with and understanding of the University’s Catholic mission among faculty of all faiths and none and help integrate mission hiring with the University’s .

“Jim is one of our most accomplished scholar-teachers and a gifted administrator with a deep commitment to Notre Dame’s Catholic mission,” said��, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “I can’t think of a better person to take on this vital role in advancing Notre Dame as the leading global Catholic research university by helping us recruit excellent faculty.”

An internationally recognized expert on robotics, Schmiedeler will also remain an active researcher following his appointment, dividing his time between the Office of the Provost, the classroom, and his . His research legged locomotion and the intersection of robotics and human biomechanics. His active projects span lower-limb prostheses, exoskeletons to assist human walking, and quantifying human balance deficits. In his associate dean role, he works closely with all departments in the college to share and implement best practices around faculty advancement and inclusion.

Schmiedeler earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Notre Dame, and his master’s and doctorate in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University. He taught at the University of Iowa and Ohio State before joining the Notre Dame faculty in 2003. He has received the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

“I am grateful for the privilege to work with colleagues across campus in elevating our faculty recruitment efforts,” Schmiedeler said. “Notre Dame is blessed with truly outstanding faculty in all units. Their excellence is our strongest asset in attracting the next generation of scholars to advance our unique mission.”

The , part of the University of Notre Dame’s , has received a $10 million grant from the OpenAI Foundation to help governments bring AI-powered weather services to millions of farmers across South and Southeast Asia and East Africa. The initiative connects agricultural innovation with funding to help millions of smallholder farmers adapt to climate change.

The initiative is led by , the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Notre Dame and . AIM for Scale is a global initiative that has previously received support from the International Affairs Office of the UAE Presidential Court and the Gates Foundation.

The funding is part of a broader $60 million investment from the OpenAI Foundation that brings together AIM for Scale; the University of Chicago; the University of California, Berkeley; Precision Development; Digital Green and CIMMYT. Together, the organizations aim to expand access to AI-powered weather and crop disease forecasting tools for 100 million smallholder farmers over the next three years.

For Winters, the funding represents an opportunity to tackle a challenge that has long confronted the development community: how to move evidence-based innovations beyond successful pilots and into sustainable initiatives capable of reaching millions of people.

“Artificial intelligence is creating extraordinary new possibilities for farmers, but innovation alone is not enough,” Winters said. “The real challenge is ensuring that these tools become part of systems that can sustainably reach millions of farmers based in low- and middle-income countries. This funding gives us an opportunity to work with governments to translate rapid advances in AI into services that farmers can rely on year after year.”

Taking AI-powered forecasts to scale

Smallholder farmers grow approximately one-third of the world’s food, yet many lack access to timely, localized information to guide critical decisions about planting, harvesting and protecting their crops. Dry spells, storms and disease outbreaks can threaten an entire season’s production and the livelihoods that depend on it.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence are creating new possibilities for closing this information gap. AI weather models can produce reliable, localized forecasts using substantially less computing power than traditional forecasting systems. AI can also help deliver forecasts and related advice to farmers through text messages, calls, chatbots and other channels.

Research suggests that access to timely forecasts can influence farmers’ decisions about what and when to plant and how much to invest, with the potential to increase incomes and reduce crop losses.

But developing better technology is only part of the challenge.

AIM for Scale will use the OpenAI Foundation funding to help governments move AI-powered weather services from promising pilots to sustainable delivery at national scale. Working with governments, multilateral development banks, academia and implementing partners, AIM for Scale will help connect these innovations with the partnerships, technical assistance and large-scale financing needed to reach millions of farmers.

This work will draw on the complementary expertise of organizations across the broader partnership. The University of Chicago and UC Berkeley will support national meteorological agencies in tailoring and operationalizing AI weather models. Precision Development will work with governments and civil society organizations to turn forecasts into practical advice and deliver it through trusted channels. Digital Green will integrate improved forecasts into FarmerChat, its AI agricultural advisory platform, while using farmer feedback to inform forecasting teams.

A portion of AIM for Scale’s $10 million grant will be awarded through a sub-grant to CIMMYT to advance AI-enabled crop disease forecasting. CIMMYT will strengthen its wheat pathogen forecasting capabilities, using AI and NASA Earth observation data to identify potential outbreaks earlier.

Originally published by April Toler at on Sept. 10.

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

After more than a decade of erosion, support for democracy has stopped falling and begun a modest but widespread recovery across the Americas.

The findings are detailed in the 2026 Pulse of Democracy, released today by the , part of the University of Notre Dame’s , and by .

The 2026 AmericasBarometer includes 25,282 interviews across 21 nationally representative surveys in countries across the Americas. The survey examines how citizens perceive and experience democracy and governance, including their views on democratic legitimacy, trust in institutions, corruption, citizen security, migration, political participation and government performance. This year’s study again includes the United States and Canada alongside Latin America and, for the first time, Cuba.

finds that support for democracy increased across nearly every country surveyed between 2023 and 2026, marking the first broad regional upturn in a generation. Although citizens across much of the region report improvements in economic and physical security, they remain far less convinced that governments are honest, capable and responsive to their needs, highlighting the need to strengthen trust in government and accountability.

“The findings offer some encouraging signs, but they also underscore the work that remains,” said , acting director of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute and associate professor of sociology and peace studies at the University. “Improving people’s daily lives matters, but strengthening democracy also requires institutions that people trust.”

The report’s key findings

About two-thirds of Latin Americans express support for democracy in 2026, up 6 percentage points from 2023, according to the report. Support increased in nearly every country and across age groups and educational levels rather than being driven by any single demographic group. Substantial differences remain across countries, however, and the recovery follows nearly a decade of comparatively low democratic support.

In most countries, fewer people say their national economy has worsened compared with 2023, and household food insecurity has declined from its pandemic-era peak. Still, roughly one in four people across the region report experiencing food insecurity, and improvements are unevenly distributed.

The share of people who feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods has been declining steadily for nearly a decade and fell again in 2026. Crime victimization has declined only modestly, however, and substantial differences in experiences with crime remain across countries.

Citizens with greater economic security, less food insecurity, lower exposure to crime and fewer experiences with corruption express higher support for democracy. On average, several of these conditions improved across the region between 2023 and 2026, coinciding with the broader increase in democratic support.

“The modest recovery in support for democracy is real and encouraging, but it is also fragile,” said Noam Lupu, director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy and the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science. “People are reporting improvements in their economic and physical security, but they still want governments that are honest, capable and responsive.”

Better economic conditions and lower crime rates boost support for democracy. But government failures weaken support.

Citizens who experience greater economic and food security and less crime and corruption express higher support for democracy. But government failures undercut democratic support.

Despite this progress, everyday corruption has changed little, satisfaction with local public services remains low and citizens’ evaluations of political leaders vary widely. The findings suggest that improvements in material conditions can bolster democratic goodwill, but persistent failures of governance and representation continue to hold it back.

The share of adults reporting an intention to emigrate fell from 31 percent in 2023 to 25 percent in 2026, returning roughly to pre-pandemic levels. Improving conditions in countries of origin coincide with the decline, while migration pressures remain substantial and vary considerably across countries.

New data and expanded public resources

Alongside the Pulse of Democracy, Vanderbilt’s Center for Global Democracy and LAPOP Lab released the 2026 AmericasBarometer data and updated , along with questionnaires, technical documentation and other resources, free of charge.

About the AmericasBarometer

The AmericasBarometer is the flagship survey project of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy and its LAPOP Lab, a global leader in comparative public opinion research. Since 2004, it has collected more than 433,000 interviews across 35 countries, creating an extensive comparative record of how citizens across the hemisphere perceive and experience democracy and governance. The surveys use nationally representative samples of voting-age adults and cover topics including democratic legitimacy, trust in institutions, corruption, citizen security, migration, political participation and government performance. In 2025, Vanderbilt partnered with the Kellogg Institute to launch the 2025-26 report.

About the Kellogg Institute

The Kellogg Institute, part of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, is a leading center for interdisciplinary research dedicated to understanding, strengthening and renewing democracy worldwide.

About Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy

The Center for Global Democracy is Vanderbilt University’s leading social science institute dedicated to research and innovation in democratic politics. Its research examines how citizens perceive, experience and support democracy across countries and over time. Its research portfolio includes the LAPOP Lab, a global leader in international survey research and home to the AmericasBarometer.

Originally published by��April Toler at on Sept. 9.

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

“As Notre Dame reinstates standardized testing, our goal remains unchanged: We hope to attract exceptional young people, from every background and walk of life, to be part of Notre Dame,” said , Notre Dame vice president for undergraduate enrollment. “Rooted in our Catholic mission and committed to academic excellence, we want students with strong academic potential, high moral character, and a desire to serve the common good. A test score, evaluated in full context of an applicant’s individual circumstances, is an additional measure to aid us in that process.”

Notre Dame’s decision follows a detailed review of its own admissions data across multiple cycles, which confirmed that standardized test scores provide important quantitative evidence of academic preparation and showed a strong correlation between test scores and classroom performance after students matriculate. Evaluated relative to the opportunities and norms of an applicant’s local high school and community, test scores give the admissions team additional information to better understand a student’s academic profile. The review also underscored an insight articulated by researchers at peer institutions: Students from a variety of backgrounds, including first-generation, Pell-eligible, and rural applicants, are among the populations most likely to be overlooked in the admissions process without a test requirement.

University officials emphasize that this change will not alter the comprehensive nature of the admissions process. A test score is one data point among dozens that Notre Dame considers, including curriculum rigor, performance in the classroom, essays, letters of recommendations, extracurricular activities, volunteerism, and the context of a student’s high school and community. No single variable opens or closes a door at Notre Dame. Scores will continue to be evaluated contextually rather than against a fixed threshold.

Notre Dame’s approach to admissions rests on a simple conviction: Talent and promise are everywhere, in rural high schools, in Catholic schools, in homeschools, and in large public systems. The inclusion of a test score helps to ensure that students applying from schools that are less well-known to admissions officers have the same opportunity as those attending more familiar schools.

In today’s announcement, Notre Dame highlighted several initiatives that reflect its long-standing commitment to affordability and access:

Affordability for families at all income levels. Through , the University practices need-blind admissions for all applicants, domestic and international; meets the full demonstrated financial need of every admitted student; and does not include loans in its financial aid packages.

• Price transparency. For most families earning $60,000 or less annually, the University will cover tuition, fees, housing, and food. For families earning up to $150,000 annually, Notre Dame will cover tuition, and for families earning up to $200,000 annually, Notre Dame will cover at least half of tuition.

• Fee waivers. Notre Dame makes application fee waivers available to any student for whom the cost of applying is a barrier.

• Four-year financial aid promise. Notre Dame recently announced that a family’s financial aid will not decrease over a student’s four years on campus, absent a significant change in family income, and will increase if a family’s demonstrated need grows.

Free SAT preparation and admissions counseling. Effective for fall 2028 applicants, Notre Dame, in partnership with 91��Ƶhouse.world, will be offering free SAT Bootcamp and College Admissions Workshops to students engaged with a variety of schools and community-based organizations.

Support for rural and small-town students. Notre Dame is a proud member of the STARS College Network and, in collaboration with the network, has added a dedicated college adviser position to work directly with rural students as they navigate the college admissions process, from application through enrollment.

A simplified application. For fall 2027 applicants, Notre Dame simplified its Common Application supplement.

“Together, these initiatives reflect what has always been true of Notre Dame,” Kidder said. “Notre Dame seeks to welcome students from all pathways and income levels who are drawn to the University’s Catholic character and whose academic excellence, intellectual curiosity, and passion for serving those around them will enrich our community and world.”

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

The everchanging social, political, and economic landscape in many countries has become more tenuous and intense in recent years. Respondents in a indicated a prevailing mood of uncertainty, with 50 percent of them anticipating a turbulent or stormy outlook on life over the next two years. This negative perception swells to 57 percent of respondents when looking ahead to the next 10 years.

Social structures, government policies, and cultural norms shape how people think, live, and interact. If those factors are in constant flux, the repercussions can have adverse effects. More worrisome, however, is how external stressors affect pregnant women, who are already experiencing significant physiological changes in preparation for the birth of a baby and, subsequently, adjusting to life with a newborn.

If there are additional factors in a mother’s own life—such as violent, turbulent, or uncertain social or political circumstances—then her fear and anxiety will likely increase, potentially putting her and her unborn child’s health at risk. The impacts of these sociopolitical stressors could lead to preterm birth, among other complications, not to mention the psychological and physiological effects.

“Yet, we know very little about how mothers cope with these stressors,” said , assistant professor in the at the University of Notre Dame. Chua researches reproductive biology, maternal health, and health inequities, particularly within Filipino communities and communities of color.

This gap motivated Chua and her fellow researchers to ask the question: How do expectant mothers manage these uncertainties and cope with sociopolitical stressors? The answer became the focus of their , of which Chua was the lead author.

Interviewing 21 pregnant Filipina women across multiple regions of the Philippines in 2021, Chua and her team sought to understand how these women internalized such stressors. They found that they used creative coping strategies, some of which are grounded in Filipino cultural practices and shaped how they navigated such uncertainties. Some reframed difficult circumstances and maintained a positive outlook, while others deliberately disengaged from political stressors and focused instead on the well-being of their families.

What causes stress and where does it come from?

According to Chua and her co-authors, previous research had been limited in that it did not address how pregnant individuals perceive and embody outside stressors and the implications for health. Nor did it address the various coping strategies they found useful in dealing with stress in order to protect their bodies and pregnancies.

The research team specifically chose to study pregnant women in the Philippines, a country marked by intense state violence, high poverty rates, political corruption, and a highly publicized war on drugs, as well as some of the world’s strictest COVID pandemic lockdown restrictions during the research period.

Their interviews with the pregnant women revealed how interconnected social, political, and economic stressors can be—with 67 percent of study participants citing financial stress, 38 percent indicating access to quality medical care, and 52 percent saying cultural pressures affected their emotional, physical, and mental well-being.

One of the societal challenges compounding this predicament for citizens of the Philippines is their outsized reliance on social media for gathering news and information—an open portal that has the potential to continuously feed them negative or politicized discourse. According to Chua and her co-authors, 62 percent of their study participants cited Facebook or other social media sites as their primary source of information, adding that the “news they ingested had a profound impact on their perceived stress levels.”

What are some ways new moms cope?

The interviewees revealed that not all of the negative news they consumed necessarily affected them adversely. Many described relying on creative coping strategies pulled from within their Filipino identity and upbringing.

For example, noted the researchers, many expectant mothers found ways to reframe those stressors. One way to accomplish that is through the concept of “community viewing”—comparing oneself to others to determine who might be “doing better.” The realization that others within their circle might actually be relatively worse off (experiencing death, food scarcity, and extreme poverty, for example) allowed them to manage the difficulties of their own situations.

Second, maintaining a positive outlook on life and being able to “laugh things off” gave them a new perspective and renewed state of mind that enabled them to ‘build resiliency against adversity.”

Another reframing technique many expectant moms found useful was looking toward their relationships with family members and appreciating the positive aspects of their lives. Said one study participant: “We cope by remembering the blessings we have [now] and that are yet to come.”

Chua said that participants also found ways to exercise their own agency, which could manifest in one of three cultural practices. One is disengaging and remaining indifferent or resistant to the news of the day—letting the negative news “go in one ear and out the other,” as one participant described.

A second method is to invoke the mentality of bahala na—a phrase that translates to “whatever happens, happens” and is driven by a belief that God will provide. In other words, they believe that regardless of how difficult things are or how far out of their control the situation may become, these new moms and their families will somehow prevail.

Finally, respondents found outright avoidance to be a surefire way to leave some of those stressors behind and move forward with daily living. Deliberately staying silent—as opposed to engaging in political debates or trying to change others’ political opinions—allowed them to protect themselves against unpleasant, negative, and stressful experiences during pregnancy, the co-authors wrote. Rather, they focused “on concerns within their immediate control,” such as the current safety and health of their children and the general well-being of their families.

Chua emphasized that “the intent of the work is not to romanticize what might be viewed as a passive outlook or response, but to investigate the strategies these women have at their disposal to cope and deal with challenging circumstances. Doing so is harmful to the participants and to the field of study.”

“Maternal and fetal health is influenced not only by medical care but also by the broader social and political environment. And politics definitely plays a significant role in shaping perinatal health.”

What can these findings mean for other mothers?

While these specific coping strategies were utilized by the pregnant Filipina women included in Chua’s study, their insights may extend to any expectant mother living with social, political, and financial stressors.

“Maternal and fetal health is influenced not only by medical care but also by the broader social and political environment,” Chua said. “And politics definitely plays a significant role in shaping perinatal health.”

Chua said the research highlighted how further work is needed to fully understand this interaction, as well as how these coping strategies affect stress biology during pregnancy and its impact on newborn health. “Future study also needs to take into account how helpful or harmful these coping strategies may be,” she added.

“Our study is one of the first to examine how Filipina women embody politics during pregnancy,” the co-authors wrote. “We expect these findings to contribute to the advancement of women’s health on a local and global level by demonstrating the complexities associated with stress embodiment, management, and its impact on fetal development.”

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

In an , AI and chemistry experts alike discussed how the intricacies of organic chemistry are changing the way researchers design AI technology, leading the way for a new generation of development.

“Organic chemistry presents a particularly demanding set of problems for AI,” said , lead author of the article and the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Chawla also serves as the Lucy Family Director for Data & AI Academic Strategy, leading the . “Those challenges have driven important advances in how AI represents complex problems, reasons from limited evidence, and accounts for uncertainty. In that sense, chemistry has been a catalyst for better AI—systems that can directly benefit human health, safety, and well-being.”

For AI models to analyze chemistry properly, they must be able to consider several factors, such as complex three-dimensional chemical structures, multiple interacting components, changing conditions, and more than one potential outcome.

But chemists need AI to do more than predict the properties of a compound or the outcome of a reaction. They want to understand why results occur, the mechanisms involved, what conditions matter for those results, and how confident they should be in the prediction.

“When you ask a model to evaluate molecular representations or reaction variables, you are asking it to reason, which forces AI to move beyond black-box predictions. This demand encourages the development of complete systems that are interpretable, respect the laws of chemistry and physics, and connect predictions to established scientific principles," said , coauthor of the article and the Grace-Rupley Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Wiest is also the founder and lead principal investigator of the .

To complicate matters further, improving today’s AI models typically relies on scale—larger models, more computing power, and more data. In organic chemistry, high-quality experimental data is limited, often coming from a mix of sources in different formats and structures.

In short, chemistry has challenged AI researchers to think outside the box and innovate, as they cannot rely on scale alone to improve their models.

“These challenges are not unique to chemistry, but chemistry makes them impossible to avoid. Extracting reliable information from limited and imperfect evidence requires us to think more critically about how problems are represented, what prior knowledge can be incorporated, and how much confidence we should place in a prediction,” Chawla said.

These developments are essential for advancements of AI technologies that could support or even fast-track the many areas that depend on the “central science,” chemistry.

For example, self-driving laboratories—automated systems that can execute scientific experiments with minimal human intervention—could accelerate the discovery of new materials and drugs. These agentic systems will need the ability to independently formulate hypotheses, design and perform experiments, interpret results, and improve their process.

Altogether, Chawla says this makes the field of organic chemistry a powerful environment for developing better AI systems that integrate transparent protocols, rigorous validation, and safety constraints.

“The future of scientific AI will likely be hybrid, bringing together statistical learning, symbolic and mechanistic knowledge, human expertise, and experimental feedback,” said Chawla. “What we learn by solving these problems in organic chemistry can make AI systems more reliable, more efficient, and better equipped to serve science and society.”

Other coauthors from Notre Dame include , , , , Xiaobao Huang, Eric Inae, , , Gang Liu, J. Charlie Maier, , , , Bryan V. Piguave, , Andrew B. Schofield, , , , and Yihan Zhu.

The article was published as part of “Artificial Intelligence for Chemistry,” a special issue of Chemical Reviews with the research supported by the NSF Center for Computer Assisted Synthesis.

Contact: Brandi Wampler, associate director of media relations, 574-631-2632, brandiwampler@nd.edu

It’s a Monday afternoon in August, and ’s team takes the field at an NFL stadium in 20 days.

He doesn’t know who will be on his final roster, nor has he had a moment to assess their abilities. Even once practice starts, he only sees his team for 90 minutes a day.

That’s just life for a marching band director. But he’s confident in the outcome.

“I feel like the band always wins,” he said. “If we support the team, we entertain the crowd, and we represent the University well, it’s a good day. And I'm looking forward to doing that several times this fall.”

“Creating with students is hard to describe, but even harder to live without.”

Popiel—an acclaimed conductor, music scholar and teacher, and higher education administrator—became the Kenn and Pamela Ricci Director of Bands at the University of Notre Dame in July, a role that oversees athletic, concert, and jazz bands and their performances at dozens of athletic, academic, and liturgical events every year.

For right now, and in the days and weeks ahead, Popiel’s focus is on the 181st iteration of the . While the season is long (the season opener at Lambeau Field on Sept. 6, followed by six home games throughout the fall, and a potential College Football Playoff run through January), the preparation period is short. Students arrive to begin tryouts and rehearsals the Wednesday before the fall semester starts, and by the following Sunday, Popiel and his team determine which 350 musicians make the cut.

It’s a number driven by necessity—namely, the logistics and cost of travel to road games—but it’s also a number of significance for each student who comprises it.

“A family bond is built really quickly,” Popiel said. “By Sunday, I would very much hope that every single student feels like they have 350 family members they could reach out to. That sounds pie in the sky, but it's almost a guarantee that they're all going to feel that.”

Heart and soul

Popiel began playing the trumpet in fifth grade, and it didn’t take long for his life to become all about music.

Yet, for as much time as he had devoted as a child and teen to rehearsals, performances, and camps, he at first resisted the pull of becoming a music major as an undergraduate at Truman State University. He was a pre-med and math student while playing in the marching, concert, and jazz bands—but eventually, the choice for his academic future became clear.

“Music was the heart and soul of every day for me,” he said. “When I came to the realization that I had to be doing music to be happy, the rest came pretty easily.”

After graduating, Popiel came to Notre Dame in 1993 for a master’s degree in trumpet performance and to work as a teaching assistant with the Band of the Fighting Irish.

There were many more stops along the way for Popiel after that—a doctorate in musical arts in wind conducting from Michigan State University and faculty positions at Indiana University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Kansas.

But those two years at Notre Dame were formative, in ways he didn’t fully appreciate until he considered coming back.

“That program really set the tone for my music teaching career—this place had formed me, taught me values,” he said. “I just didn’t realize what was happening, or I had forgotten. The commitment to students here is just so appealing. And everyone wants the same thing—to make the world a better place through whatever it is they’re doing at Notre Dame.”

When the search for the next director of bands at Notre Dame began, Popiel was in his third year as dean of the KU 91��Ƶ of Music, where he had been a faculty member since 2010. He felt called to consider the role, while at the same time coming up with all sorts of reasons to resist it.

Even when he arrived on campus for his final interview, he was apprehensive—but every conversation made him more and more certain that Notre Dame was where he needed to be. The singular focus on student formation resonated with him—and while he valued the experience of leading a school, he yearned to be in a position where he could engage with students on a daily basis again.

“Our research is every day in the classroom, creating and performing together,” he said. “That’s a unique situation in the academy—maybe the closest thing is athletics, where you have a coach working with players every day on the field. Creating with students is hard to describe, but even harder to live without.”

Trite but true

Popiel is very much aware that he has big shoes to fill—and a big legacy to uphold. He finds the challenge more encouraging than daunting.

A joint appointment in the ’ and the , the Kenn and Pamela Ricci Director of Bands is a position that involves leadership, teaching, and attention to the student experience. Popiel succeeds , who held the position for 28 years, and he is just the sixth full-time director in the band’s 181-year history.

The band was already in its 41st year when the first Notre Dame football game was played, and music and football have been entwined ever since. For Popiel, that compels him to act as the steward of an institution, not someone seeking to redefine it.

“You're not driving it where you want it to go; you're driving it where its legacy needs it to go,” he said. “That history is a remarkable thing. To be the custodian of that, to care and nurture the organization, then pass it on to the next generation—all of those things that sound a little bit trite are all true.”

If nothing else, Popiel hopes his time at the helm will offer even more opportunity for students to encounter that musical legacy. All told, more than 500 undergraduate and graduate students from Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College will participate in a band this year.

For Popiel, though, that’s not enough—the benefits of participation are simply too great.

“I jokingly say I'll quit recruiting when every single student at Notre Dame is playing in a band,” he said. “Making music together builds friendships quickly. It's good for student retention. It's good for their GPA. People who play music together are happier and healthier and more socially connected.”

Playing music, Popiel says, goes beyond connecting with an audience—it’s a powerful means of connecting with each other and building community in a way that can’t be done through mere conversation.

“Notre Dame challenges its students to transform their passions into meaningful contributions to the world, and that vision has been a defining influence throughout my career.”

It’s what happens when his musicians play the Victory March for the first time at Notre Dame Stadium. It’s what happens when they’re in a rehearsal hall preparing for the winter University Band concert. It’s what happens when an ensemble plays at Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Whether the music is heard by 80,000 or eight people, the act of students creating it together has changed them—and Popiel believes he’s now where the most change can be made.

“Notre Dame challenges its students to transform their passions into meaningful contributions to the world, and that vision has been a defining influence throughout my career,” he said. “To be back in this place and to help guide that toward inspiring yet another generation of people that want to make the world better through music has been a really strong call for me.”

The Ricci Family

The Kenn and Pamela Ricci Director of Bands position is supported through a generous gift from Kenn Ricci, an aviation industry leader who is a Notre Dame alumnus and , and his wife, Pamela.

Kenn is a 1978 graduate of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in accountancy and the founder and principal of Directional Aviation and chairman of Flexjet. He began his aviation career as an Air Force ROTC cadet at Notre Dame and was a member of the Band of the Fighting Irish as an undergraduate. He later earned a juris doctorate from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, now Cleveland State University College of Law.

Ricci serves on the University of Notre Dame Board of Trustees and has been actively involved with Notre Dame for decades, previously serving on the Undergraduate Experience Advisory Council and the Mendoza College of Business Advisory Council.

The Riccis have been longtime benefactors of Notre Dame. Their philanthropy has supported the Band of the Fighting Irish, Ricci Family Fields, Ricci Band Rehearsal Hall, the Ricci Band Musical Excellence Fund, and several scholarship funds. In 2017, the Riccis announced a first-of-its-kind $100 million unrestricted commitment to Notre Dame through a Philanthropic Succession Partnership.

They have three children, Elizabeth, Kennedy, and Austin.

Originally published by Josh Weinhold at on September 03, 2026.

His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, will formally launch “Within Your Gates: The Forum for the Universal Vocation of Jerusalem” on Sept. 7 in partnership with , the University of Notre Dame’s academic center in Jerusalem.

The forum is an interdisciplinary research initiative that will bring together scholars and practitioners from different faith traditions and disciplines to engage with Jerusalem's universal mission and its significance for those who reside within the Holy Land and beyond.

Led by , director of Notre Dame Jerusalem, the forum grows out of more than three years of close cooperation with Cardinal Pizzaballa; , director of the; , director of the; Notre Dame Jerusalem; and other Notre Dame colleagues.

“One of our most important responsibilities as Christians is to discern God’s call for us and to use our talents and gifts to serve Him and the world,” said , vice president for mission engagement and church affairs. “This forum creates a space for us to discern Jerusalem’s unique vocation of bringing together peoples of many faiths to build bridges and to receive God’s call to be peacemakers. I am proud that Notre Dame is working with Cardinal Pizzaballa to realize this vision of how discovering Jerusalem’s vocation can lead us to knowledge of our own.”

The forum will produce applied interdisciplinary research rooted in Jerusalem’s particular realities and oriented toward questions of daily life that resonate beyond the city and the surrounding region, exploring themes such as the theological significance of Jerusalem, the city's universal vocation, the language of conflict and reconciliation, and agency under conditions of constraint.

Cardinal Pizzaballa, who will chair the forum’s Board of Promoters, will share his vision for the initiative at the Sept. 7 launch event at the University’s Tantur campus. “The mission of earthly Jerusalem is to become the image and mirror of heavenly Jerusalem, a prophecy and promise of that universal reconciliation and peace which God desires for the whole human family,” he said. “It is to this mission that we must return.”

The Sept. 7 launch event will include remarks from Cardinal Pizzaballa as well as scholars and practitioners who serve on the forum’s Board of Promoters or the Advisory Committee.

For more information about the forum, visit . Questions about the launch event can be directed to jerusalem@nd.edu.

Originally published by Notre Dame Jerusalem at on Sept. 1.

“” will bring together four distinguished members of the Notre Dame community and beyond to reflect on their personal experiences of September 11 and the lasting significance of that day for American civic life: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh; Rev. Edward A. “Monk” Malloy, C.S.C., president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame; Jennie Bradley Lichter, Notre Dame alumna and senior advisor to the March for Life Education and Defense Fund; and James J. “Jimmy” Dunne III, Notre Dame trustee and vice chairman and senior managing principal of Piper Sandler. The conversation will be moderated by , director of the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government.

The conversation will offer an opportunity not only to remember the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives, but also to consider what 9/11 means for America. Drawing on the panelists’ personal experiences of the day itself and their careers in law, higher education, public service and business, the conversation will explore how September 11 continues to shape our understandings of citizenship, solidarity, sacrifice and leadership — and what those experiences might teach a new generation about the responsibilities of life in a constitutional democracy.

“Twenty-five years after September 11, we have an opportunity to remember the lives that were lost, recall the extraordinary acts of courage and selflessness that were displayed, and also to ask what 9/11 teaches us about our responsibilities to one another and to our country,” said Muñoz. “At the center, we believe that remembering our history is essential to forming citizens capable of sustaining our constitutional order and pursuing the common good.”

Kavanaugh has served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 2018, following his nomination by President Donald J. Trump. On 9/11/2001, he was associate counsel in the White House of former President George W. Bush.

Father Malloy is a professor of theory and Christian ethics. On 9/11/2001, he was president of the University of Notre Dame.

Lichter, a 2004 Notre Dame graduate, is senior advisor to and former president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. On 9/11/2001, she was a sophomore at Notre Dame. She has served in senior legal, policy and public-sector roles, including as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during the first Trump administration.

Dunne is vice chairman and senior managing principal of Piper Sandler and a longtime leader in the financial services industry. A 1978 Notre Dame graduate, he served as the University’s 2021 Commencement speaker and received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Notre Dame.

The Jeanie Poole O’Shaughnessy Memorial Lecture was established in 2022 following the death of Jeanie Poole O’Shaughnessy, a beloved friend and supporter of the center. It is and was made possible through the generosity of her husband, J. Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Jeanie’s friends and the O’Shaughnessy family. The event aims to help Notre Dame students and the Notre Dame community connect scholarship and education concerning the ideas and institutions of constitutional government with the principles put into practice by the individuals shaping the civic fabric of our country.

Previous Jeanie Poole O’Shaughnessy Memorial Lecture speakers have included U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The lecture reflects the center’s broader commitment to introducing Notre Dame students to prominent public figures and providing opportunities to consider the principles, virtues and responsibilities that accompany civic leadership.

The Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government seeks to cultivate thoughtful and educated citizens by supporting scholarship and education concerning the ideas and institutions of constitutional government. Through lectures, seminars, fellowships and other programs, the center seeks to prepare students to participate thoughtfully in civic life and contribute to the public good.

The “” event is free but ticketed. The conversation will also be livestreamed .

While tickets are no longer available through the center’s website, a limited number of tickets will be available in a standby line at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center the day of the event to students, faculty and staff with a valid Notre Dame ID. If you have questions about how you may obtain a ticket, or for any other matter pertaining to “25 Years After 9/11,” please reach out to CCCG Assistant Director Anna Bradley at abradle4@nd.edu.

Originally published by Anna Bradley at on Aug. 28.

And yet, many patients face a growing threat from another pathogen: a fungus, Candida albicans.

by University of Notre Dame associate professors of biological sciences, and , shows how the fungus works in the bladder, potentially changing the way doctors treat and diagnose CAUTIs.

Their work is a continuation of foundational work the research team previously published. They mapped a critical protein called Efg1, which serves as a “master switch” in��C. albicans. Without this protein, the fungus cannot cause disease in a catheterized bladder. However, Flores-Mireles and Santiago-Tirado did not know which specific target genes Efg1 commanded inside a catheterized bladder.

“This protein has been really well described in other infections, but not in the bladder,” Flores-Mireles said.

The research team sequenced the genetic activity of Candida strains, identifying 75 target genes that are turned on in the bladder. Twenty-six had never been characterized before, proving how unique the bladder environment is. To verify their laboratory findings, Flores-Mireles and Santiago-Tirado, along with their doctoral student and first author, Alyssa La Bella, evaluated urinary catheters collected from patients with C. albicans by analyzing fungal RNA directly from those devices. The fungal gene network they saw in the laboratory was nearly identical to the one they detected in patient samples.

“When we got the samples from humans, and saw the exact same results, we knew this was ‘real,’” Flores-Mireles said.

Physicians often characterize fungus found on catheters as potential contamination rather than part of the active infection within the bladder, Santiago-Tirado said. This is because current diagnostic tools are designed to detect “swimming” bacteria in urine samples, rather than biofilms attached to catheters.

“For us to be able to get these catheters and show that, yes, this factor is critical, that this fungus is a colonizer, and not contamination, is important,” Flores-Mireles said. “It’s actually a virulent process.”

Their study also described how C. albicans behaves when sharing space with bacteria on a catheter. When researchers examined catheters containing both Candida and E. coli, the virulence of the Candida decreased because it is often killed by the bacteria.

“People will study these infections as monomicrobial, as like, pure infection from one pathogen,” Santiago-Tirado said. “But now we realize that in reality, in hospitals, in real life, almost all of the infections are polymicrobial, so people are starting to look more carefully at interactions between microbes and how they might have positive or negative contributions to the person’s symptoms.”

In addition to the lead team at the University of Notre Dame, collaborators contributed from the University of Guelph, Washington University 91��Ƶ of Medicine in St. Louis, and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Hans Knöll Institute). The study was supported primarily by funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Contact: Brandi Wampler, associate director of media relations, 574-631-2632, brandiwampler@nd.edu

Originally published by Deanna Csomo Ferrell at on August 27, 2026.

“Randy is an outstanding teacher, scholar and administrator whose commitment to academic integrity and student development will serve the University well in this role,” Father Dowd said. “I am grateful to Randy for accepting this appointment and delighted that he will have the opportunity to work alongside Tricia in this period of transition. Tricia’s service in this role over the past 17 years has been exemplary. She has led the Faculty Board with her characteristic wisdom, integrity and dedication, and has also been extraordinarily influential on a national level at a time of dramatic change in college athletics, earning the deep respect both of her colleagues at Notre Dame and her peers at other institutions.”

, vice president and James E. Rohr Director of Athletics, offered similar praise.

“We look forward to working with Randy as we pursue our mission to provide the best student-athlete experience in the country,” Bevacqua said. “Randy’s expertise and leadership make him a valued partner to athletics and a worthy successor to Tricia, who worked tirelessly and consistently to help Notre Dame lead in the college athletics space.”

“Randy is the perfect fit for this role,” Bellia said. “At this time of rapid change in intercollegiate athletics, Randy will ensure that our faculty has a voice in critical decisions and will uphold the University’s uncompromising commitment to the academic, athletic and personal growth of our student-athletes. I look forward to working with him in the months to come.”

A member of the Law 91��Ƶ faculty since 2011, Kozel teaches and researches in fields including constitutional law, trademark law and contract law. He spent nine years serving as associate dean of the Law 91��Ƶ and directs the . He served on the Faculty Board on Athletics from 2019 to 2025, including as chair of its academic integrity subcommittee.

Kozel received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his J.D. from Harvard Law 91��Ƶ. Before arriving at Notre Dame, he clerked at a federal court of appeals and at the U.S. Supreme Court, worked as a litigator in a law firm, and served as special counsel to the general counsel at General Electric Co.

“I’m honored to serve in this role and grateful to Father Dowd for his trust in me,” Kozel said. “I look forward to working with our outstanding faculty, coaches, athletics staff and University partners to ensure, as Pete Bevacqua recently described it, ‘the holistic success of our students in the classroom, on the field and beyond.’”

He added, “I’m fortunate to benefit from the guidance of Tricia Bellia, whose service as chair has been truly exceptional.”

The Faculty Board on Athletics serves as the principal advisory group to Notre Dame’s president on educational issues related to athletics. The board is composed of 15 members: seven elected from the University’s teaching and research faculty; four appointed by the president (three from the teaching and research faculty and one from the student body); and four ex officio members — the vice president for student affairs, the director of athletics, the director of academic services for student-athletes, and a representative from the president’s office.

The board ensures that the University’s athletics program operates in consonance with Notre Dame’s educational mission, gathers faculty input on critical decisions about Notre Dame’s athletics program, nurtures Notre Dame’s commitment to academic integrity within the athletics program, and promotes student-athletes’ welfare and educational success. Among its activities, the board monitors data on the admission of student-athletes and their academic performance, progress toward degrees and graduation rates. It also assesses the effectiveness of institutional support for student-athletes.

The board’s activities closely match the responsibilities of the NCAA faculty athletics representative, who also is expected to advise the president, to help shape University policies affecting student-athletes and to work with other University leaders to address matters of mutual concern regarding the academic opportunities, challenges and performance of student-athletes. The faculty athletics representative also functions as a principal link between the institution and the NCAA and the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Kylemore Abbey and the proudly marked 10 years of their partnership during the Threshold Festival, a four-day celebration of literature, music, theatre, visual art, scholarship and hospitality in the extraordinary setting of Kylemore Abbey.

The anniversary was marked with a special presentation from the Benedictine Community of Kylemore to , president of the University of Notre Dame, on Thursday, July 30. The presentation commemorated the first decade of a landmark 30-year agreement between Kylemore Abbey and Notre Dame, which established the University’s global campus within the historic St. Joseph’s Wing of Kylemore Castle.

Since welcoming its first students in 2016, the University of Notre Dame Kylemore has become a vibrant hub for academic study, leadership development, research, retreats, workshops and international events, developing meaningful connections between Ireland and the Notre Dame community.

This year’s Threshold Festival, themed “The Smiling Public Figure: Wit, Satire and Irony in W.B. Yeats,” brought together leading scholars, artists, performers and cultural partners to explore Yeats’ work and legacy through performance, conversation and creative encounters.

Festival highlights included the launch of the visual art exhibition Threading the Threshold: Care, Craft and Celtic Revival, and an opening banquet celebrating Connemara hospitality. The weekend also featured live music in Kylemore's Gothic Chapel, including a performance by NoCrows and an intimate unplugged set from Steve and Joe Wall of The Stunning.

Academic and cultural programming featured leading voices in Irish studies, including Oxford historian and Yeats biographer Roy Foster, who delivered a lecture on humor and Yeats; , director of Notre Dame's , who spoke on “Learning from the Benedictines: Dignity, Flourishing and Integral Human Development;” and Yeats postdoctoral fellow Eilís Smyth, who gave a talk on Shakespeare, Yeats and the Lyric Theatre.

A major highlight of the weekend was the Abbey Theatre’s contribution to the festival program: a panel discussion titled “You Have Disgraced Yourselves Again,” reflecting on Yeats, Lady Gregory, the Irish dramatic movement and the continuing role of Irish theatre in shaping cultural life. The Abbey Theatre also presented a staged reading of Yeats’ The Green Helmet: An Heroic Farce in the Gothic Chapel, vividly bringing Yeats’ wit, mythic imagination and theatrical energy to life.

The festival concluded with a special black-tie evening in partnership with Wexford Festival Opera, featuring Wexford Sings: Italy Through the Eyes of Yeats. The performance paired Italian opera by composers including Verdi, Puccini and Rossini with Yeats’ poetry, creating a distinctive conversation between music, poetry, wit and place.

, director of Notre Dame Kylemore, said, “It was an amazing weekend in every sense — full of beauty, laughter, conversation, music, theatre and friendship. I feel so grateful to be surrounded by such good people and such high-calibre artists, scholars and partners. Their generosity, talent and spirit made Threshold a very special celebration, and a fitting way to mark 10 years of Notre Dame Kylemore.”

As part of the anniversary celebrations, the Benedictine Community presented Father Dowd with a commemorative gift in recognition of the enduring partnership and the shared vision that has shaped the success of the Kylemore campus over the past 10 years. The event also included a special anniversary Mass with the Benedictine Community, celebrated by Father Dowd, marking 10 years of Notre Dame’s presence at Kylemore Abbey.

Reflecting on the milestone, Kylemore Abbey and the University of Notre Dame reaffirmed their commitment to continuing this unique collaboration, which brings together academic excellence, cultural exchange and the Benedictine values of hospitality, community and lifelong learning.

Speaking at the celebration to mark the anniversary, the Abbess of Kylemore, Mother Karol O’Connell OSB, said: “Since the foundation of our Benedictine Community in Ypres, Belgium, in 1665, education has been at the heart of our mission. Generations of girls attended our schools and today, through our Education and Retreat Centre, we continue to make Kylemore a place of learning. Our partnership with the University of Notre Dame is another mark of this commitment to education, and we look forward to the further flourishing of this partnership.”

“We are delighted to mark 10 years of partnership between Notre Dame and the Benedictine Community at Kylemore Abbey,” Father Dowd said. “As a global Catholic research university, we are grateful for the ways that the partnership has deepened our connectedness to Ireland and furthered our efforts to educate in ways that build bridges across disciplines, ideas, peoples and cultures. We are deeply grateful for the vision of Martin and Carmel Naughton and of Mother Máire Hickey OSB who made this unique partnership possible. As we celebrate 10 years, we look forward to the future in a spirit of collaboration and partnership.”

The late Martin Naughton’s vision and generosity were instrumental in bringing the campus to life. In May 2026, Emma Kirner, research programs manager, interviewed Naughton about the University of Notre Dame Kylemore. Asked to describe it, he offered the following: “Notre Dame Kylemore is a spiritual place.”

Over the next two decades, Kylemore Abbey will continue to welcome generations of Notre Dame students, scholars, faculty, alumni and visitors to the unique Connemara estate. Through this partnership, Kylemore will continue to strengthen its role as a place of learning, reflection, cultural exchange and global engagement.

Originally published by Lily Mansfield at on Aug. 20.

Media Contact: Lily Mansfield, lmansfi4@nd.edu