, the Coyle Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Notre Dame, died Wednesday (Feb. 4) after a long battle with cancer, surrounded by his wife and three sons. He was 54.

Morrell was a renowned literacy studies scholar who advocated for a radical reimagination of the relationship between students and texts. His work positioned literacy as a means of social justice, empowering young people to access information, exercise informed citizenship and participate fully in civic and cultural life. His scholarly interests also included critical pedagogy, postcolonial studies and global youth popular culture.

“On behalf of the entire Notre Dame community, we mourn the passing of Ernest Morrell, a beloved faculty colleague, dedicated administrator and cherished friend to many,” said University President “As a renowned scholar who made significant contributions to his discipline, a superb teacher who inspired and challenged his students, and a visionary administrator, he enriched the Notre Dame community and all who knew him.

“Ernest’s life reflected a deep integration of the life of the mind and matters of the heart. Our prayers are with his family, especially his wife, Jodene, and their three sons, Skip, Antonio and Tripp, and all who grieve his passing. We are grateful to God for Ernest’s life and presence among us, and his example will continue to inspire us.”

Father Dowd also announced that Morrell will posthumously receive the 2026 — which recognizes pioneering and visionary achievements in research, public impact, or creative endeavors that advance the University’s goals — in honor of his intellectually ambitious, socially consequential work centered on a humanistic vision of education.

At Notre Dame, Morrell was a faculty member of the and departments and the director of the Center for Literacy Education in the (IEI), and he served five years as the ’ associate dean for the humanities and faculty development.

Acclaim for Morrell’s work was widespread in academic circles. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest learned societies, in 2024, and he was also an elected member of the National Academy of Education and an elected fellow of the American Educational Research Association.

For the past decade, he has been included in the , an annual listing published by Education Week that highlights academics with the greatest impact on educational practice and policy. Last year, he , a prestigious honor from the National Council of Teachers of English given only 31 times since 1967, for his long-lasting impact on English language arts education.

“Ernest lived his vocation with extraordinary generosity and purpose,” said , the Hackett Family Director of IEI. “His scholarship, leadership and friendship shaped our institute in profound ways. He believed deeply in the power of education to transform lives, and he modeled that belief through his teaching, mentorship and unwavering commitment to the common good.”

Morrell came to Notre Dame in 2017 after faculty appointments at Columbia University’s Teachers College; the University of California, Los Angeles; and Michigan State University. Before pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, Morrell worked as a high school English teacher in Oakland, California, an experience that and shaped his lifelong commitment to supporting educators and students, particularly those historically underserved by educational systems.

Revered as a teacher and an adviser, Morrell approached mentorship as a collaborative partnership, frequently publishing with his doctoral students to help launch their careers before they even defended their dissertations.

“Ernest cultivated a true ‘family tree’ of scholars whose work began with his guidance,” said , a professor of the practice in Africana studies and education, schooling and society. “His former doctoral students are a testament to his efficacy as a mentor, as he allowed them to quickly become his peers, continuing the work of critical education studies and pedagogy at institutions across the country. They learned his lessons well about the importance of building and strengthening communities that support equity and justice.”

He is the author of more than 100 articles, research briefs and book chapters and he wrote or edited 17 scholarly books, including “Educating Harlem: A Century of 91��Ƶing and Resistance in a Black Community” (Columbia, 2019), “Stories from Inequity to Justice in Literacy Education: Confronting Digital Divides” (Routledge, 2021), “New Directions in Teaching English: Reimagining Teaching, Teacher Education and Research” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) and “Critical Media Pedagogy: Teaching for Achievement in City 91��Ƶs” (Teachers College Press, 2013), which was awarded Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine. His work has garnered more than 11,000 scholarly citations.

“Frederick Douglass said that ‘education means emancipation, it means life and liberty. … It means the uplifting of the soul to the glorious light of truth.’ I can think of no one whose life better reflected those words,” said , the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law. “Ernest was a truly exceptional scholar and a tireless advocate for policies that would benefit kids most in need of the light of learning. But, more importantly, he was a beautiful soul. His deep faith and love for his family, his friends and colleagues and Our Lady’s University touched so many.”

Morrell is survived by his wife, , a teaching professor and associate director of the Center for Literacy Education, and their three sons, Skip, Antonio and Tripp. Arrangements are pending.

“,” a colloquium celebrating Morrell’s scholarship, will be held April 7 at the UCLA James West Alumni Center in Los Angeles. The event’s title references a quote from Morrell’s latest book, “,” published last month with Nicole Mirra, Antero Garcia, Cati de los Ríos and Jamila Lyiscott

“We want to be engaged in revolutionary love and practice with beautiful and brilliant minds,” Morrell and his co-authors wrote, “that are in front of us to do something that is eternal.”

The University of Notre Dame has been awarded nearly $4 million in a four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to fund a new initiative that will incorporate tools and strategies for teaching critical thinking into college classrooms around the country.

Supporting a project called Integrating Civil Discourse into the Curriculum at Public, Private, Community, and Historically Minority-Serving Colleges and Universities (ICDC), the grant comes out of the DOE’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education Special Projects Program, which focuses on, among other priorities, protecting and promoting civil discourse in higher education.

In support of that mission, ICDC brings together a team of faculty from universities and colleges around the country with nonprofit leaders to integrate two online technologies that teach critical thinking into undergraduate curricula.

“We’re going to ask this question, ‘Can we expand the reach of effective critical thinking strategies in ways that could impact how we dialogue with each other on a national scale?’” said , an assistant teaching professor in the and director of the . He and North Carolina State University professor Gary Comstock are leading ICDC as co-primary investigators.

Blaschko has been using ThinkArguments, one of ICDC’s two technological tools, for over three years to teach philosophical argumentation in the signature Notre Dame class . Produced by nonprofit ThinkerAnalytix, ThinkArguments is an online course with 10 lessons that train students in argument mapping, a method of informal reasoning that visualizes the structure of an argument. The course has thousands of LSAT-inspired practice questions targeting different critical thinking skills.

“Teaching is a core part of Notre Dame’s mission, so to have an institutional stake in education in this country on a broader scale can be one crucial way we live out that mission.”

Blaschko noticed the impact of ThinkArguments in his classes the first time he used it.

“The arguments students were offering — it just seemed like something was clicking that hadn’t been clicking before,” he said.

To quantify that change, Blaschko started measuring students’ critical thinking gains with pre- and post-tests. He recorded an average growth rate of 16% — a significant improvement. It was something he wanted to replicate.

That’s where ICDC comes in. The grant, administered by , will fund summer workshops that convene faculty from around the country to train them in the basics of ThinkArguments and how to effectively integrate the technology into their courses. They’ll also use the tool Sway, a chat platform produced by Florida nonprofit Disagree Wisely that uses artificial intelligence to coach students with differing perspectives through difficult discussions. The impact of incorporating those technologies into hundreds of classrooms will be measured in the same way Blaschko did it.

The project has the potential to break new ground in higher education. While critical thinking skills are often touted as a key outcome of a humanities education, Blascko said, actually teaching and assessing critical thinking competence is challenging, especially in larger classes. ICDC’s strategies confront this issue by narrowing in on a concrete set of skills that can be applied in any situation involving a search for truth.

“Students are gaining habits of mind that they can apply in reading comprehension, writing, and verbal argumentation and dialogue, both in the classroom and outside of it,” Blaschko said.

Blaschko and the other members of ICDC’s steering committee estimate the project will reach more than 100,000 students just within the grant’s lifetime, with an even greater impact beyond the next four years as their research advances critical thinking education in the U.S.

“It’s really meaningful to be working with the Department of Education on the front lines of pedagogy, research, and practice,” Blaschko said. “Teaching is a core part of Notre Dame’s mission, so to have an institutional stake in education in this country on a broader scale can be one crucial way we live out that mission.”

Originally published by Adah McMillan at on February 03, 2026.

Twenty-two Notre Dame students, including 18 undergraduate students and four graduate students, were awarded Fulbright Scholarships for the 2025-26 academic year, ranking 12th among U.S. doctoral institutions. Slightly more than 30 percent of the Notre Dame students who applied to the program were accepted, exceeding the respective rates for the 11 schools ahead of Notre Dame in the rankings.

Notre Dame has been a top producer of Fulbright students 13 times since the 2009-10 academic year. Full results are available online at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

“Last year's Fulbright process was unusually challenging due to shifting federal funding priorities. Many countries lessened the amount of awards they offered halfway through the process,” said Elise Rudt-Moorthy, associate director of national fellowships with Notre Dame’s . “However, our students worked incredibly hard to earn their placements and then displayed great patience amid uncertainty. It was a pleasure and honor to serve them alongside my colleagues Mathilda Nassar, Emily Hunt, Michael Skalski and Veronica Vos.”

, a professor of biology and associate dean for professional development at the , offered similar praise.

“Fulbright awards are highly competitive and recognize academic excellence, leadership potential and a strong commitment to global engagement and public service,” McDowell said. “The continued success of Notre Dame students earning Fulbright awards reflects their remarkable talent, dedication and drive to make a meaningful difference in the world. I am sincerely thankful to the exceptional teams in the Graduate 91��Ƶ’s Office of Grants and Fellowships and the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement, whose guidance and expertise are instrumental in supporting students throughout the Fulbright application process.”

Established in 1964, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the U.S. government’s flagship educational and cultural exchange program, offering students the opportunity to study, teach or pursue research or other projects abroad.

For more information on this and other scholarship opportunities, visit (undergraduate students) or (graduate students).

The result of a highly competitive RFP process, the renewal extends a fruitful 10-year relationship that began in 2016, when Levy first began overseeing concessions and premium dining across the campus including at Notre Dame Stadium, Compton Family Ice Arena, and Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center. Under the new agreement, Levy will continue to manage all aspects of hospitality, including general concessions and premium seating, ensuring a seamless and high-quality experience for guests of the Fighting Irish.

“At Notre Dame, we strive for excellence in every aspect of our guest experience, and our hospitality program is no exception,” said , Notre Dame’s executive vice president. “Over the past decade, Levy has been more than just a service provider to the University. They are a true partner who understands our mission and shares our commitment to delivering world-class service.”

A hallmark of Levy’s trend-setting partnership with Notre Dame has been its industry-leading focus on sustainability and community support. Since 2017, the partnership has worked closely with the local nonprofit Cultivate Food Rescue to reduce food waste. By "rescuing" prepared but unserved food from the stadium, the program has provided thousands of nutritious meals to local food pantries and supported job-training programs for at-risk youth and adults in Northern Indiana. This initiative remains a cornerstone of the University’s broader sustainability strategy.

Moving forward, the partnership known for culinary innovation, enhanced service and community impact will place an even greater emphasis on local sourcing. Levy will continue to prioritize regional vendors and suppliers, bringing the authentic flavors of the South Bend-Elkhart region to the global stage of Notre Dame game days while supporting the local economy.

“The spirit and traditions of Notre Dame are cherished cornerstones of collegiate athletics, and it has been a profound honor to serve this community for the last 10 years,” said Andy Lansing, CEO of Levy. “Notre Dame marked our entry into the collegiate sports landscape and set our company on a decade-long path to national leadership in the hospitality field. Extending this partnership gives us the shared opportunity to further advance the guest experience while deepening our impact through local sourcing and world-class hospitality.”

Before the opening bell ever rings on a company’s initial public offerings, some of the executives may already be sitting on a quiet windfall.

An IPO can act as a source of “cheap money” because of how stock options are valued before a company goes public. In private firms, options are supposed to be issued “at the money,” with exercise prices reflecting the fair value of the shares at the time of the grant. But without a public market price, those valuations rely on models and judgment, giving companies wide discretion.

When the firm later goes public, the IPO establishes a market value that is often far higher than the earlier private valuation. Options that once appeared fairly priced can suddenly become deeply “in the money,” allowing executives to purchase shares at prices far below market value. The resulting gap functions as “cheap money” — a significant windfall created by the shift from private valuation to public markets, rather than by new performance.

This is a red flag for regulators. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission frequently flags cheap stock grants when it reviews registration statements when companies try to go public.

New research from the University of Notre Dame examines the prevalence, determinants and consequences of cheap stock.

“The average firm’s IPO price is more than five times the exercise price (price per share when stock options are exercised) of options issued in the fiscal year before the IPO,” said lead author , the Deloitte Foundation Department Chair of Accountancy and Deloitte Professor of Accountancy at Notre Dame’s . His findings in the paper titled “” are forthcoming in Management Science.

“We show that ‘cheap stock’ option grants are widespread and economically significant,” Badertscher said. “It isn’t just about high growth, lack of liquidity or IPO uncertainty. It’s actually driven by specific incentives — like backing from venture capitalists and how managers are compensated.”

The gap between the IPO price and the exercise price of recently granted options is greater for firms that grant more options, have larger public offerings and have venture capital backing.

Badertscher, with co-authors Bjorn Jorgensen from Copenhagen Business 91��Ƶ, Sharon Katz from INSEAD and Jeremy Michels from Purdue University, analyzed the prospectuses of 963 U.S. companies that went public between 2007 and 2022, pulling detailed information on pre-IPO stock option grants. The researchers’ main metric measured the gap between the IPO price and the average employee exercise price in the fiscal year immediately preceding the IPO.

They found that when a company gives out cheap stock options, it tends to signal trouble. It’s linked to overpaying the CEO, a disappointing IPO and less money being spent on growth — leading to poor long-term stock performance.

The paper states, “Entrenched CEOs, having received a financial windfall from the IPO, may prefer the status quo and may not be motivated to take risks that are in the best interest of shareholders.”

Companies with more monitoring — like top-tier venture capitalists and underwriters — often have more cheap stock right before going public. This suggests they are doing it to guarantee a successful IPO, not just because of poor corporate governance.

The study has implications for regulators, investors, boards and researchers.

It validates the SEC’s concern that handing out cheap stock before an IPO can make compensation expenses look way lower than they actually are, which distorts the financial picture, even absent clear evidence of fraud.

For investors and analysts, the research shows that looking at pre-IPO pay structures gives you a sneak peek into how well a company will perform and invest once it’s on the public market. For boards and compensation committees, it suggests that cheap stock can embed long-lasting incentive distortions that extend well beyond the IPO event.

“The paper also opens a new empirical window into private-firm valuation discretion, an area that is typically unobservable but economically important,” Badertscher said.

Contact: Brad Badertscher, 574-631-5197, bbaderts@nd.edu

In a published in the journal Science, University of Notre Dame researchers and argue that fossil fuel systems might be far more fragile than current energy models assume.

“Systems designed to be large and growing behave differently when they shrink,” said Grubert, associate professor of sustainable energy policy at Notre Dame’s and a faculty affiliate of the Keough 91��Ƶ’s “Ignoring this shift puts everything at risk, from the success of green energy to the basic safety and reliability of our power.”

The researchers introduced the concept of “minimum viable scale,” a threshold of production below which a fossil fuel system can no longer function safely or economically. They provided examples of vulnerabilities in three major sectors:

• Petroleum refineries: Most refineries are incapable of operating normally at low capacity and likely have “turndown limits,” or a minimum operational capacity, of roughly 65 to 70 percent. If gasoline demand drops sharply due to electric vehicle adoption, for example, a refinery might become incapable of providing other products such as jet fuel or asphalt.
• Natural gas pipelines: As customers switch to electric heating and cooling, those remaining on the gas grid will have to shoulder the fixed costs of maintaining miles of pipelines. This can create a “death spiral” where rising costs drive customers away.
• Coal generation: The authors highlighted a “managerial constraint” where the fate of coal mines and power plants is inextricably linked. A single plant closure can make a local mine unprofitable. Conversely, a mine closure can leave a power plant without its specific, geographically dependent fuel source, leading to a cascade of failures.

The researchers reported that the decline of fossil fuels is unlikely to follow the smooth, linear path often depicted in hypothetical decarbonization scenarios. Instead, they identified a series of physical, financial and managerial “cliffs” that could trigger localized energy crises, price shocks and safety threats long before fossil fuels are retired. Policymakers have focused intensely on the build-out of green energy while largely ignoring the managed decline of the current systems that still provide 80 percent of global energy — a critical oversight, they said.

“None of these systems were designed with their own obsolescence in mind,” said Lappen, a postdoctoral researcher at the Pulte Institute who studies how energy networks grow and shrink over time. “None of the engineers, founding executives, economists or accountants involved ever imagined a system that would gradually and safely hand off to another.”

The danger, according to the authors, is that these systems are “networks of networks.” If one piece fails — a pipeline, a specialized labor pool or a regulatory body — the entire regional energy support system could dissolve.

“If you are leaving decisions about things staying open or closing to individual operators who are not coordinated in any way, this can be incredibly dangerous,” Grubert said.

How to manage decline

To avoid disruption of services, the researchers argued that the current U.S. approach of bailouts and bankruptcies is inefficient. They recommended four key solutions for policymakers and energy modelers:

• High-resolution modeling: Energy modelers should develop tools that provide high-resolution representation of fossil fuel assets to identify when specific facilities reach their minimum viable scale.
• Coordination across ownership boundaries: Policymakers must establish management structures that coordinate decisions across ownership boundaries to prevent a single failure from triggering a cascade of collapses.
• Public management for public need: As systems become unprofitable, they may require significant new investments to remain safe and reliable in the short term, while still committing to closure. Such decisions should be managed by government entities.
• Guaranteed liabilities: Governments should create mechanisms to guarantee the payment of long-term liabilities — “bills” due at the end of a project such as safely tearing down power plants, cleaning up polluted soil or paying out pensions to workers — to ensure that declining systems are not simply abandoned by private operators.

Without such intervention, the authors warned, the “mid-transition” period to zero carbon energy could be defined by instability. If the decline is unmanaged, the resulting price spikes and reliability issues could undermine public trust in the energy transition itself, potentially stalling progress toward meeting important climate goals.

“We will be more creative and more successful if we think about the process outside the moment of crisis,” Grubert said. “Focusing more attention on the behavior of fossil systems under decline can help put timely solutions into place.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Jan. 29.

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

The conversation began with Father Dowd introducing Graham, founder and managing principal of Graham Allen Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in technology and tech-enabled businesses across the U.S, and Spruell, president of league operations for the National Basketball Association, as “two champions of hope who embody the spirit of Notre Dame.”

Graham and Spruell, both members of the University’s Board of Trustees, discussed with Father Dowd the serendipitous events that led them to Notre Dame, their career paths and mentors, their definitions of hope — and what they most value from their time as students at the University.

For Spruell, who was a member of the football team from 1984-87 and served as co-captain in 1987, the lessons he learned from Coach Holtz and the relationships he built with his teammates stood out.

“There’s a throughline of experience that I come back to: ‘Trust, love, commitment.’ Trust the people you work with. Make sure they love what they do. Make sure they're committed to excellence,” Spruell said. “It’s not just in the coaching relationships, but the brotherhood that is part of Notre Dame football, that Coach Lou Holtz embodied, that certainly Marcus (Freeman) is embodying now. Those are the types of things that are ingrained in me now. To be part of this special place, to live it each and every day and now to be able to give back through being on the Board (of Trustees) and other things is just an honor.”

Graham, a member of the Fighting Irish football team from 1992-95, said that among a host of other things he learned at Notre Dame, he was most inspired by the University’s mission to be a force for good in the world.

“What Notre Dame did for me was it really got me focused on building something more important than myself,” he said. “It fundamentally changed me from a kid who walked through life trying to figure out how I could do something for me to this mission-driven focus about how I could do something for others.

“The biggest gift that Notre Dame has given me is this drive to help others and to be a part of others’ lives and this understanding that that is the way that you get the best and most fulfillment.”

Following the conversation, Graham and Spruell also answered questions from the audience, reflecting on how they make tough decisions, how they balance purpose and profit in the business world and how to foster connection in a divided society.

Watch the full conversation here:

The study, published in , provides a tool to quantify responsibility for PM 2.5 pollution, a type of fine particulate matter. It comes amid renewed debate over pollution regulations in the United States. In January, the Environmental Protection Agency said it will stop calculating the  — including lives saved and health care costs avoided — from air pollution rules targeting ozone and PM 2.5.

The research was co-authored by , assistant professor in the and , assistant professor of environment, peace and global affairs in the , along with , a doctoral student in the .

“Our analysis gives states an evidence-based way to demonstrate when cross-state pollution exceeds safe thresholds and threatens public health,” Marcantonio said. “Rather than relying solely on an economic evaluation, policymakers can use clear data on health risks to guide decisions that protect vulnerable residents and communities.”

The new study translates the concept of an airshed — a geographical area where air moves together as a single unit, similar to hydrology’s concept of a watershed — into a practical framework that regulators around the world can use.

“Our study introduces a simpler, data-driven framework that policymakers and regulators can readily adapt,” Crippa said. “This is an important improvement upon previous studies, which have had limited scalability and adaptability.”

Findings underscore pollution’s unequal impact

The study highlights the inequality of pollution in the United States. Researchers found that:

• The percentage of premature deaths attributed to cross-state PM 2.5 pollution has remained constant at approximately 40 percent since 1998, even though air pollution has fallen by 35 percent in the same time period.

• More than half of U.S. states are net exporters of air pollution; roughly a third are net zero contributors, meaning they are neither importers nor exporters; and the remainder, less than a fifth, are net importers.

• Florida stands out as the largest exporter of cross-state pollution (affecting Georgia and the Carolinas), followed by Vermont and Iowa.

• Exporters include a number of states across the Upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast — including Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina — as well as California, Oregon and Washington on the West Coast.

Instead of relying primarily on complex chemical transport models, the authors drew on the concept of an airshed to design a simpler, data-driven approach. They highlighted concentrations of PM 2.5 that exceed established safety thresholds and mapped how these particulates, pushed by prevailing winds, cross state lines, harming communities in which they did not originate.

The research builds upon, which has documented that major air polluters are more likely to be located near a state’s downwind borders than other types of polluters. This dynamic allows states to economically benefit from industry while avoiding the health issues that come with it.

“Our findings underscore the unequal distribution of both health risk and responsibility across state lines,” Marcantonio said.

Informing policy to address pollution

Crippa and Marcantonio want their work to inform policy both in the United States, where legal challenges are the main barriers to regulation, and in other global contexts, where a lack of resources is the main barrier.

“Ultimately, we want to provide an evidence-based approach to protecting public health and supporting human dignity,” Marcantonio said.

In the United States, air pollution regulation faces legal and political challenges. Traditionally, it has been decentralized and the Clean Air Act’s “Good Neighbor” provision has been the strongest regulatory tool. In 2024, the Supreme Court paused an updated Environmental Protection Agency plan aimed at strengthening that provision and addressing shortcomings in state plans.

In lower-resource contexts outside the United States, regulators often have limited access to complex, resource-intensive air quality models. But they face a similar public health problem: pollution that crosses political boundaries and harms other communities.

Whether the regulatory challenges are legal or technological, Crippa and Marcantonio said their work can provide a more timely and complete picture of pollution’s impact, furnishing policymakers with data that can help them protect vulnerable downwind communities.

The researchers are extending their work globally through a multi-year project co-led with Danielle Wood, director of the , focused on how pollution that originates in mega-cities affects other communities.

Funding for that work and the cross-state study was provided through a additional support for the cross-state research came from Notre Dame’s and the .

This work aligns with Notre Dame’s , a University-wide effort to build a sustainable future where people and nature flourish together.

“Our research can inform policy and help regulators prioritize permitting, monitoring and enforcement activities,” Marcantonio said. “Ultimately, we want to provide an evidence-based approach to protecting public health and supporting human dignity.”

Crippa is the principal investigator for the , part of Notre Dame’s , and Liao is also affiliated with the group. Marcantonio is affiliated with the and the in Notre Dame’s ; with the and; and with the Keough 91��Ƶ’s and .

Originally published by Josh Stowe at on Jan. 28.

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

In honor of his lifelong dedication to and outstanding achievements in traditional urbanism and architecture, John Simpson has been selected as the 2026 laureate of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. He will receive the prize during a ceremony on March 21 at the Murphy Auditorium in Chicago.

A native of the United Kingdom, Simpson first gained prominence in 1990 during the Paternoster Square development competition in London where he advocated for New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism. The Driehaus Prize citation notes that “his inspiring leadership in gathering a distinguished group of his peers to address what was then a major civic challenge was clearly noticed.”

While the project was eventually realized with a different vision, Simpson’s proposal “highlighted an emerging, new and constructive approach to urban regeneration and cemented his influence as one of the earliest proponents of modern classicism,” the citation states.

“Our ancestors built wonderful and enduring cities through a shared tradition,” Simpson said. “When I began my career, there were only a few that held to that path. It is such a joy to see how this has changed over the years with a rising generation of architects committed to restoring the continuity that binds us to our Classical roots and determined to create a beautiful and humane world for future generations to enjoy. This award recognizes the enduring value of tradition, not as nostalgia, but as a foundation for building well and responsibly today.”

Simpson’s work has been extensive and deeply influential, the prize jury wrote. It has unfolded through private, public and institutional commissions, “each executed with a keen eye for a balance between precedent based composition, place-appropriate siting and a focus on durability of construction.”

“While thoughtfully contextual with respect to local character and scale, his work also stands as a testament to the multiple building cultures that make up all traditions and offers solutions to the critical need for variety and uniqueness of place facing the built environment,” the citation continued. “Chief among his projects deserving praise are the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, his many projects at Poundbury for the Duchy of Cornwall, the DMRC Rehabilitation Facility at Stanford Hall, the Royal College of Music in London, the 91��Ƶ of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame and his educational projects at Eton, Oxford and Cambridge.”

The jury also recognized Simpson’s long interest in teaching, both informally through his practice and often didactic architecture and through formal teaching positions at the Prince’s Foundation, the University of Buckingham and, most recently, at Cambridge University at the Center for the Study of Classical Architecture. Simpson is also a fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

“John Simpson has long maintained that traditional forms are environmentally sound and contribute to the sense of local identity. His work amply illustrates that the practice of traditional urbanism and architecture does indeed facilitate the bonds of community by encouraging people of all kinds to share a common, living culture of building and to avail themselves of the opportunity to identify with, live and flourish in its distinctive presence,” said , Driehaus Prize jury chair and the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the 91��Ƶ of Architecture.

In conjunction with the Driehaus Prize, the 2026 Henry Hope Reed Award will be given to Philippe Villeneuve, a French architect specializing in historic monument conservation and restoration. Villeneuve was selected for his visionary leadership in the restoration of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris after a 2018 fire.

Villeneuve, who studied architecture at the École d’Architecture de Paris-Conflans, obtained his governmental architectural diploma in 1989 and later a diploma from the École de Chaillot. In 1997, he passed the “Thèse de Concours” to become chief architect for historical monuments in France. He has worked on restoration projects including the Angoulême Cathedral , the chevet and north portal of Limoges Cathedral and the Hôtel de Ville in La Rochelle.

“Villeneuve’s crowning achievement has been in bringing the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from the brink of collapse to its rightful place as the most significant building in France and one of the most recognizable in the world,” Polyzoides said. “Thanks to Villeneuve, the iconic cathedral — an edifice expressing the spiritual essence, technical prowess and proud identity of the French nation across the centuries — was reconstructed in accordance with its original 12th century form.”

Villeneuve engaged hundreds of architects, engineers, designers and craftspeople from across France and looked to the original sources of materials to rebuild the structure. His expansive team combined traditional and cutting-edge construction techniques in tandem to execute the reconstruction in record time.

The jury cited Villeneuve’s leadership in advocating that Notre-Dame de Paris be rebuilt in its original construction methods and returned to its original form.

“Challenging the preservation protocols in place and the high-tech visions of popular architects, Villeneuve argued instead that historic buildings possess physical integrity, community values and symbolic meaning. He had the courage to take his case to French President Emmanuel Macron to explain his viewpoints, thereby convincing the president despite strong opposition,” the jury citation reads.

This year’s Driehaus Prize and Henry Hope Reed laureates were selected by a jury composed of Ben Bolgar, executive director of the Kings Foundation, London; Melissa DelVecchio, partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects, New York; Michael Lykoudis, professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Notre Dame; Demetri Porphyrios, founding principal of Porphyrios Associates, London; and Julia Treese, partner at Treese Architekten, Berlin and Munich. Polyzoides, also a partner at Moule & Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists, Pasadena, California, served as jury chair.

The $200,000 Driehaus Prize is the largest cash award given in architecture worldwide. It is granted to architects by the Driehaus Trust, in the name of Richard H. Driehaus, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Driehaus Capital Management LLC, for their excellence in the design of New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism over their entire career. The Henry Hope Reed Award of $50,000 is similarly granted to individuals who have contributed to the design and building culture that cultivates the traditional city, its architecture and art through writing, planning or promotion.

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

While this approach has yielded major advances, it has left unresolved one of the most basic facts about human cognition: its overall unity as an integrated system.

Now, researchers at the University of Notre Dame have conducted a neuroimaging study to investigate how the brain is organized and how that integrated system gives rise to intelligence.

“Neuroscience has been very successful at explaining what particular networks do, but much less successful at explaining how a single, coherent mind emerges from their interaction,” said , the Andrew J. McKenna Family Professor of Psychology in Notre Dame’s .

How cognitive ties form ‘general intelligence’

Psychologists have long known that areas as diverse as attention, perception, memory and language are correlated, forming what they term “general intelligence.” This accounts for how humans function and adapt in a wide range of academic, professional, social and health contexts. It shapes how efficiently we learn, reason and perform in response to a multitude of everyday problems and tasks.

For more than a century, this structure has suggested that cognition is unified at a fundamental level. What has been missing is a theory to explain why such unity exists.

“The problem of intelligence is not one of functional localization,” said Barbey, who is also the director of the Notre Dame Human Neuroimaging Center and the . “Contemporary research often asks where general intelligence originates in the brain — focusing primarily on a specific network of regions within the frontal and parietal cortex. But the more fundamental question is how intelligence emerges from the principles that govern global brain function — how distributed networks communicate and collectively process information.”

Barbey and his research team, including Notre Dame graduate student and lead author , investigated the predictions of the unifying framework, called the Network Neuroscience Theory. was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

The Network Neuroscience Theory

General intelligence is not itself a skill or strategy, the researchers argued. It is a pattern — the tendency for diverse abilities to be positively correlated. The study argues that this pattern reflects differences in how efficiently brain networks are organized and work together.

To test this claim, the cognitive neuroscientists analyzed brain imaging and cognitive data from one of the largest studies conducted to date, examining 831 adults in the , along with an independent sample of 145 adults in the INSIGHT Study, which was funded by the . The researchers integrated measures of both brain structure and function to enable a more precise characterization of the human brain.

Rather than identifying intelligence with a particular cognitive function or brain network, the Network Neuroscience Theory characterizes it as a property of how the brain works as a whole. In this view, intelligence reflects how brain networks are coordinated and dynamically reconfigured to solve the diverse problems we encounter in life.

This research represents an important shift, according to Barbey and Wilcox.

“We found evidence for system-wide coordination in the brain that is both robust and adaptable,” Wilcox said. “This coordination does not carry out cognition itself, but determines the range of cognitive operations the system can support.”

“Within this framework, the brain is modeled as a network whose behavior is constrained by global properties such as efficiency, flexibility and integration,” Wilcox said. “These properties are not tied to individual tasks or brain networks, but are characteristics of the system as a whole, shaping every cognitive operation without being reducible to any one of them.”

“Once the question shifts from where intelligence is to how the system is organized,” Wilcox noted, “the empirical targets change.”

Intelligence as a globally coordinated system of networks

The researchers found evidence to support four predictions of the Network Neuroscience Theory.

First, the theory predicts that intelligence is not localized to a single brain network but arises from processing distributed across multiple networks. Intelligence, therefore, depends on how the brain manages the division of labor across different networks and combines them as needed.

Second, for the brain to manage this distributed processing, it requires integration and effective long-range communications. To synchronize those efforts, Barbey said, there is “a large and complex system of connections that serve as ‘shortcuts’ linking distant brain regions and integrating information across the networks.” These pathways connect structurally distant areas of the brain, enabling efficient communication and supporting coordinated processing across the system.

Third, effective integration requires regulatory control that coordinates interactions among networks by shaping how information flows throughout the brain. These areas serve as regulatory hubs, reaching out to other networks to orchestrate the brain’s ongoing activities. They selectively recruit the appropriate networks for the specific task at hand — whether it be piecing together subtle clues to make sense of a problem, learning a new skill or deciding whether a situation requires careful deliberation or a rapid, intuitive response.

Finally, Barbey said that general intelligence depends on the brain’s ability to balance local specialization with global integration. In other words, the brain functions best when tightly connected local clusters communicate well, but are still able to link to distant regions of the brain across short communication paths. This makes the most effective problem-solving possible, according to the co-authors.

The research suggests that intelligence is unified not because the brain relies on a single general-purpose processor, but because the same organizational principles shape how all cognitive functions work together.

Across both datasets, individual differences in general intelligence were consistently associated with these system-level properties. No single region or canonical “intelligence network” accounted for the effect.

“General intelligence becomes visible when cognition is coordinated,” Barbey noted, “when many processes must work together under system-level constraints.”

Applications for artificial intelligence

The implications of this study extend beyond intelligence research, he added. By grounding cognition in large-scale organization, the study offers a principled account of why the mind is unified at all.

This framework helps explain why intelligence develops broadly during childhood, declines with aging and is particularly sensitive to diffuse brain injury. In each case, it is large-scale coordination — not isolated function — that changes.

The findings also inform ongoing debates about artificial intelligence and how AI models are developed. If general intelligence in humans arises from system-level organization rather than from a dedicated general-purpose mechanism, then achieving general intelligence in artificial systems may require more than the accumulation or scaling of specialized capabilities.

“This research can push us into thinking about how to use design characteristics of the human brain to motivate advances in human-centered, biologically inspired artificial intelligence,” Barbey said.

“Many AI systems can perform specific tasks very well, but they still struggle to apply what they know across different situations.” Barbey said. “Human intelligence is defined by this flexibility — and it reflects the unique organization of the human brain.”

The research was conducted with co-authors Babak Hemmatian and Lav Varshney of Stony Brook University.

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

The University of Notre Dame’s (LEO) is working with Catholic Charities Fort Worth (CCFW) and Goodwill Industries of Michiana to replicate CCFW’s Padua program in the Michiana region — marking the first-ever Padua mission site in the nation.

Goodwill Michiana’s launch is a major step in a broader effort to expand evidence-based poverty-reduction models to more communities. Through its partnership with Franchise for Good, LEO is applying franchising principles to help evidence-backed programs like Padua expand while protecting what makes them work.

Created by CCFW and named after St. Anthony of Padua — the patron saint of the poor — Padua aims to move clients permanently out of poverty by providing them with intensive, wrap-around case management services. The Padua program uses a client-led, long-term and research-driven approach to redefine traditional case management.

The program was rigorously evaluated by LEO to test the impact of Padua on labor market and other outcomes. Using a randomized controlled trial, a group of more than 400 program participants, only 40 percent of whom were employed upon enrollment and whose income placed them at about two-thirds of the federal poverty line.

LEO researchers found that through the Padua program, participants were 25 percent more likely to achieve full-time employment — while also reporting significant improvements in overall health and well-being. The intervention was particularly effective for those not employed at enrollment. For this group, the intervention led to a 67 percent increase in the probability of working full-time and a 46 percent increase in monthly earnings. Those who lacked stable housing before enrollment were 64 percent more likely to secure stable housing.

In the years since the study, LEO has worked alongside Catholic Charities Fort Worth to translate those findings into a model that can be replicated with integrity. That work focuses on identifying the program’s core components and supporting partners to implement them with fidelity as Padua expands to new communities.

"Padua shows what’s possible when evidence, dignity and partnership come together,” said , LEO co-founder and director. “We have evidence this program works, and replicating it through trusted partners like Goodwill Michiana is how that evidence can improve lives far beyond where it began.”

Bringing Padua to Michigan and Indiana represents a significant expansion of Padua’s research-backed, holistic approach to ending poverty, extending its reach beyond North Texas to empower more families on their path to lasting stability. The launch of the Padua mission site in Michiana underscores a shared commitment to advance proven, compassionate solutions that empower individuals and families to achieve more for their futures.

“Padua was built with a vision to meet people where they are — a client-led program that honors human dignity, builds emotional resilience and delivers real results,” said Brendan Perry, director of Padua National at . “Taking this research-backed model beyond Fort Worth for the first time marks a major step in our mission.”

, a respected leader in workforce development and community services, will be the first organization in the nation to replicate the Padua model — bringing its people-first approach and strong community infrastructure to families across the region.

“We are excited to launch the nation’s first Padua mission site right here in our region,” said Debie Coble, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Michiana. “This partnership empowers families with personalized support so they can build lasting stability and independence, and truly achieve their most abundant lives.”

Padua pairs each client with a dedicated two-person navigator team who provides personalized, judgment-free support in areas such as housing, employment, education and health. Unlike traditional programs, Padua has no time limits — navigators walk alongside clients for as long as it takes to reach stability and independence.

With a case management staff that works to meet every individual where they are, clients are equipped to tackle both personal and financial challenges, learning how to manage resources, set boundaries and maintain accountability. They are empowered to use the skills and tools they learn to change their trajectories and make their way to a better future.

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

A 2025 Goldwater Scholar, Finley is an honors track physics-in-medicine major from Kentucky with research and clinical interests in radiation oncology — an orientation shaped by witnessing family members and hospice patients undergo cancer treatments.

He will pursue a Master of Philosophy degree in pathology next year at the University of Cambridge, where he will conduct research under the tutelage of David Fernandez-Antoran in the 91��Ƶ of the Biological Sciences.

“I feel both blessed and humbled to be selected as a Churchill Scholar — an opportunity through which I intend to carry forward Notre Dame’s commitment to being a ‘force for good’ by advancing cancer treatments for patients who need them,” Finley said.

Active in research, Finley is an assistant to , professor of physics and astronomy, in the , where he contributes to research related to various aspects of radiation. He is also a junior scholar-in-training with the Radiation Research Society.

He previously worked as a CPRIT CURE fellow under Steven Lin, professor of radiation oncology, at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and as an Amgen Fellow under Todd Aguilera, assistant professor of radiation oncology, at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Around campus, he is an associate news editor for , the undergraduate journal for scientific research for the College of Science; president of the Quiz Bowl Club; a member of the College of Science Council and the College of Science Honor Code Committee; and a resident assistant at Morrissey Hall.

“Beyond his impressive accomplishments, (Finley) actively stimulates and motivates our scientifically grounded discussions that often extend to broader aspects of college life, continually pushing me to be a better professor. Working with him has been both a privilege and an inspiration.”

In his free time, he volunteers for Heartland Hospice and Saint Joseph Mishawaka Medical Center. He has completed extensive medical shadowing across various specialties, experiences that further affirmed his desire to aid those afflicted with cancer.

“Receiving this scholarship would not be possible without the loving support of my family and the invaluable tutelage of my professors and research mentors,” Finley said. “I am especially grateful to Sylwia Ptasinska, , Steven H. Lin and Todd Aguilera for stoking my love of science while equipping me with the skills necessary to initiate real change.”

He also thanked Emily Buika Hunt with the (CUSE) at Notre Dame “for her assistance with navigating my future goals and with applying for the Goldwater and Churchill scholarships.”

“It has been a pleasure working with Jacob over the past two years as he applied for the Goldwater Scholarship and the Churchill Scholarship,” said Buika Hunt, assistant director of scholarly development at CUSE. “His dedication to research and improving the experience of those undergoing cancer treatments is evident.”

She continued, “Conducting a year of research with Dr. David Fernandez-Antoran at Cambridge University prior to pursuing an M.D./Ph.D. is an unparalleled opportunity to expand on the research training he has received at Notre Dame. I look forward to following his career and witnessing the positive impact his research will have on countless lives.”

Ptasinska expressed pride in “Jacob’s achievement in receiving such a prestigious scholarship,” calling him “an exceptionally capable young individual with remarkable intellectual ability and a strong work ethic.”

“He is a distinguished student with multifaceted capabilities and a strong foundation in the core sciences, consistently demonstrating outstanding dedication and academic excellence,” Ptasinska said. “Beyond his impressive accomplishments, he actively stimulates and motivates our scientifically grounded discussions that often extend to broader aspects of college life, continually pushing me to be a better professor. Working with him has been both a privilege and an inspiration.”

Established in 1963, the Churchill Scholarship fulfills its namesake’s vision of deepening the U.S.-U.K. partnership while advancing science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic. It encompasses 18 scholarships — 16 Churchill Scholarships in science, math and engineering and two Kanders Churchill Scholarships in science policy.

The award covers tuition, roundtrip airfare to the United Kingdom, visa fees and health surcharge, plus a stipend exceeding the UK Research Council standard. Recipients can also apply for a $4,000 special research grant.

It is considered one of the most prestigious and competitive international fellowships available to American graduate students, alongside the Marshall, Rhodes, Gates Cambridge, Fulbright and Mitchell scholarships. Eight Churchill Scholars have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.

For more on this and other scholarship opportunities, visit .

In recent years, Nepal has been heralded as a global leader in community-based forest conservation. By handing over nearly a third of its nationally owned forest to local villagers in the 1980s, the country reversed years of deforestation and effectively between 1992 and 2016. For many in rural Nepal, these forests are a lifeline, providing essential subsistence resources such as firewood for cooking and fodder for livestock.

But from the University of Notre Dame suggests these environmental successes may exclude Nepal’s most vulnerable groups from their accompanying economic benefits. The National Science Foundation-funded study, published in Nature Sustainability, analyzed data from more than 500,000 households to reveal that while the program has reduced overall rural poverty, it also widened the gap between the country’s social elite and its marginalized populations. Researchers found that the benefits of forest decentralization — ranging from timber sales to microloans — flowed disproportionately to dominant ethnic and caste groups.

“When we hear the success stories, it’s remarkable what Nepal has achieved,” said study co-author Notre Dame Professor of Sustainable Development in the University’s . “At the same time, the program doesn’t always impact everyone equally and can leave some of the poorest households behind.”

Among the study’s several co-authors are on-the-ground collaborators from ForestAction Nepal and the Southasia Institute of Advanced 91��Ƶ. The study focuses on the country’s local government-supported forest management groups, which oversee the forests, collect fees and reinvest profits into their communities.

The 'gatekeeper' effect

Nepal’s community forestry program was built with equity in mind. Government guidelines mandate that marginalized groups be represented on executive committees and that 35 percent of forest income be allocated to poverty alleviation programs.

Yet the data reveals a different reality. The researchers found that while the program reduced poverty among historically advantaged groups such as the Brahmin, Chhetri and Newar, the impact on marginalized Dalit or Janajati households was significantly smaller or, in some cases, barely noticeable.

“Caste membership is closely correlated with education, income and economic indicators,” Andersson said. “The ones who gained the most were those in high-caste groups. Lower-caste groups weren’t negatively affected — nobody became worse off — but they were left behind.”

The study points to a “gatekeeper” effect: Members of dominant social groups are often better equipped to navigate the bureaucratic hurdles of forest management.

“If you are richer and have more education, you are more likely to have contacts when it comes to the commercialization of products, for example,” Andersson said. “People who know how to navigate the system will see opportunities when those changes come. They don’t necessarily exploit, but they take advantage, and that increases the gap.”

A growing divide

The research comes at a pivotal moment. Since the study’s primary data was collected, Nepal has and many rural villagers have moved away from forest-dependent livelihoods due to international migration.

Despite these shifts, the problem of “elite capture” — where local leaders monopolize resources — remains a persistent challenge. In areas with the forest program, this wealth gap was about 15 percent larger than in areas that did not have the program at all.

The researchers noted that while the program does not necessarily make marginalized populations worse off, it enriches advantaged groups at a much faster rate, creating a local increase in rural inequality. Andersson compared the policy shift to an “external shock.”

“Similar to when a natural disaster occurs, these kinds of changes tend to widen the gap between those with education and resources and those without those things,” he said.

Reimagining forest conservation

These findings are likely to be of interest to countries beyond Nepal, co-author Nathan Cook said, since community-based natural resource management is a cornerstone of global sustainability efforts.

“The solution is not to abandon decentralization, but to reform it,” said Cook, assistant professor in the Paul H. O’Neill 91��Ƶ of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Indianapolis. In the study’s conclusion, the researchers suggested that stricter monitoring of equity provisions and the introduction of targeted payment schemes could help level the playing field.

As Nepal moves toward the commercialization of its forests through newer programs, the risk of excluding poor populations may grow, the researchers said. High-value timber production often prioritizes the needs of the wealthy over subsistence needs — such as firewood or livestock fodder — that marginalized groups rely on for survival.

For the international community, which has funneled millions into Nepal’s forestry model, the study serves as a sobering reminder, Andersson said.

“A forest can be thriving even as community members managing it are not benefiting from it equally,” he said. “But there’s still potential for programs like Nepal’s to be improved so they alleviate poverty and inequality. Future research and policy work should focus on this goal.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Jan. 20.

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

Through the department’s initiative, New Horizons: Educating and Forming Tomorrow’s Catholic Leaders, led by , an associate professor of theology, Notre Dame seeks to establish a sustainable, collaborative effort to mentor and support emerging Catholic leaders. Over the next five years, the program plans to support 24 students entering the and 20 entering the , as well as guiding 100 other individuals through the church leadership discernment process.

In doing so, the program aims to enhance support structures, provide clearer pathways for study and alleviate financial barriers, particularly for promising leaders in underserved communities and mission dioceses. Program leaders hope that this new model will create an opportunity to reshape ministry formation at Notre Dame well beyond the five-year funding period.

“This grant connects Notre Dame’s world-class Department of Theology with leading partners where the Catholic Church is growing and in need of well-formed, dynamic Church leaders,” Grove said. “Together, we will work to recruit, form, educate, support and place these future ministers. We are exceptionally grateful to the Lilly Endowment for providing us the chance to reimagine how lay church leaders are raised up, formed and placed.”

The New Horizons program plans to target highly committed young adult leaders embedded in communities that represent potential future growth for the Church, including through outreach partnerships with the ; the (FOCUS); , a nonprofit focused on engagement with Latino Catholic young adults; and the dioceses and programs served by Notre Dame's . It will then provide cohort-based discernment opportunities in which participants experience Notre Dame’s M.A. and M.Div. programs as they consider pursuing graduate studies.

New Horizons will provide full tuition support for M.A. students and stipends for M.Div. students, making these programs affordable and accessible, then help participants develop robust networks to facilitate post-graduation job placements.

In addition to Grove, the New Horizons leadership team includes , teaching professor of theology and director of the M.A. program; , assistant teaching professor and associate director of the program; and , teaching professor and assistant chair for graduate studies.

The New Horizons program is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. Launched in 2021, it has provided grants totaling more than $700 million to support theological schools across the United States and Canada as they respond to the most pressing challenges they face while preparing pastoral leaders. The grant to Notre Dame is one of 45 that was approved in this competitive round of funding.

Notre Dame previously received a $7.9 million grant through Pathways for Tomorrow in support of , a partnership with Boston College that includes 16 other Catholic institutions in efforts to identify and form the next generation of pastoral leaders to serve U.S. Catholics, while rooted in the Latino experience.

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

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

During pregnancy, maternal and fetal cells migrate back and forth across the placenta, with fetal cells entering the mother’s bloodstream and tissues. They can settle in maternal organs such as the thyroid, liver, lungs, brain and heart — and can persist there for decades. Conversely, maternal cells can enter the fetus and be passed down to future generations, essentially creating a lifelong connection between mothers, their offspring and their descendants.

In other words, we all carry little pieces of our family with us.

This phenomenon, called microchimerism, is often characterized by cells of different genetic origin that circulate within the body and can occur either naturally through pregnancy or artificially through organ transplantation and blood transfusions. Microchimeric cells can be transferred from a fetus to its mother, from the mother to her children and even back and forth between multiples within the womb.

What microchimeric cells do

Microchimeric cells can play complex roles in a person’s body, often beneficial as well as harmful. They can help heal wounds, repair tissue and regulate the immune system, but they have also been linked to pregnancy complications as well as autoimmune diseases such as scleroderma and rheumatoid arthritis, and certain cancers like leukemia.

Microchimerism is not new. Its existence has been well documented since its discovery in the late 19th century, but it has in popular mainstream media.

However, what microchimeric cells do, how they move between bodies and what their role is in health outcomes remain largely unknown.

“These cells are extremely rare, making up less than 1 percent of the total cells in our body, and are difficult to detect,” said a biological anthropologist in the University of Notre Dame’s . Her work focuses on the social and biological factors that affect pregnancies and pregnant mothers.

According to Chua, “Maternal and fetal cells have similar DNA because they come from the same source genetically. The challenge lies in detecting them and isolating them independently.”

The Microchimerism, Human Health & Evolution Project

Their rarity has fueled skepticism within the scientific community, with researchers questioning whether these cells matter or have any meaningful impact on human health. Despite these critiques, microchimerism researchers have continued to examine and learn about them, synthesizing their efforts in a recent co-led by Chua in the journal Advanced Science.

It is the first publication by the , a multidisciplinary microchimerism consortium, that sought to identify the field’s most pressing questions to advance microchimerism research. The project team surveyed 29 leading experts in the field of microchimerism and found that, as a community, they need to define what these cells are, examine why they exist and persist, set protocols for how to collect and detect them in the lab, and analyze their function and role in health and disease.

Potential benefits of microchimeric cells

With the development of more advanced modern technologies, experts are more confident that they may circumvent previous difficulties in research design or execution to better understand what microchimeric cells do. Doing so can bring researchers one step closer to developing diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

For example, the experts noted the potential to harness the stem cell-like properties of microchimeric cells, which could allow these cells to morph into organ-specific cells that could be used restoratively in patients with thyroid or liver damage.

“They could also be used as a biomarker for those who are at risk for certain pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, spontaneous abortion and placental dysfunction,” Chua explained. “Based on the quantity of these cells or their phenotype, it is possible that these cells have real implications for how we look at maternal health and intervention.”

Microchimeric cells can also explain the intergenerational health of a family — how and where particular diseases and health deficiencies are passed along, especially immune-related disorders. “If we can better understand how diseases start in a person’s body, perhaps that could inform how we prevent some of these complications, potentially leading to better health,” Chua suggested.

“If we can better understand how diseases start in a person’s body, perhaps that could inform how we prevent some of these complications, potentially leading to better health.” 

The future of the research

In addition to certain methodological constraints, the authors noted additional challenges that appear to be relevant to all scientists studying reproductive biology and pregnancy. These include ethical constraints related to biosample collection from pregnant individuals, concerns over formal consent and addressing these concerns on a global scale. They also called for more research priorities to shift toward pregnancy and women’s health, more broadly, along with a more developed research community to advance the field.

They hope that by assembling this consortium of scientists, they will be able to establish new and innovative collaborations, train future researchers in standardized methods for studying microchimerism and create pipelines to allow for the sharing of ideas — all in an effort to continue growing the microchimerism community.

Chua said she hopes more anthropologists will join her to further the study of microchimerism and its role in pregnancy and intergenerational health.

“We know that pregnancy outcomes are not just a product of our biology, but also of our social environment,” she said. “Together, they shape how the body reacts to being pregnant and giving birth. We cannot forget about the social environment — it is a component that requires more attention in microchimerism research.”

Funding support is provided from the John Templeton Foundation and the Intramural Research Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health.

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

When a new CEO takes over at a firm, it creates uncertainty for important stock market participants such as financial analysts who meet regularly with them and influence the investing patterns for the world’s largest institutional investors. They wait eagerly for the new leader to reveal their first major strategy and the future direction of the firm.

Past research offers conflicting views on whether a swift plan or a patient, deliberate approach is better.

A new study from the University of Notre Dame introduces a concept called “new CEO strategic action speed,” which represents the number of days a new chief executive takes to announce the firm’s first large-scale strategic action.

How analysts respond to new CEO strategic action speed depends on the circumstances into which the chief executive is thrust, according to lead author, the Mary Jo and Richard M. Kovacevich Associate Professor of Management & Organization at Notre Dame’s. Busenbark’s findings in the article titled “” are forthcoming in the Academy of Management Journal.

Along with Robert Campbell from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Diego Villalpando from the University of Texas at Arlington, Busenbark shows that if the CEO’s transition was fairly routine, analysts appreciate information sooner than later so they can glean a better picture of the firm’s prospects and provide that information to their clients. But if the CEO was appointed during a period of turmoil or has limited knowledge of the company’s structure, analysts appreciate the CEO taking a little more time to orient themselves to the role and demonstrate that they understand the demands the company faces.

“After that period of time — around 35 days on average — analysts begin to react unfavorably to longer strategic action speeds; after all, their patience only extends so far,” Busenbark said.

Yet, the majority of new CEOs wait more than 200 days to reveal their first major strategy, which is far longer than reasonable in the minds of vital capital market information intermediaries like financial analysts.

The study found that when a company is in trouble — specifically when the last CEO was fired, the new one is an outsider or performance has been poor — analysts prefer a cautious approach, and moving too fast or too slow is seen as a risk. However, if the company is already doing well and the new CEO is an insider, analysts have no patience for delays — the faster the CEO acts, the better.

“In other disciplines and contexts, this type of speed is viewed as key information,” Busenbark said. “Political scientists, sociologists and journalists often note how people form opinions about new U.S. presidents based on how quickly they announce their major policy decisions. Much like new presidents, new CEOs are often expected to balance altering the firm’s strategic trajectory with maintaining the core elements the firm already does well. Yet, unlike the incredible academic scrutiny on how long presidents take to make those types of decisions (typically within the first 100 days), there has been only passing conjecture in the organizational sciences about what it means for new CEOs to make quicker or slower decisions after ascending to their role.”

The researchers gathered data from several sources: a list of new CEO appointments between 2005 and 2019, strategic action announcements pulled from various business newswires, and financial analyst reactions found in academic databases.

“We even dug through thousands of earnings call transcripts for stories and found that analysts are typically eager for clues about the new CEO’s plans,” Busenbark said. “But questions about where the firm is heading often get redirected, so analysts usually have to wait much longer than what they believe is reasonable for information.”

The study notes, “On a call introducing Léo Apotheker as Hewlett-Packard CEO, one analyst asked, ‘Can you comment on when … we can expect your readout and early action items on the company?’ Similarly, on Joseph McGrath’s first earnings call as Unisys CEO, an analyst inquired, ‘When can we expect to see new major [actions]?’”

Along with advancing management theory, the study serves as a practical guide for new CEOs aiming to make their firms more successful on the stock market.

“New CEOs in turbulent situations would be wise to take a bit of time to gather and analyze information,” Busenbark said, “but they should still be cautious of waiting as long as they usually do since periods greater than a month tend to agitate analysts and invite more unfavorable evaluations.”

Contact: John Busenbark, 574-631-1735, jbusenba@nd.edu

Rooted in the creative spirit, intellectual energy, and iconic traditions of Notre Dame and our region, the six-month festival will present an unprecedented roster of world-class performances, exhibitions, courses, and convenings on Notre Dame’s campus, in and around South Bend, and across Notre Dame’s global network.

“Biennial programming isn't just about entertainment; it's also about creating shared experiences that build bridges in our community,” says Arts Initiative director Michael Schreffler. “By embracing every art form — from dance to design, sculpture to song — the biennial brings people together to celebrate, and be inspired by, human creativity.”

In addition to signature programming led by the Notre Dame Arts Initiative, the biennial will include featured programming led by campus and community partners and supported by the initiative. Those interested in organizing performances, exhibitions, screenings, lectures, workshops, courses, visiting artist engagements, conferences, and other arts activations as part of the Arts Biennial are invited to for up to $20,000 of funding toward co-produced projects.

Individuals, organizations, and businesses both based in and serving communities in St. Joseph County and its six surrounding counties (Elkhart, Marshall, Starke, and LaPorte in Indiana and Berrien and Cass in Michigan) as well as Notre Dame faculty, staff, and students (including those at its 12 global locations) are eligible to apply.

“Biennial programming isn't just about entertainment; it's also about creating shared experiences that build bridges in our community. By embracing every art form — from dance to design, sculpture to song — the biennial brings people together to celebrate, and be inspired by, human creativity.”

“People often ask me what I think makes a biennial successful,” reflects Arts Initiative managing director Rebecca Struch. “To me, it’s one that energizes artists, audiences, and advocates to come together around a shared vision for our creative and communal futures. This means that regional and global collaboration are absolutely essential.”

Regional venues, including campus locations at Notre Dame and other schools, are also invited to join the , an ongoing roster of venues interested in providing in-kind use of their space for public arts programming connected to the biennial.

A third opportunity invites groups with relevant programming that will occur between January 2027 and June 2027 to apply for their event to become part of a larger .

Community members and campus affiliates are encouraged to learn more about all three opportunities at . Project funding submissions are due February 16, 2026. The Venue Activation List and Biennial Network application will remain open and will be reviewed on a rolling basis through April 30, 2027. Questions may be emailed to arts@nd.edu.

The Arts Biennial is organized and produced by the Notre Dame Arts Initiative, which mobilizes the transformative power of the arts to advance knowledge, invigorate learning, and foster human solidarity by transcending boundaries between art forms and across disciplines. The Arts Initiative is a key priority of Notre Dame’s strategic framework. It champions interdisciplinary research and teaching in the arts, enhances opportunities for students to engage with the arts on and beyond campus, and deepens artistic collaboration in our community.

Originally published by Laura Winkle at on January 13, 2026.

The annual observance of Walk the Walk Week is rooted in Notre Dame’s mission as a Catholic university and in the principles of Catholic social teaching, which call us to live in solidarity with all people, particularly the most vulnerable, and to honor the God-given dignity of every person.

Among the week’s events is a keynote conversation titled “Champions of Hope” at 4 p.m. Monday (Jan. 26) in the Reyes Family Board Room (215/216 McKenna Hall). The talk, which will focus on what it means to lead with integrity, moral courage and hope, will feature two distinguished business leaders, both of whom are members of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees and former Notre Dame football student-athletes — Tracy Graham ’95 and Byron Spruell ’87, MBA ’89 — in conversation with University President This event is free and open to the public and will be livestreamed.

Graham is the founder and managing principal of Graham Allen Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in technology and tech-enabled businesses across the U.S. He is currently focused on leveraging data and artificial intelligence to help companies evolve via digital transformation.

Graham began his career by founding Internet Services Management Group, which became one of the largest privately held ISPs in the United States. He then went on to co-found GramTel Inc., a managed data center provider, in partnership with The Jordan Company. As CEO of GramTel, he led the company to become the largest provider of managed data center services in Indiana and the largest privately held provider in the Midwest. He successfully sold GramTel to Cincinnati Bell in 2007.

Graham completed a bachelor of arts degree from Notre Dame, where he was a member of the Fighting Irish football team from 1992-95. He is also a dedicated public servant, philanthropist and community advocate who serves on the boards of Lippert Components and 1st Source Bank, in addition to his role on the University’s Board of Trustees.

Spruell serves as president of league operations for the National Basketball Association, where he oversees critical league operations. In that role, he effectively integrates the departments of domestic and international basketball operations, referee operations and basketball strategy and analytics.

Spruell also collaborates with USA Basketball and the International Basketball Federation to promote the global growth of the game and development of players worldwide. He joined the NBA in 2016 from Deloitte where he last served as a managing principal and marketplace leader.

He has served on several charitable boards and committees, and is currently on the boards of Metropolitan Family Services in Chicago, the Jackie Robinson Foundation in New York and Aon, a leading global professional services firm. He is also on the board of governors of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Spruell earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA in finance from the University of Notre Dame, where he was a member of the football team from 1984-87, serving as co-captain in 1987. On the University’s Board of Trustees, he chairs the Undergraduate Education and Student Life Committee.

An annual Candlelight Prayer Service for members of the Notre Dame community will also take place at 8 p.m. Jan. 26 in the Main Building Rotunda, with Father Dowd presiding and a keynote reflection from vice president for belonging, engagement and mission and advisor to the president.

The prayer service will be followed by a candlelight procession to the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue and a dessert reception in the Sister Thea Bowman Center in the LaFortune Student Center.

Other Walk the Walk Week events include a for classroom, cleaning and art project supplies for local organizations working with children and teens, as well as a on Saturday (Jan. 24) packaging after-school kits for local youth.

A complete list of events is available at .

Contact: Carrie Gates, Associate Director of Media Relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu

For more than 40 years, a has ensured that all children can access public education regardless of their immigration status. There are growing efforts to undo this protection, but University of Notre Dame migration scholar warns such a move would disrupt the U.S. workforce and undermine child welfare.

Hsin has contributed to a outlining the benefits of the 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision, drawing on her expertise as a sociologist and social demographer who has conducted extensive research on undocumented students. The report was published by , a policy organization that specializes in criminal justice and immigration policy solutions.

“Research underscores the social and economic benefits of equal access to education,” said Hsin, professor of migration at Notre Dame’s and an affiliate of the school’s . “There would be profoundly negative effects to individuals and to society as a whole if Plyler were reversed.”

Education prepares the workforce

As a contributor to the report, Hsin provided perspective on how education primes new generations of workers to contribute to the workforce. She drew on research she conducted with Sofya Aptekar, a faculty member at City University of New York’s 91��Ƶ of Labor and Urban 91��Ƶ. The scholars are co-authors of an upcoming book that examines how undocumented New Yorkers navigate school, work and identity.

Hsin said this research showed that in addition to teaching specific skills, schools help prepare undocumented children to participate in the workforce by reinforcing a focus on achievement and self-efficacy.

“In the classroom, we found that children felt they were treated like human beings rather than a legal problem,” Hsin said. “91��Ƶs offer a predictable contract: work hard, learn and advance.”

In addition, Hsin said, schools’ focus on achievement helps children form a sense of self-worth and gives them hope for a future in which they can contribute meaningfully.

That reality is reflected in U.S. workforce numbers. The FWD.us report estimates that access to universal education has enabled more than 350,000 people to work in jobs typically requiring some college education and another 1.3 million in occupations requiring a high school diploma.

The report also found that the educational foundation provided by this access has likely contributed to greater job stability, upward mobility and overall workforce diversification, benefiting the broader U.S. labor market. Workers who have benefited from the decision work in industries including education, the medical sector, banking, consulting, real estate and construction.

The broader benefits of education access

Hsin’s work helps frame the larger workforce, economic and public health benefits that universal education access provides. The report also found that this access has:

• Generated more than $633 billion in net state and local fiscal gains after accounting for educational costs.
• Increased beneficiaries’ incomes as well as U.S. gross domestic product by $171 billion between 1982 and 2022 with lifetime GDP contributions expected to total $2.71 trillion.
• Prevented 730,000 children who are U.S. citizens from falling into poverty.
• Improved nationwide public health outcomes, averting at least $28.9 billion in associated health costs by helping to reduce disability, depression, infant mortality and obesity.

Growing opposition to Plyler v. Doe

Although universal education access has delivered significant benefits, the policy has seen a resurgence of opposition at the federal and state levels in recent years.

In May 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told a radio talk show host he thought Plyler should be challenged. In June 2024, a U.S. House of Representatives committee held a hearing on the impact of immigration on public schools.

Challenges continued in 2025. Oklahoma and Tennessee tried to pass legislation that would roll back universal access. Louisiana passed legislation requiring state agencies to track data on undocumented individuals receiving state services. Finally, Texas ended in-state college tuition for many undocumented high school graduates in response to a legal challenge from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Advocates of universal education access anticipate more challenges, Hsin said, adding that a state-level challenge could trigger a Supreme Court case that risks reversing the Plyler decision and wiping out the broader gains it made possible.

The dangers of policy reversal

Hsin said a policy reversal would hurt workforce training as well as rising generations of potential workers. In addition, she said, reduced school access would force parents to bring children into workplaces that aren’t safe or suitable for them, and child labor exploitation would worsen.

“Society will ultimately bear the cost of raising children without hope, belonging or a sense of possibility,” Hsin said. “Denying access to schools will formalize a pipeline into child labor and deepen vulnerability and exploitation.”

The report was co-authored by Scott D. Levy, chief policy counsel at FWD.us, and Phillip Connor, a research fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Migration and Development. In addition to Hsin, contributors include Matthew Hall, professor and director of the Cornell Population Center at Cornell University; Joshua Miraglia, a Ph.D. candidate in economics at City University of New York Graduate Center; Francesc Ortega, formerly professor of economics at City University of New York, who joined the Keough 91��Ƶ as a faculty member in January;  and Heeju Sohn, associate professor of sociology at Emory University.

Originally published by Josh Stowe at on Jan. 20.

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

The study, , shows that chronic exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos at concentrations too low to cause immediate toxicity causes fish to age faster at the cellular level.

The research began with field studies in China where collaborators examined thousands of fish collected over several years from lakes with differing levels of pesticide contamination. Rohr and colleagues observed that fish living in contaminated lakes lacked older individuals, while populations in relatively uncontaminated lakes included many older fish. This pattern suggested that fish were not failing to add to their populations, but rather were dying earlier in life.

“When we examined telomere length and deposition of lipofuscin in the livers of the fish, well-established biological markers of aging, we found that fish of the same chronological age were aging faster in the contaminated than clean lakes,” said Rohr, the Ludmilla F., Stephen J. and Robert T. Galla Professor and Chair in the Department of Biology.

Chemical analyses revealed that chlorpyrifos was the only compound found in the fish tissues that was consistently associated with signs of aging. These include shortened telomeres, which act like the plastic caps shoelaces and decrease fraying in chromosomes, and lipofuscin deposition, a build-up of “junk” like old proteins and metals within long-lived cells. However, to determine whether chlorpyrifos was the direct cause, researchers needed to conduct controlled laboratory experiments with concentrations matching those measured in the wild, Rohr said.

In this laboratory experiment, chronic low-dose exposure to chlorpyrifos caused progressive telomere shortening, increased cellular aging and reduced survival, particularly in fish from the contaminated lakes that were already physiologically older.

“Although the laboratory results closely matched the field observations, it was possible that a missed high-dose exposure event in the field, rather than chronic low-dose exposures, caused the reduced lifespan,” said Rohr, who is affiliated with Notre Dame’s , and

To rule out this driver, Rohr and colleagues conducted another laboratory experiment demonstrating that short-term exposure to much higher doses caused rapid toxicity and death but did not accelerate aging through shortened telomeres and increased lipofuscin. This demonstrated that long-term accumulation of exposure to extremely common low concentrations — not brief high-dose spikes — was responsible for the observed aging, Rohr said.

The loss of older individuals can have serious ecological consequences, as older fish often contribute disproportionately to reproduction, genetic diversity and population stability, Rohr said.

“These findings also raise broader concerns because telomere biology and aging mechanisms are highly conserved across vertebrates, including humans,” Rohr said. Potential future research will explore how widespread the phenomenon may be across species and chemicals.

While the European Union has largely banned chlorpyrifos, it remains in use throughout China, parts of the United States and in many other countries. However, the aging effects observed in this study occurred at concentrations below current U.S. freshwater safety standards, Rohr said.

“Our results challenge the assumption that chemicals are safe if they do not cause immediate harm,” he said. “Low-level exposures can silently accumulate damage over time by accelerating biological aging, highlighting that chemical safety assessments must move beyond short-term toxicity tests to adequately protect environmental and human health.”

The research was funded by the National Science Foundations in both the United States and China, the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and the Frontiers Research Foundation.

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