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Brain tumor growth patterns may help inform patient care management

2025-07-02T15:00:00-04:00

As brain tumors grow, they must do one of two things: push against the brain or use finger-like extensions to invade and destroy surrounding tissue.

Previous research found tumors that push — or put mechanical force on the brain — cause more neurological dysfunction than tumors that destroy tissue. But what else can these different tactics of tumor growth tell us?

Now, the same team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Harvard Medical 91��Ƶ/Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston University has developed a technique for measuring a brain tumor’s mechanical force and a new model to estimate how much brain tissue a patient has lost. Published in Clinical Cancer Research, the study explains how these measurements may help inform patient care and be adopted into surgeons’ daily workflow.

“During brain tumor removal surgery, neurosurgeons take a slice of the tumor, put it on a slide and send it to a pathologist in real-time to confirm what type of tumor it is. Tumors that originally arise in the brain, like glioblastoma, are prescribed different treatments than tumors that metastasize to the brain from other organs like lung or breast, so these differences inform post-surgical care,” said Meenal Datta, assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at Notre Dame and co-lead author of the study.

“By adding a two-minute step to a surgeon’s procedure, we were able to distinguish between a glioblastoma tumor versus a metastatic tumor based on mechanical force alone.”

Datta and collaborators collected data from 30 patients’ preoperative MRIs and their craniotomies, which include exposing the brain and using Brainlab neuronavigation technology. This technology provides surgeons with real-time, 3D visualization during brain surgeries and is considered commonly available for neurological procedures. Neurosurgeons can use this technique to measure the bulge caused by brain swelling from the tumor’s mechanical forces before the tumor is resected.

Then this patient data was used to determine whether brain tissue was displaced by a tumor’s mechanical force or replaced by a tumor. The researchers found that when there is more mechanical force on the brain (displacement), the swelling will be more substantial. But when a tumor invades and destroys surrounding tissue (replacement), the swelling will be less significant.

The researchers created computational models based on a point system of measurements and biomechanical modeling that can be employed by doctors to measure a patient’s brain bulge, to determine the mechanical force that was being exerted by the tumor, and to determine the amount of brain tissue lost in each patient.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and various cancer research foundations, this study is among the first to show how mechanics can distinguish between tumor types.

“Knowing the mechanical force of a tumor can be useful to a clinician because it could inform patient strategies to alleviate symptoms. Sometimes patients receive steroids to reduce brain swelling, or antipsychotic agents to counter neurological effects of tumors,” said Datta, an affiliate of Notre Dame’s Harper Cancer Research Institute. Datta recently showed that even affordable and widely used blood pressure medications can counter these effects. “We’re hoping this measurement becomes even more relevant and that it can help predict outcomes of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.”

To get a better idea of what else mechanical force could indicate, the research team used animal modeling of three different brain tumors: breast cancer metastasis to the brain, glioblastoma and childhood ependymoma.

In the breast cancer metastasis tumor, researchers used a form of chemotherapy that is known to work in reducing metastasis brain tumor size. While waiting for the tumor to respond to the chemotherapy, the team found that a reduction in mechanical force changed before the tumor size was shown to change in imaging.

“In this model, we showed that mechanical force is a more sensitive readout of chemotherapy response than tumor size,” Datta said. “Mechanics are sort of disease-agnostic in that they can matter regardless of what tumor you are looking at.”

Datta hopes that doctors employ the patient models from the study to continue to grow the field’s understanding of how mechanical force can improve patient care management.

In addition to Datta, co-lead authors include Hadi T. Nia at Boston University, Ashwin S. Kumar at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical 91��Ƶ, and Saeed Siri at Notre Dame. Other collaborators include Gino B. Ferraro, Sampurna Chatterjee, Jeffrey M. McHugh, Patrick R. Ng, Timothy R. West, Otto Rapalino, Bryan D. Choi, Brian V. Nahed, Lance L. Munn and Rakesh K. Jain, all at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical 91��Ƶ.

Datta is also affiliated with Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health, the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, NDnano, the Warren Center for Drug Discovery, the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare Diseases. She is also a concurrent faculty member in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a faculty adviser for Notre Dame’s graduate programs in bioengineering and materials science and engineering.

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

Notre Dame elects two new Trustees

2025-07-02T11:00:00-04:00

Two new Trustees — John F. Crowley and Danielle Walker Merfeld — have been elected to serve on the University of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees effective July 1.

John F. Crowley

Crowley is president and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the world’s largest biotechnology advocacy and policy organization. Prior to joining BIO in 2024, Crowley served as founder, executive chairman and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics. Crowley began his career practicing law and working in management consulting until 1998, when he and his wife, Aileen, learned that their then-15-month-old daughter, Megan, had a rare and fatal neuromuscular genetic disorder called Pompe disease. Desperate to find a cure, Crowley took a position in the pharmaceutical industry and eventually founded Novazyme Pharmaceuticals. Within 18 months, the startup was acquired by biotech firm Genzyme, eventually producing a life-saving medicine for Pompe disease.

Crowley attended the U.S. Naval Academy and holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University, a J.D. from Notre Dame Law 91��Ƶ and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business 91��Ƶ. He served as a commissioned intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and is a combat veteran of the Global War on Terrorism. A member of the College of Science Advisory Council and For Good Cabinet, Crowley offered the principal address and received an honorary degree from Notre Dame at the special commencement ceremony for the Class of 2020, which took place in May 2022, having been delayed by the COVID pandemic. The Crowleys have three children, one of whom—Megan—graduated from Notre Dame in 2019.

Danielle Walker Merfeld

Merfeld is the executive vice president and global chief technology officer for Qcells, a global provider of clean energy solutions. Previously, Merfeld served as vice president and chief technology officer for GE Renewable Energy and as vice president and general manager for GE Global Research. In 2021, Merfeld was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and serves on the boards of the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech and Advanced Energy Economy.

Merfeld holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Notre Dame, as well as a doctorate in electrical engineering from Northwestern University. Merfeld has served Notre Dame as a member of the Graduate Students and Research Advisory Council, and served previously as a Trustee. Merfeld and her husband, Glen, have three children, two of whom are current students at Notre Dame.

In addition, Trustees Shayla Keough Rumely and Sara Martinez Tucker were re-elected to the Board of Fellows for six-year terms.

Composed of six lay women and men and six priests of Notre Dame’s founding religious community, the Congregation of Holy Cross, the Board of Fellows is the University’s ultimate governing body. The Fellows elect the Trustees, adopt and amend the bylaws and are specifically charged with maintaining Notre Dame’s Catholic character.

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

From reaction to resolution: The future of allergy treatment

2025-07-01T08:18:00-04:00

Twelve-year-old Lauren Eglite was thrilled to attend a Notre Dame football game with her father, Erik, in 2017, even though her acute peanut allergy demands constant vigilance.

She was even more excited when the stadium’s brand-new video board aired an NBC Fighting For story about Basar Bilgicer’s research into blocking peanut allergens from triggering immune system overreactions. She asked her father, a drug company executive and Notre Dame business school alumnus, if this might be an opportunity to get involved with a solution to a condition that had complicated her life since childhood.

“I remember to this day her looking at that screen and turning to me,” Dr. Erik Eglite said. “She said, ‘Daddy, can I meet him? I really want to do something about it.’ This kid actually did that.”

It was a bold request, but Bilgicer didn’t hesitate after Dr. Eglite reached out. The Notre Dame professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering invited the whole Eglite family to his lab and explained his complex research in overwhelming detail.

The coincidence of that video playing to the right audience of two has led to immense mutual benefits. Nearly eight years later, Bilgicer and Eglite have partnered to form a company called Artin Immunology that aims to turn Bilgicer’s peanut allergy research into a blockbuster drug.

Read the story

Notre Dame student uses ‘American Ninja Warrior’ spotlight to fight world hunger via his nonprofit

2025-06-26T14:02:14-04:00

Being the hands and feet of Jesus to end hunger can involve ninja warrior competitions and dog toys.

It does for 19-year-old rising University of Notre Dame sophomore Austin Baron, from Ashburn, Virginia.

At 8 p.m. EDT July 14 (Monday), he will compete in the semifinal round of NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior” (ANW) to advocate for an end to world hunger, an ambition he works toward by making knotted dog toys and collecting donations to his nonprofit, Knot Perfect.

Austin Baron at NBC's American Ninja Warrior in Las Vegas, Nevada

In its 17th season this summer in Las Vegas, ANW pits past competitors against “new ninjas” in “the world’s most notorious” obstacle courses. Athletes face tests of strength and endurance and take on a growing number of competitors, each with an inspiring story to tell.

This will be Baron’s second appearance on the show. He first competed in 2023 — on his 17th birthday — and reached the semifinal round. He was invited to rejoin the show this summer and hit his first buzzer during the June 2 qualifying round, advancing to semifinals.

Wearing a shirt that reads “Ninja Fighting Hunger” while on the show, Baron said he is “dedicating my summer to being the hands and feet of Christ for the 1 billion people around the world who go to bed hungry each night.”

Finding his mission

Baron’s mission, which caught the interest of show producers, began when he was a young volunteer at a meal-packing event in his hometown. The Cross Catholic Outreach You(th) vs. Hunger food packing event was led by a Notre Dame alumni family at St. Theresa Catholic Church.

Feeding the hungry that day changed Baron’s life.

“I was so moved to learn that the meals I packed fed hungry children and families that I decided to fundraise so we could feed even more people.”

Austin Baron with his two dogs, Shamrock (left) and Crash (right) and his handmade dog toys

As a middle-schooler, Baron began knotting dog toys as gifts for those who donated, using the name Knot Perfect to underscore “the imperfections of a world where children and families go hungry.”

As a 16-year-old high school sophomore, Baron found it difficult to collect cash donations during the pandemic, so he sought help from his family — and ultimately from Notre Dame — to make Knot Perfect a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allowed for electronic donations.

Working with Mendoza

Baron was influenced by the experiences of his two older brothers at Notre Dame — Hayden graduated in 2024 and Brendan will graduate in 2026.

“I was 12 when Hayden wrote his application essay at our kitchen table,” Baron said. “I wanted to start a dog toy business, and learning of Notre Dame’s mission to work for the common good really motivated me to ask myself, ‘How can I use this to do something good in the world?’”

Baron’s mother enrolled in the Mendoza College of Business virtual professional development class titled How to Start a Nonprofit so she could help him navigate the complicated process.

“My mom’s teacher, Mendoza professor Jamie O’Brien, helped get Knot Perfect off the ground. I met him when we visited campus, and he continues supporting me now that I’m running the nonprofit as a Notre Dame student myself,” Baron said.

Knot Perfect was destined for success, O’Brien said.

Austin Baron competing in his qualifying run on the June 2nd episode of American Ninja Warrior. In the background cheering him on are his Notre Dame dormmates in Graham Family Hall.

“Austin has an amazing capacity to focus on tasks and complete them,” he said. “He’s using what he is learning at Notre Dame to improve himself, the ND community and the world. The young man has a servant’s heart.”

Finding success

Knot Perfect has raised over $30,000 and provided more than 100,000 meals to children and families globally — 40,000 of those as a direct result of Baron’s appearance on Season 15 of ANW. He has also made more than 1,500 dog toys.

“My parents and brothers have been my devoted team of volunteers — driving me to events, helping establish a business and supporting my ninja competitions,” Baron said. “Each is either an officer for Knot Perfect or on the board. All positions are volunteer to maximize the number of meals provided.

“Brendan cheered me on in person while I ran the ANW course this summer, while Hayden watched on a video call with our younger brother Chase.”

The original driver of Baron’s vision, St. Theresa’s You(th) vs. Hunger event, led by Notre Dame alumni Rachel and Stan Revelle, is celebrating its 10th anniversary and striving to pack its millionth meal this year.

In a boost toward that goal, Baron recently received two grants totaling $1,650 that he applied for as a first-year student, with help from his Writing and Rhetoric professor Erin McLaughlin in Notre Dame’s University Writing Program. One of his grant interviews conflicted with finals, so, he said, “my younger brother Chase did an incredible job representing the nonprofit in my place.”

Baron’s fundraising has also provided food through Franciscan Missions for Ukraine, Knights of Columbus Ukraine Solidarity Fund, Our Lady of the Road and Second Harvest Food Bank.

He was selected as the Virginia Young Man of the Year by the Knights of Columbus in 2024.

Putting in the work

Not surprisingly, Baron’s grit has also become evident to his professors. Junyuan (Joe) Ke, assistant teaching professor of information technology, analytics and operations in Mendoza, was initially skeptical when Baron entered his class with little coding experience and then declared a business analytics major mid-semester.

“He put in the work, stuck with it, crushed the final and aced the class,” Ke said. “So, it’s not a huge surprise he’ll be on ‘American Ninja Warrior’ for the second time. He’s got the work ethic and the heart. He’s the kind of student who reminds us why we do what we do.”

Baron said, “I am grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to compete on ‘American Ninja Warrior’ again for this important cause and to hit my first buzzer in qualifying. Growing up watching the show, that was a bucket list item that I always wanted to do.”

Baron hopes his years of training, including at ninja gyms across the country and on the Duncan Student Center rock climbing and bouldering wall on campus, will help him reach the national finals and a shot at this year’s $250,000 prize and title of American Ninja Warrior. With the season ending in bracket-style head-to-head racing, only one contestant will be left standing.

But Baron knows his quest to end world hunger is more important.

“I can feel God’s presence through everyone who has helped me fight hunger, through the opportunities I have had with ‘American Ninja Warrior’ and through my journey to Notre Dame,” he said. “All of the glory goes to God. It would be impossible for me to do this without him.”

To help, visit knotperfect.org.

Contact: Shannon Roddel, associate director of media relations, schapla@nd.edu

In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 6 cancer medications found to be defective

2025-06-25T18:30:00-04:00

Serious quality defects were found in a significant number of cancer medications from sub-Saharan Africa, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.

For the study published in The Lancet Global Health, researchers collected different cancer medications from Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi and evaluated whether each drug met regulatory standards. Researchers considered a variety of factors, including appearance, packaging, labeling and, most importantly, the assay value.

The assay value is the quantity of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) found in each drug. To meet safety standards, most products should be within a range of 90 to 110 percent of the right amount of API. Researchers measured the API content of each product and compared that number to what was designated on the medication packaging.

“It is important that cancer medications contain the right amount of the active ingredients so the patient gets the correct dose,” said Marya Lieberman, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Notre Dame and lead author of the study. “If the patient’s dose is too small, the cancer can survive and spread to other locations. If the patient’s dose is too high, they can be harmed by toxic side effects from the medicine.”

One in six cancer medications tested was found to contain the incorrect quantity of API, with tested medications having APIs ranging from 28 to 120 percent. The study evaluated 251 samples of cancer medications collected from major hospitals and private markets in all four countries.

The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, is among the first to evaluate cancer drug quality in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, sub-Saharan Africa has no pharmaceutical regulatory laboratories carrying out chemical analyses for cancer drugs according to the standards required for regulatory purposes.

Yet, the need for cancer drugs is growing.

“We found bad-quality cancer medications in all of the countries, in all of the hospital pharmacies and in the private markets,” said Lieberman, an affiliate of Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health and Harper Cancer Research Institute. “We learned that visual inspection, which is the main method for detecting bad-quality cancer drugs in sub-Saharan Africa today, only found one in 10 of the bad products.”

Maximilian J. Wilfinger, study co-author and Notre Dame graduate student, tests chemotherapy drugs in Marya Lieberman's lab. (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)

In their study, the researchers explained how a combination of high demand for cancer medications, lack of regulatory capacity, and poor manufacturing, distribution and storage practices likely created a problematic environment throughout sub-Saharan Africa. They also argue that given these factors and the global supply chain for pharmaceuticals, substandard cancer medications are likely present in other low and middle-income countries as well.

Lieberman and her team identified several strategies that could help the global community address poor-quality cancer medications:

Provide inexpensive technologies at the point of care to screen for bad-quality cancer medicines and create policies for how to respond to products that fail screening tests.
Help regulatory agencies in low and middle-income countries get safety equipment and training so they can analyze the quality of cancer medicines in their markets, conduct root-cause investigations when products fail testing, take quick regulatory actions enabled by lab data and share data about bad-quality products.
Perform cost-benefit analyses of interventions that tackle common problems (such as medications being out of stock, unsafe shipping, storage or dispensing practices, and lack of availability or affordability of medications) to help policymakers and funders get the most impact on patient outcomes from their available resources.
Work with care providers to develop site-specific response policies and messaging for patients and engage regulators, donors and other resources.

Lieberman and her lab are developing a user-friendly technology called the chemoPAD for screening cancer medications. This low-cost paper device could potentially help hospitals, pharmacies and health care professionals in low and middle-income countries monitor drug quality without restricting a patient’s access to the medication.

“This is all part of a bigger project aimed at developing the ChemoPAD as a point-of-care testing device that we can use, something that’s more accurate in detecting poor-quality products than just visual inspection,” Lieberman said.

“There are lots of medicines where the regulators don’t have enough resources to verify the quality, and some manufacturers take advantage of that to cut corners. There are also problems with distribution systems, so even if a product is good quality when it leaves the manufacturer, it may be degraded during shipping or storage. These products flow into low and middle-income countries, and they get used on patients. I want to change that.”

In addition to Lieberman, co-authors include Maximilian J. Wilfinger, Jack Doohan and Ekezie Okorigwe from Notre Dame; Ayenew Ashenef and Atalay Mulu Fentie from Addis Ababa University; Ibrahim Chikowe from Kamuzu University of Health Sciences; Hanna S. Kumwenda from the University of North Carolina Project Malawi; Paul Ndom from University of Yaoundé; Yauba Saidu from the Clinton Health Access Initiative; Jesse Opakas from the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital; Phelix Makoto Were from AMPATH - Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital; and Sachiko Ozawa and Benyam Muluneh from the University of North Carolina.

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

Alumni Association awards 2025 Lennon Life Prizes

2025-06-25T13:00:00-04:00

The Notre Dame Alumni Association recognized nine alumni clubs as recipients of the Lennon Life Prize — part of the Chuck and Joan Lennon Gospel of Life Initiative, a set of programs focused on encouraging the University’s dedicated network of clubs to uphold the value of life at all stages.

The Notre Dame clubs are recognized for their involvement in a number of projects that will assist at-risk mothers and children, expectant young mothers, those experiencing homelessness, refugees and immigrant populations and the medically underserved.

For the sixth straight year, four award winners have collected $5,000 awards from memorials on behalf of the late Chuck Lennon. The clubs of Atlanta, Greensburgh/Uniontown, Philadelphia and Toronto/Central Ontario earned this funding to support the execution of their proposed projects. The clubs of Greater Sarasota, Lake County, Pittsburgh, Southeastern Virginia, and Staten Island received $500 honorable mention awards.

The Lennon Gospel of Life Initiative was co-created with Chuck Lennon and his wife, Joan. Chuck, who served as executive director of the Alumni Association and associate vice president of University Relations for 31 years, retired in 2011 and died in 2019.

Together with the Catholic Church’s long-standing defense of all human life, the Gospel of Life Initiative seeks to provide support to vulnerable populations around the world. The Lennon Life Prize supports clubs as they generate a host of ideas to impact their local communities through innovative use of funding and the involvement of club members.

Atlanta

The Notre Dame Club of Atlanta plans to utilize funding to strengthen and support its relationship with Solidarity Food Pantry, an organization created at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to help local families fight food insecurity. Solidarity provides fresh, nutritious choices in a grocery store-like atmosphere where shoppers, many of whom are immigrants and refugees experiencing poverty and homelessness, can shop for their needs. The organization, supported and staffed by the local community of Sandy Springs, already has a developed and meaningful partnership with the club, but with the Lennon Life Prize, the ND Club of Atlanta plans to expand its impact by addressing the additional needs of the organization.

Greensburg/Uniontown

The Notre Dame Club of Greensburg/Uniontown plans to support at-risk youth and expectant mothers through the My Choice Medical Clinic (MCMC) and the My Choice Education (MCE) program. MCMC and MCE are dedicated to preserving the dignity of human life through medical services, education, counseling and support for those seeking assistance when faced with an unplanned pregnancy. These services are supported by donations, many of which come from the annual My Choice banquet. With their winnings, the club plans to host two tables at the banquet, help rebuild connections between staff and stakeholders that faltered due to the pandemic and revitalize both the clinic and the educational outreach programs.

Philadelphia

For the Notre Dame Club of Philadelphia, the Lennon Life Prize will aid in the renovation and furnishing of Annie’s Place, a supportive and empowering home for crisis pregnancies in an economically disadvantaged area of Philadelphia. Annie’s Place provides pregnant and parenting women with physical, emotional, spiritual and professional support as they navigate motherhood. The club will use the money to support the renovation of an old rectory into the home as well as the furniture and decorations to create a welcoming and warm environment, while also building upon their relationship with Annie’s Place.

Toronto/Central Ontario

In partnership with Rosalie Hall, a mental health facility and residence supporting pregnant youth and their families, the Notre Dame Club of Toronto/Central Ontario plans to use its winnings to build planters outside of the establishment to be used to support school lunches and resident meals. Rosalie Hall works to support young families before, during and after pregnancy through counseling, care, treatment and educational services. The club has supported the organization for over 20 years, holding a reception every Christmas to donate gift cards to the clients at Rosalie, and with members volunteering at the school and daycare.

Honorable Mentions

The five clubs earning honorable mentions will also perform a wide variety of projects addressing issues related to hurricane preparedness, developmental disabilities, immigration, domestic violence and homelessness.

Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics receives grant to advance love-based ethical framework

2025-06-23T15:00:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame has received a $10 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to support a project titled Love and Social Transformation: Empowering Scholars and Social Innovators to Develop the Love Ethic. Implementation of this grant, which is the largest Notre Dame has ever received from the Templeton Foundation, will be led by the Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics, the locus for research and moral formation within the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good.

“We are deeply grateful to the Templeton Foundation for its generous support of this important work. By emphasizing the ethics of abundant love, Notre Dame’s Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics has a critical role to play in contributing to contemporary ethics,” said University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. “The Catholic tradition of virtue ethics, like those of other world religions, offers a richer, fuller understanding of hope to the world, and this is a most fitting topic for the Jenkins Center’s first major initiative.”

The Love and Social Transformation project will bring scholars, writers, nonprofit leaders and others together to advance a framework that captures the power, richness and applicability of the love ethic — a core component of many faith traditions throughout the world.

“In our fractious, uncertain time, there is an urgent need for serious reflection on an ethic of love,” said University President Emeritus Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. “Emerging from the great religious traditions, the call to love has been behind some of the most transformative and enduring advances in human history. I am grateful to the Templeton Foundation for giving Notre Dame this opportunity.”

Love-based ethical insights have powered some of the most important social movements of the past century, such as Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement in India and Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights leadership in the United States. But in the 21st century, the more common approaches to ethical decision-making — especially in policy realms — focus instead on cost-benefit analysis.

“These frameworks neglect the dimensions of life that fit into the rich tradition of virtue ethics — moral touchpoints such as love, dignity and awe,” said Meghan Sullivan, the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy, director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative, and principal investigator for the grant.

“In contrast, the love ethic has three components: It holds that a widespread, non-merit-based trait like dignity is what grounds moral significance for each one of us; it is built around principles that situate interpersonal love at the foundations of our ethical reasoning; and it suggests love-oriented policies on diverse social issues as well as a love-oriented way of life.”

With this funding, Notre Dame plans to build a durable, wide-reaching network that will include:

Residential fellowships for faculty and graduate students developing the theoretical foundations for the love ethic.
Fellowships and grants to nonprofit leaders and organizations putting this ethic into practice on pressing social issues.

Intensive workshops and two global conferences designed to expand the reach of the love ethic.
An integrated series of public engagement and storytelling programs that will inspire the broader public imagination about love and ethics.

Notre Dame will collaborate with up to 10 institutions as research partners on this work, including The Love Consortium at the University of North Carolina. Network members will apply the love ethic to a wide range of use cases, including issues of displacement and migration, disability, global philanthropy, political polarization and artificial intelligence.

“In a time where so much of our moral debate and decision-making is too often focused on suspicion, division and narrow cost-benefit analysis, we are thrilled to work to articulate the alternative: an approach to ethics that is hopeful, unifying and grounded in the fundamental virtue of love,” Sullivan said. “We are grateful to the Templeton Foundation and our many collaborators for helping us to build this network.”

Sullivan’s cross-disciplinary research is deeply concerned with philosophy, theology and virtue ethics, and includes a current book project on the love ethic, tentatively titled “Samaritanism: Moral Responsibility and Our Inner Lives.”

While Notre Dame has always been an institution that focuses on ethics in both research and formation, the University intensified its commitment to the field through the 2024 launch of the University-wide Ethics Initiative, one of the key priorities identified in its strategic framework. Virtue ethics, which emphasizes the development of character through the cultivation of virtues such as faith, hope, courage and charity, is at the heart of Catholic ethical doctrine.

The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics supports preeminent scholars whose research advances human flourishing in both moral and spiritual contexts, facilitates the development of undergraduate courses exploring topics such as justice and the common good, and deepens the ethical formation of Notre Dame students and faculty. The center also plays a transformative role in public discussion, drawing citizens into meaningful dialogue informed by virtue ethics — one of the most powerful and enduring contributions of the Catholic philosophical tradition.

Founded in 1987, the John Templeton Foundation supports interdisciplinary research and catalyzes conversations that inspire awe and wonder. The Templeton Foundation is working to create a world where people are curious about the wonders of the universe, free to pursue lives of meaning and purpose, and motivated by great and selfless love.

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

Prioritizing prenatal care may decrease low birth weight outcomes in The Gambia, Notre Dame research finds

2025-06-20T13:50:00-04:00

A new study co-authored by University of Notre Dame researchers provides evidence from The Gambia that can inform policy to prioritize the health of mothers and newborns.

In The Gambia, a small country in West Africa, 1 in 10 newborns have a low birth weight — less than 5.5 pounds — and face daunting challenges. They are more likely to die within a month of birth or in their first year, and they experience higher rates of physical and cognitive impairment and higher risks of developing chronic health issues throughout their lives.

But there is a solution: More prenatal checkups support improved birth outcomes. That is a key finding of a new study co-authored by University of Notre Dame researchers, which provides new causal evidence from The Gambia that can help improve the health of newborns. The study was published in PLOS Global Public Health.

“Newborn health, measured by birth weight, is an important marker that not only reflects an infant's immediate well-being but also predicts future health and development,” said co-author Santosh Kumar Gautam, associate professor of development and global health economics and director of doctoral studies in sustainable development for the University of Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. “Our study found that more prenatal checkups produce better birth outcomes, and these findings can inform policies that will prioritize the health of mothers and their newborn children.”

Previous studies in other contexts have shown a causal link between prenatal checkups and improved birth outcomes, Gautam said. Within The Gambia, previous studies had shown an association between checkups and outcomes, but there was limited empirical evidence estimating the causal effects these checkups have on low birth weight. However, in this latest study, Notre Dame researchers moved beyond correlation to demonstrate a causal link, Gautam said.

Study co-author Santosh Kumar Gautam conducts research exploring the intersection of global health and poverty reduction.

The study analyzed data on more than 4,400 births from the 2019-20 Gambian Demographic and Health Survey. Researchers found that each prenatal checkup was associated with a small increase in birth weight — about .77 ounces — and a 1.2 percent reduction in low birth weight, Gautam said.

But Gautam stressed that prenatal checkups had a cumulative effect: Mothers who had four or more prenatal checkups were 3.9 percent less likely to have a newborn with low birth weight than mothers who had fewer than four checkups. The average treatment effect for having four or more checkups was a 2.5-ounce increase in birth weight and a 4.7 percent reduction in the incidence of low birth weight. Gautam said these improvements would help to reduce deaths within the first month and the first year after birth.

Prenatal checkups play a vital role in detecting and managing conditions like intrauterine growth restriction, Gautam said, which occurs when a baby does not grow at the expected rate during pregnancy. The interventions delivered during these visits, including iron and folic acid supplementation and ongoing education about healthy behaviors, can target the causes of low fetal growth and ensure babies have a healthy weight at birth, he said.

Gautam co-authored the study with Alasana Suso, a 2024 graduate of the Keough 91��Ƶ's Master of Global Affairs program, and Elizabeth Wood, associate professor of the practice and director of the Master of Science in Global Health program within the University's Eck Institute for Global Health.

Elizabeth Wood, one of the study’s co-authors, works to build human and institutional capacity within low- and middle-income countries.

The research is part of the larger work that the Eck Institute for Global Health does to address the critical healthcare needs of pregnant and postpartum women and their children. Through its Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Initiative, the institute fosters interdisciplinary collaborations and inspires advancements to improve health outcomes around the world. The research is also part of larger work by the Keough 91��Ƶ to address issues relating to global poverty and inequality.

Gautam and Wood said future research should examine the comprehensiveness and quality of prenatal checkups to determine which components most effectively support fetal growth and neonatal survival in resource-constrained settings such as The Gambia.

Ultimately, researchers said, this study and new work that builds on it can provide additional evidence that will inform public health policy and improve birth outcomes.

“Our findings are especially valuable for guiding policy in sub-Saharan Africa, as they highlight both the quantity and quality of care as essential for meaningful gains in neonatal health,” Wood said. “These insights underscore the urgent need for sustained investments to ensure mothers have access to comprehensive prenatal checkups so that their children start life on a healthy path.”

Originally published by Josh Stowe at keough.nd.edu on June 19.

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

Designing ethical technology to save democracy: Notre Dame researcher unveils policy blueprint to address online misinformation, polarization

2025-06-19T12:28:00-04:00

Lisa Schirch (left) participated in a campus panel on social media and democracy along with Nick Penniman (center) founder and CEO of Issue One, and former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt (right), co-chair of Issue One’s Council for Responsible Social Media. (Photo by Michael Caterina/University of Notre Dame)

Today’s social media environment threatens to rip the fabric of democracy and jeopardize self-governance in the United States and around the world, according to Lisa Schirch, a researcher at the University of Notre Dame. But she has worked with a team of more than two dozen technologists to identify a solution: Building prosocial technology that prioritizes trust, cooperation and problem solving.

Schirch, the Richard G. Starmann, Sr. Professor of the Practice of Peace 91��Ƶ at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, recently shared these findings at Notre Dame’s National Convening on Social Media and Democracy.

Led by the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, and in partnership with the Council for Responsible Social Media and Issue One, this gathering of government, industry and academic leaders sought to facilitate policy changes that can potentially redirect social media to foster healthy civic engagement, improve understanding of political issues, build trust in public institutions, bridge divided viewpoints and transform polarizing conversations.

The findings Schirch presented are synthesized in a policy blueprint that builds on eight years of research and consultation by the Council on Technology and Social Cohesion, which Schirch co-founded. This effort included a dozen workshops with more than 450 experts that Schirch convened over the past two years to analyze the root cause of harmful online content.

“Digital platforms are not neutral — their design influences human behavior,” Schirch said. “So it’s critical that we address major issues with current designs, which cause the misinformation, polarization and other public discourse issues that we experience on social media and ultimately undermine democracy.”

User experience design choices drive toxic polarization, misinformation

Critics of today’s frequently toxic online environment often focus on bad actors. But that’s a mistake, Schirch said. The larger issue is user experience, or UX design. Often, she said, deliberate design choices prioritize profit at the expense of individual and societal well-being. These choices algorithmically amplify problematic content that preys on users’ fear and anger.

Schirch said this profit-at-all-costs approach explains why people encounter and ultimately embrace online falsehoods, why they fail to exercise healthy skepticism when targeted by disinformation campaigns and why they develop negative opinions about people who don’t share their political views. And this dynamic, she said, leads to dire consequences.

“We are in a very dangerous situation here where we have severe threats to our democracy in the United States,” Schirch said during a public panel at Notre Dame’s recent technology and democracy conference. “I want to start moving toward a solution.”

Fellow panelist Dick Gephardt, former House Majority Leader and co-chair of Issue One’s Council for Responsible Social Media, reinforced the urgency of finding solutions: “We are going to lose this democracy, in my humble opinion, unless we can pull this to a better place.”

Using prosocial technology to strengthen civic engagement

How do policymakers address misinformation and polarization online? How can societies develop technologies that enable citizens to build trust and find common ground?

Schirch’s policy blueprint proposes solutions that focus on three key areas:

Advancing prosocial technology design. Recommendations include implementing a tiered certification system that incentivizes platforms to be more mindful of their impact; requiring minimum technology design building codes; and supporting third-party services that help mediate users’ relationships with technology platforms, giving them more control over their data.
Providing foundational governance for digital platform research. Recommendations include requiring democratic oversight of platforms as well as audits to increase transparency on everything from content moderation to ad targeting to algorithmic recommendations; developing a data standard for prosocial technology metrics; and enforcing safe harbor protections for independent, accredited researchers who evaluate platforms and their impact, empowering them to document abuses without facing backlash.
Shifting market forces to support prosocial design. Recommendations include encouraging competition by enforcing antitrust and anti-monopoly laws; codifying product liability for adverse effects of technology; and incentivizing and investing in prosocial technology through channels ranging from private philanthropy to support from universities and nongovernmental organizations.

Importantly, Schirch said, these recommendations enlist government, civil society and the private sector as stakeholders, providing incentives for them to collaborate on proactive governance to address platform design issues and hold technology companies accountable.

The result, Schirch said, can be a more productive, less polarized public discourse that empowers citizens to find areas of agreement across party lines and encourages them to work together to find workable solutions to major challenges.

Supporting Notre Dame’s broader democracy work

Lisa Schirch explores how digital technologies can support or undermine the social cohesion that is vital to democracy.

The policy blueprint draws upon Schirch’s earlier research on democracy and technology. Ultimately, it is part of larger University efforts to study and strengthen democracy. This includes the work of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative as well as the Keough 91��Ƶ, which researches issues relating to democracy and human rights.

Faculty experts from across campus are supporting this work. They include researchers from the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society, the Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab, the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy and the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ, part of the Keough 91��Ƶ.

Together, these experts will create an interdisciplinary and University-wide foundation for sustaining the work that extends beyond the recent campus convening. And Schirch is eager to support this mission.

“Technology is a tool that can be used to either support or erode democratic institutions and practices, and the choice is up to us,” Schirch said. “Ultimately, I want this work to guide evidence-based solutions that strengthen the health of democracy worldwide.”

The policy blueprint was co-published by three organizations: the Council on Technology and Social Cohesion, which Schirch co-founded; the Peacetech and Polarization Lab that Schirch directs, which is housed within the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ; and the Toda Peace Institute, where Schirch is a senior research fellow.

Originally published by Josh Stowe at keough.nd.edu on June 17.

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

Navigating the waters of peace: Researchers address challenges, opportunities in implementation of Colombia's Peace Agreement

2025-06-19T10:54:00-04:00

Nearly half of the commitments outlined in Colombia's historic peace accord face significant challenges and may not happen in time unless policymakers make several key interventions, warns a new report from the University of Notre Dame.

The report offers a blueprint to salvage an accord that has lagged behind its implementation deadlines, putting its legacy at risk. It highlights timely fixes that can strengthen the agreement.

The report was produced by the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM), part of the Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ within Notre Dame's Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. PAM is responsible for monitoring and verifying the implementation of the accord.

This is the first time a university-based research center has played such a direct role in supporting the implementation of a peace agreement, and the first time researchers have measured the implementation of a peace accord in real time.

“The peace process is moving forward, but progress is uneven and fragile in some areas,” said Josefina Echavarría Álvarez, director of PAM. “The next few years will be critical.”

The report highlights major contextual and security challenges, including the fragmentation of armed groups involved in the ongoing “Total Peace” negotiations and persistent violence in implementation-priority regions like Catatumbo, northern Cauca and San Juan (Chocó). According to Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office, 71 percent of municipalities remained under early warning alerts due to armed group activity.

“While we’ve seen progress in some areas, particularly related to political participation, the disparity in implementation levels underscores the need for a more holistic and integrated approach,” said Ángela María Ramírez Rincón, executive director of the Barometer Initiative in Colombia.

Key opportunities

In its evaluation, PAM found several key opportunities that could significantly strengthen Colombia’s peace process. One major recommendation is the creation of a high-level presidential office to coordinate peace efforts across government agencies, which would bring much-needed leadership and accountability. Strengthening local development plans to better reflect the priorities of communities, especially in areas most affected by conflict, would help ensure peace efforts are grounded in real needs.

The report also calls for more focused support for gender and ethnic inclusion, noting that targeted investments in these areas can drive meaningful change for historically marginalized groups. Increased international assistance directed at the most critical gaps can also help maintain momentum and ensure that peacebuilding efforts are sustainable and centered on the people most impacted.

Despite limited advances, the implementation of gender and ethnic provisions continues to lag. Of the 130 gender-focused commitments, just 13 percent were completed, with 17 percent not yet started. Similarly, of the 80 commitments with an ethnic focus, 13 percent had been fulfilled and 60 percent remained in a minimal state, showing no progress in full implementation indicators for the past two years.

While these figures point to persistent gaps, the report also acknowledges that some groundwork has been laid, and there are opportunities to build on existing efforts to close these implementation gaps. The report notes progress in areas such as women's economic reintegration and the work of ethnic institutions like the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the Unit for the Search of Disappeared Persons, but also documents structural limitations in consultation processes and resource allocation.

The Kroc Institute’s analysis also includes insights into territorial implementation trends across the country’s 16 Development Programs with a Territorial Focus (PDET) subregions. Although some regional projects like “Together for the Territory” and “Territorial Pacts” show promise, security issues, bureaucratic delays and financial gaps hinder their full execution.

“The coming year presents a critical opportunity to consolidate gains and address implementation gaps,” said Echavarría Álvarez. “Political will, sustained investment and strengthened inter-institutional coordination will be essential to ensuring a durable peace.”

Since 2016, the Kroc Institute has monitored the agreement at the request of the signatories and continues to serve as a global reference for implementation tracking through the Peace Accords Matrix, the world’s most comprehensive database on peace accord implementation. The ninth comprehensive report analyzes the state of implementation from December 2023 to November 2024.

Additional resources

Alongside the full Spanish report, the Kroc Institute produced a handout in English highlighting key points of the report and has released all of its original data for other scholars to utilize in their work.

The Kroc Institute has released eight prior reports on the status of overall implementation, as well as four reports on implementation of gender provisions, three reports on implementation of ethnic provisions, a special report on the implementation of the Final Agreement from the perspective of victims’ rights, and a special report on the environmental challenges.

Review all reports here.

Originally published by Jena O'Brien at kroc.nd.edu on June 11.

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

‘Returnless returns’ boost brands among consumers

2025-06-18T12:27:00-04:00

91��Ƶ show consumers return 1 in 5 online purchases.

This presents a challenge for retailers because the revenue generated from reselling a returned product often does not cover the costs associated with processing the return.

As a result, many leading retailers no longer require customers to return a recently purchased and unwanted product in order to get a refund — they often tell customers to “just keep it,” meaning they get both the refund and the item.

John Costello (Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)

This “returnless returns” strategy has become a common practice. In a 2023 survey of more than 500 retail executives, 59 percent used returnless returns compared with only 26 percent the year before.

And cost cutting is not the only benefit for these retailers, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.

Returnless returns can increase brand support by fostering goodwill, according to John Costello and Christopher Bechler, assistant professors of marketing at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Their study, “Just Keep It: When and Why Returnless Product Returns Foster Brand Support,” is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research.

Christopher Bechler (Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)

They conducted nine lab, field and online studies that showed consumers who are offered returnless returns are more likely to patronize the brand and share positive feedback compared with others doing standard product returns.

They found this to be true when several factors are in place.

“Specifically, returnless returns increase brand support when proof of the problem with a product is not required, the decision is framed as specific to that consumer and situation, the brand provides a consumer or environmentally centric motive for the decision and the brand suggests donating the kept product,” Costello said.

This contrasts with narratives in the popular press and with data from the team’s pilot study with retail professionals, which both point to cost as the primary reason firms decide to implement returnless returns.

“Surprisingly, we also find that increased brand support generated through returnless returns can sometimes be greater than the support generated when a consumer appears to be happy with a product and does not initiate a return,” Bechler said.

The study explores both situations where consumers get to keep the "returned" product plus get their money refunded, as well as situations where they get to keep the "returned" item and get a replacement item. The effects hold for both of these situations.

Some brands, including Chewy and Bombas, offer a blanket returnless policy for all customers and situations, while others, like Amazon and Walmart, use a case-by-case basis.

While blanket returnless policies may appear more likely to boost brand support because consumers may feel they could be excluded by brands with selective use, the study shows the opposite is true.

“Drawing from our theory that offering returnless product returns boosts brand support because they increase brand warmth, we find that returnless policies implemented on a case-by-case basis are actually more effective for a couple of reasons,” Costello said. “The consumer feels they are getting special treatment. Also, because they are getting human interaction rather than an automatic email, the customer feels additional warmth toward the brand. So, increasing the level of ‘humanness’ in digital interactions has proven beneficial.”

Brands can choose to not provide a reason for why they are using returnless returns, or they could point to managing costs or minimizing environmental harms. However, in the interest of improving brand support, the study provides managers with practical guidance about how to communicate with consumers during returnless returns.

Suggesting that customers donate the kept product boosts perceived brand warmth and support, as does providing reasons that articulate the brand’s desire to put the customer first in their product return processes.

Bechler explained, “The customer-centric message we used in one of our studies was, ‘When managing returns, our primary goal as a company is to make our customers’ lives better. With this in mind, there is no need to return the items in question to receive your refund. We appreciate your business and want to make this process as seamless and positive as possible for you, so please do whatever you want with these items.’”

The findings offer important insights for firms that are designing or updating their product return policies and would like to improve how they are viewed by customers who seek to return purchases.

Contact: John Costello, 574-631-5171, jcostel4@nd.edu; Christopher Bechler, 574-631-1202, cbechler@nd.edu

Father-daughter bonding helps female baboons live longer

2025-06-17T19:05:00-04:00

Besides humans, very few mammals receive care from their fathers. But when species do, it may benefit their children.

New research from the University of Notre Dame found that the strength of early-life father-daughter relationships predicts meaningful differences in the survival of female baboons.

Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study evaluated the impact father baboons may have when they choose to co-reside or interact with their daughters, even though baboon mothers provide all essential care. Until now, the consequences of early-life paternal relationships of offspring were mostly unknown.

“Male baboons tend to reach their peak reproductive success when they’re young adults,” said Elizabeth Archie, professor of biological sciences at Notre Dame and corresponding author of the study. “But once they’ve had a few kids and their condition declines, they sort of slide into ‘dad mode,’ where they don’t disperse as much and they don’t try as hard to mate. Then they have time to invest in and hang out with their kids.”

Looking at 216 female baboons and their fathers in the Amboseli ecosystem of East Africa, the researchers found about a third of the daughters lived in the same social group as their fathers for three years or more. The remaining two-thirds had fathers who either left the group or died within their daughter’s first three years of life.

Researchers also evaluated the grooming habits of juvenile females with their fathers and other adult males, which speaks to the potential strength of father-daughter and other relationships. Archie shared that grooming, which is used for hygiene and social bonding, could be considered the “human equivalent of sitting down, having a cup of coffee and a good chat.”

The study showed daughters who had a strong relationship with their fathers, who co-resided with their fathers for three years or more, or both, lived two to four years longer than females who had weak father-daughter relationships.

Elizabeth Archie, professor of biological sciences at Notre Dame. (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)

“Early life adversity has a powerful effect on lifespan, so this study suggests that having a dad allows females that have experienced other forms of adversity to recover some of those costs,” Archie said. “In a lot of mammals, dads have a reputation of not contributing very much to offering care, but we now know that even these seemingly minor contributions that males are making still have really important consequences, at least in baboons.”

Additionally, father-daughter pairs that lived together for longer had stronger grooming relationships. Meanwhile, strong relationships between juvenile females and other adult males did not predict adult survival. This could be because male baboons sometimes intervene on behalf of offspring in conflicts, protecting their daughters, and even the mothers, from other group members.

“Males seem to sort of expand a child’s social network, as they can be popular members of their social group. Lots of baboons are coming up and interacting with the male. So an infant who’s hanging out near a male has more diverse social interactions than if they’re only hanging out with mom,” Archie said. “And dads can create a sort of safety zone for their daughters.”

Although mammal fathers may not provide much, if at all, to their offspring, Archie believes this study may hold insight into the evolutionary roots of human parental care.

This study is part of the Amboseli Baboon Research Project, which began in 1971 and is among the longest-running primate studies in the world. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the project is co-directed by Archie at Notre Dame, Susan Alberts from Duke University and Jenny Tung at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

“We’re very grateful to the NSF and NIH for funding over the years that has allowed us to sustain this project. We could not have done over 50 years of this project without their support,” Archie said.

In addition to Archie, Alberts and Tung, study co-authors include David Jansen at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and J. Kinyua Warutere at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya. Archie is affiliated with Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health and Environmental Change Initiative.

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

Notre Dame honors Carmi and Chris Murphy with 2025 Sorin Award

2025-06-13T14:00:00-04:00

In recognition of their contributions to the University of Notre Dame and service to the South Bend community, Carmi and Chris Murphy were presented with the 2025 Rev. Edward Frederick Sorin, C.S.C., Award on May 31 at the Alumni Association’s annual reunion celebration.

The Sorin Award is conferred on a graduate who has rendered distinguished service to the University. It was established by the Alumni Association in 1965 and is one of the University’s highest honors.

“Chris and Carmi Murphy are the embodiment of what it means to be loyal sons and daughters of Notre Dame,” Alumni Association Executive Director Dolly Duffy said. “Not only have they dedicated themselves to giving back to Our Lady’s University, they have used their time and talents to be forces for good in the city of South Bend, the state of Indiana and beyond.”

As the lead benefactors, along with Ernestine Raclin, of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, the Murphys have played a pivotal role in the expansion of the arts on campus and in the community. Opened in November 2023, the Raclin Murphy Museum now serves both the University and South Bend, providing ample space for Notre Dame’s extensive art collection and strengthening the bridge to the region by expanding public access to the arts.

Chris Murphy is chair, president and chief executive officer of 1st Source Corp., having served as CEO of the bank since 1977 and on its board for nearly 50 years. In addition to the Morris Inn, he and Carmi have supported Raclin-Carmichael Hall, the 1st Source Bank Commercialization Award and multiple other projects at Notre Dame. In addition to serving on the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, Murphy has also served on the board of the Indiana University Medical Education Foundation and the Indiana Academy Board of Regents, part of the Independent Colleges of Indiana.

Carmi Murphy has served on the Snite Museum Advisory Council since 2007 and is a life board member of WNIT. She served for 15 years on the Saint Mary’s College Board of Trustees and has, among others, served on the boards of the Michiana YMCA, Memorial Health Foundation and Family and Children’s Center. Four of Chris and Carmi’s children have Notre Dame degrees.

Partial peace deals may facilitate comprehensive accords, offering roadmap for policymakers, practitioners

2025-06-11T11:07:13-04:00

Partial peace deals that focus on limited sets of issues can help build trust among negotiators and facilitate comprehensive accords, according to new Notre Dame research. Findings can inform the work of policymakers and practitioners working to end conflicts.

Over the past two decades, conflicts in more than 40 countries, including El Salvador, Northern Ireland, Senegal and The Philippines, have ended in comprehensive peace agreements. But these broader accords don’t happen all at once.

Partial peace agreements — deals signed along the way that address issues ranging from ceasefires to constitutional reforms and human rights — could provide a blueprint for peacebuilding policymakers and practitioners, new research from the University of Notre Dame suggests.

The study, published in the Journal of Peace Research, draws on a newly expanded dataset from the University’s Peace Accords Matrix — a trusted resource for global peace practitioners seeking actionable evidence. Researchers examined 51 provisions from 42 comprehensive peace agreements and 236 partial peace agreements.

“Thanks to this newly expanded dataset, we uncovered findings that can inform the work of negotiators in various global contexts,” said lead author Madhav Joshi, research professor and associate director of the Peace Accords Matrix, which is housed within the Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ, part of Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. “These insights are possible because of the impactful research that takes place at the Peace Accords Matrix.”

Expanded data yields fresh insights

Partial peace agreements offer multiple strategic advantages, Joshi said. They can help negotiating parties consolidate incremental progress; serve as metrics for stakeholders and the international community; allow parties to test specific measures before fully committing to them; and signal a larger commitment to the peace process.

The new study provided a deeper look into how these agreements work, Joshi said. Researchers found the following:

A greater number of partial agreements is associated with higher implementation of comprehensive agreements.
Generally speaking, it is a better strategy to pursue more partial agreements, even if this lengthens negotiations.
Longer negotiations that do not produce partial agreements are never better than short negotiations.

Madhav Joshi’s research explores peace agreement design and implementation.

“These findings suggest that partial peace agreements play an important role in building trust and strengthening relationships between negotiators to help peace processes succeed,” Joshi said.

The study also helped identify additional avenues for future research, Joshi said, which might explore why parties in some processes (but not others) pursue further partial agreements. Further studies could explain why some partial agreements are implemented immediately while others are not, and why only some partial accords reaffirm previous agreements.

“Ultimately, this study is an example of our evidence-to-action approach,” Joshi said. “Our research can guide the work of policymakers and practitioners on the ground who work to end conflicts and save lives. Putting this evidence in their hands is critical to designing effective policies that will yield a tangible impact, helping societies escape the destructive cycles of violence and war.”

The study received funding from the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ. Joshi co-authored the report with Matthew Hauenstein, assistant research professor at Notre Dame’s Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and Jason Quinn, research associate professor and a principal researcher for the Peace Accords Matrix data project.

Originally published by Josh Stowe at keough.nd.edu on June 10.

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

Fatal school shootings have lasting impact on local economies

2025-06-10T10:54:00-04:00

91��Ƶ shootings in the United States have become a shockingly regular occurrence, with 573 on record between 2013 and 2021 — nearly one school shooting every week, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Beyond the immediate tragedy, fatal school shootings can have far-reaching and less obvious economic consequences, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.

The first large-scale empirical evidence that fatal school shootings can impact routine consumption behaviors like grocery shopping and dining out, “How Fatal 91��Ƶ Shootings Impact a Community’s Consumption” is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research from John Costello, assistant professor of marketing at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.

Costello, along with his co-authors from Indiana University, the University of California-Davis, Georgia Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University, analyzed household grocery purchases from 63 fatal school shootings between 2012 and 2019, matching NielsenIQ's Homescan market research to school shooting records from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security.

They noticed a measurable decline in consumer activity for up to six months in communities following a fatal school shooting. The authors found reductions in spending of over two percent at grocery stores, eight percent in restaurants and bars, and three percent in overall food and beverage retailers.

“Our controlled experiments provide evidence that this decrease primarily is driven by heightened anxiety about safety in public spaces following these tragedies,” Costello said. Consistent with this, the team’s grocery data shows that consumers not only decrease spending following these incidents, but also the number of grocery trips. The authors find that consumers also purchase from fewer departments, potentially to limit time spent in public settings based on their feelings of anxiety.

And the economic impact is stronger in liberal rather than conservative-leaning counties.

In liberal-leaning counties, grocery spending dropped by 2.4 percent, compared to 1.3 percent for their conservative counterparts. Consistent with the grocery data, findings in the authors' experiments uncovered that political liberals reported higher levels of anxiety and greater intentions to avoid public spaces following these events.

The disparity is attributed to differing perceptions about the causes of gun violence, but Costello says the study shows one thing is clear.

“Retailers cannot simply resume business as usual in the aftermath of these tragedies,” Costello said.

Typically, policy responses to school shootings focus on the psychological distress of direct victims, improving protections and increasing gun control and mental health support in schools. This research suggests local governments may also need to help counteract economic losses. Suggestions include direct financial support, grants, or low-interest loans to help local retailers manage the fallout, and tax breaks or other financial incentives to businesses to help them remain operational.

Costello says the findings could offer a better path to change.

“Our results show the consequences of fatal school shootings are broader than we thought and may be helpful in policy discussions,” he said. “While the death of children has naturally been the primary driver, progress toward lasting change has failed. As they do in natural disasters, politicians could underscore these profound economic consequences to elicit public support.”

Contact: John Costello, 574-631-5171, jcostel4@nd.edu

Corporate boards with more women in positions of power lead to safer workplaces

2025-06-10T09:00:00-04:00

The most coveted position in corporate America — the board of directors — historically has been criticized for excluding women and other underrepresented groups. Over the past several decades, however, state legislation and pressure from investors have motivated firms to increasingly recruit female directors.

Kaitlin Wowak (Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)

Prior research has shown that having female directors on corporate boards can improve a firm’s financial performance, social responsibility, operations, product quality and recall decisions.

New research from the University of Notre Dame takes a first look at how workplace safety is affected by female board representation, finding similar benefits. There are fewer accidents and injuries on the job when boards have more women.

“However, simply adding women directors is not enough,” said Kaitlin Wowak, the Robert and Sara Lumpkins Associate Professor of Business Analytics at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “Their influence on future workplace safety increases significantly when they hold powerful positions on key board committees because they feel more comfortable speaking up and get better traction on their ideas.”

Wowak, along with Yoonseock Son, assistant professor of information technology, analytics and operations at Mendoza, and Corinne Post from Villanova, analyzed a unique dataset covering 1,442 firm-year observations across 266 firms from 2002 to 2011.

Their findings are forthcoming in the Journal of Operations Management paper “From the Boardroom to the Jobsite: Female Board Representation and Workplace Safety.”

Yoonseock Son (Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)

The team looked at OSHA workplace safety data and director-level variables from Institutional Shareholder Services, along with information from Violation Tracker including fines and penalties levied by U.S. regulatory agencies, the U.S. Department of Justice, state and regulatory agencies, and state attorneys general.

The research shows that boards with a higher representation of female directors prioritize and enhance workplace safety, likely because they tend to consider a wider range of stakeholders in their decision making, exhibit more risk aversion and favor regulatory compliance.

These findings are underscored by prior studies showing that female directors, in contrast to male directors, often have more experience in community outreach and philanthropy, making them more likely to advocate for prosocial issues. The team demonstrates that women are more likely to show greater consideration and care for employee well-being — including a desire not to harm in their decision making.

Greater focus on risk aversion and regulatory compliance at the board level may improve rule-following and protocols for properly using equipment. For example, the board could request that management monitor and report on safety precautions.

With workplace accidents estimated to cost U.S. employers more than $170 billion annually, Son said their findings can help firms avoid prioritizing efficiency at all costs — a critical determinant of unsafe work behaviors — while avoiding backlash from investors and stakeholders.

“A board with more women will specifically ask the top management team to report to them on workplace safety,” Son said. “Women will set the tone at the top that employees must strictly follow rules, including safety guidelines.”

In an empirical extension of their main analyses, the team looked at racial/ethnic minority (non-white) directors and got the same result, presumably because both groups have unique safety-relevant, social perspectives, yet share the characteristics of being underrepresented, non-prototypical board members whose views tend to be overlooked.

Further, the team found a synergistic effect with female and minority board representation.

“With more females in the upper echelons, the effect of similar minority representation on future workplace safety becomes even stronger, and vice versa,” Wowak said.

As the first study to suggest that board diversity can enhance a firm’s operations through workplace safety benefits, the team recommends companies also steer women and minorities onto influential board committees and boost accountability measures.

“Having power reduces their inhibitions, limits interference from others and provides more opportunities to speak up and steer discussions,” Son said. “And boards facing greater scrutiny are more likely to leverage their unique perspectives.”

Contact: Kaitlin Wowak, katie.wowak@nd.edu; Yoonseock Son, 574-631-1666, yson@nd.edu

Finding fusion: an engineer and neurosurgeon unite to improve spinal surgery

2025-06-05T09:11:00-04:00

It is the summer of 2023, and Dr. Stephen Smith sits face-to-face with a model skeleton in the Engineering North building on the University of Notre Dame campus.

Smith is a neurosurgeon at Beacon Health System’s Memorial Hospital in downtown South Bend, Indiana, about a mile southwest of the University’s campus. He is talking with Ryan Roeder, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, about a spinal fusion surgery Smith had just performed using a brand-new type of implant. Although he is looking at bones, it is clear that where others might see death, Smith sees a system teeming with life.

“Bone is an active organ,” Smith says, “and it undergoes continuous remodeling.”

“Remodeling” is not just an apt metaphor; it’s a technical term for the three-part biological process whereby cells digest old bone and deposit fresh, hardened bone in replacement. Remodeling is a key word for this surgery, because for the surgery to be successful, bone has to fuse with an implant—a lifeless material that Smith must insert into the living system of vertebrae and nerves that make up the cervical spine.

Read the story

Airborne disease detection made easier with new, low-cost device

2025-06-04T14:27:00-04:00

Airborne hazardous chemicals can be dilute, mobile and hard to trap. Yet, accurately measuring these chemicals is critical in protecting human health and the environment.

Now, a new, small, low-cost device, nicknamed ABLE, could make the collection and detection of airborne hazards much more efficient. The device, just four by eight inches across, was devised by Jingcheng Ma, assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, and researchers at the University of Chicago. The results of their work were published in Nature Chemical Engineering.

ABLE has immediate applications in hospitals, where viruses, bacteria and nanoplastics can be detected directly from the air — offering less invasive alternatives to blood draws, particularly for vulnerable infants in neonatal units.

“Many important biomarkers — molecules your body produces when it’s dealing with pathogens — are very dilute in the air. They could be at the parts per billion level. Trying to find them is like locating six to seven people in the global population — very difficult,” said Ma, the study’s first author, who conducted the research as a postdoc at the University of Chicago.

Ma, whose graduate training was in thermal science and energy systems — a field in which the transfer of water from liquid to steam is central — wondered how airborne biomarkers might behave if condensed into liquid. Could these molecules be captured in water droplets? Would their concentration in liquid be the same as their concentration in air? Would different molecules condense differently?

Assistant Professor Jingcheng Ma

If airborne biomarkers are tested in gas form, large, expensive machines — such as mass spectrometers — are usually necessary. However, if the researchers could convert the air into a liquid, an array of low-cost, accurate measuring tools became available — paper-based test strips, electro-chemical sensors, enzyme assays and optical sensors.

“We discovered that many molecules can effectively enter water droplets even when their concentration is very low,” Ma said. “We didn’t need to develop any advanced chemical systems to capture these biomarkers in water. It’s a very natural process.”

The ABLE device, which can be made for under $200, sucks in air, adds water vapor and cools it. The air sample condenses into water droplets on a surface of microscopic silicon spikes — a process through which even tiny amounts of contaminant become highly concentrated. These droplets then slide into a reservoir where they are tested for biomarkers.

Ma’s research group, the Interfacial Thermofluids Lab (ITL), is exploring ways to miniaturize ABLE, enabling it to fit into portable sensing systems or robotic platforms for environmental and healthcare monitoring. The group is also working with community partners to monitor the health of vulnerable infants in neonatal care.

“I like to do what I call ‘budget research,’ that is, use simple and low-cost components, but do something important that no one has achieved before. I like research that delivers something everyone can buy from the store,” Ma said.

Ma’s work is supported by US Army Research Office, University of Chicago and University of Notre Dame startup grants, the Technology Development Fund from the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health , the Grier Prize for Innovation Research in the Biophysical Sciences, and the National Institute of Health.

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

In Memoriam: Sriram Somanchi

2025-06-04T11:08:12-04:00

Satya VenKata Ravi Sriram Somanchi, associate professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations (ITAO) at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, passed away unexpectedly on May 31 at the age of 39.

Somanchi was a widely respected teacher and scholar whose research focused on large-scale data and machine learning, primarily in health care. His research broke new ground in the academic landscape by drawing on social science and statistical machine learning to develop and deploy methods that bridge these related but distinct disciplines.

“Sriram was a wonderful person and adored by all who knew him,” said Ken Kelley, senior associate dean of faculty and research at Mendoza College of Business. “He was a skilled teacher and brilliant scholar who helped put the IT, Analytics, and Operations Department on the map as a methodology-rigorous and forward-looking department. His loss leaves a void to the College and the field.”

Somanchi’s research was published in top academic journals, including the Journal of Machine Learning Research, Management Information Systems Quarterly, Production and Operations Management and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open, as well as leading conferences. He earned his doctoral degree in information systems and management from Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He is a graduate of the Machine Learning Department at CMU and earned a master’s degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India.

His many research and teaching awards include the Health IT and Analytics in Action award for the most impactful case study, the Academy of Management’s “Best Accepted Paper,” the Conference on Health IT and Analytics’ Young Researcher Award, and the Zac Plantz Memorial Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence.

“Sriram was an amazing person and respected scholar. He always had a smile on his face and kind words to say,” said Katie Wowak, Robert and Sara Lumpkins Associate Professor of Business Analytics at Mendoza College of Business. “He will be deeply missed by the ITAO family.”

A memorial service will take place at 10 a.m. to noon EDT, June 6, at the Palmer Funeral Home - Welsheimer North, 17033 Cleveland Road, South Bend, Indiana.

Notre Dame announces next step for emerging tech and talent district in downtown South Bend

2025-06-03T10:00:00-04:00

The Tech and Talent District, a keystone of the city of South Bend’s Downtown South Bend 2045 plan, has advanced a step closer to implementation via a partnership between the University of Notre Dame and Ancora to pursue the development of the first phase of the district. Ancora is an investment management firm dedicated to supporting the mission and long-term goals of colleges and universities. Rising from the northeast corner of Colfax Avenue and Lafayette Boulevard, the district will sit at the intersection of research, industry and community, revitalizing a once vibrant corner of downtown while catalyzing job growth and advancing entrepreneurship in South Bend and the surrounding area.

The first phase of the project will revolve around the reimagining of the vacant former South Bend Tribune building, which, through adaptive reuse, will anchor the district along with a new research and office building at the northwest corner of Colfax and Main Street.

Notre Dame's collaboration with Ancora marks another sign of progress for the Tech and Talent District after it received a $30 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. in August 2024 through its College and Community Collaboration initiative. The district will draw world-class research and talent to downtown South Bend, allowing for collaboration with industry to advance applied research in areas such as data analytics, artificial intelligence and advanced computing.

Complementing these activities will be an array of community-facing programs, training and workshops located in the district that will advance economic well-being and strengthen the community; Holy Cross College is developing a leadership and ethics training program, while Notre Dame's South Bend Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program will expand services for local innovators.

Earlier this year, South Bend City Church opened its space in the adjacent former Tribune press building, now home to community partners such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Northern Indiana Corridor. These and other community partners will amplify the role of the district as a true community resource.

"The region has taken tremendous strides in the past decade to advance a shared vision for a vibrant, more prosperous South Bend-Elkhart region," said Shannon Cullinan, Notre Dame's executive vice president. "Ancora will help us build upon that momentum with this transformative community project, just as they have done in other emerging markets."

Based in Washington, D.C., Ancora is an investment manager purpose-built to meet the evolving real estate, infrastructure and innovation needs of colleges and universities. Its integrated model combines flexible, mission-aligned capital, deep higher education insights, full-cycle real estate capabilities and outcome-driven operations. Ancora works closely with university leadership to align investments with academic, research and community goals — unlocking long-term economic and social value.

“This project represents our unique approach to long-term, mission-aligned investment partnerships with universities,” said Josh Parker, chairman and CEO of Ancora. “We’re honored to support Notre Dame's vision of bringing students, innovators, neighbors and businesses together in the heart of South Bend — and to serve as a catalyst for this next chapter, creating a place where opportunity is within reach, talent can flourish and the benefits of growth are shared across the city and region.”

Recognizing the importance of a thriving downtown to the entire region, Notre Dame acquired the Tribune property in 2023, rescuing it from vacancy. The art deco building is noteworthy as the home of the city’s only daily newspaper from 1921 to 2019. It is nominated to be on the National Register of Historic Places because of its age, significance and integrity.

A significant investment in the future of downtown, the district is consistent with Notre Dame’s strategic framework, which calls for further engagement to promote the economic and social well-being of the South Bend-Elkhart region.

“The partnership between the University of Notre Dame and Ancora will breathe new life into an area of downtown South Bend in need of reinvestment — bringing research, talent and community vision together into an exciting new district,” said Caleb Bauer, executive director of community investment for the city of South Bend. “Notre Dame’s ambitious commitment to downtown continues to deepen the relationship between the University and our community.”

Pending additional design and planning work, and in close collaboration with the city of South Bend and other key stakeholders, work on the project is expected to commence sometime later this year.