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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Originally published by Lily Mansfield at on Aug. 20.

Media Contact: Lily Mansfield, lmansfi4@nd.edu

The University of Notre Dame’s is expanding its work to Africa’s Great Lakes region, seeking to contribute to the peace process between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda by providing expertise on peacemaking and peacebuilding that will support the work of local stakeholders.

The move extends the global footprint of the Peace Accords Matrix, part of the at Notre Dame’s . The Peace Accords Matrix provides decision-makers and frontline practitioners with evidence to support the implementation of peace agreements. Its ongoing work includes monitoring implementation of agreements in Colombia and the Philippines.

“We know that agreements succeed or fail during the challenging implementation phase, when political leaders and peace practitioners must juggle competing demands,” said , professor of the practice and director of the Peace Accords Matrix. “Strengthening this peace process will be key for the entire Great Lakes region to move beyond cycles of humanitarian crises, protect human rights and support African-led diplomacy.”

Supporting the regional peace process

Decades of conflict and instability in eastern DRC have displaced more than 7 million people, according to the. Renewed violence since 2022 has heightened tensions across the Great Lakes region, a highly populated area in East Africa centered around a chain of lakes that includes Lake Victoria.

The DRC and Rwanda signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement in June 2025, and in December the two countries formally established the . But implementation has proven difficult amid disputes over the sequencing and verification of commitments, and fighting has continued in eastern DRC.

So far, civil society groups have been chronically underengaged in the implementation process, said , assistant director of research and grant operations for the Peace Accords Matrix. That risks creating a top-down process that lacks broader societal input and, ultimately, sustainability.

Amid those challenges, the Peace Accords Matrix is identifying civil society organizations to consult as it builds a stakeholder map of the peace and conflict landscape in the Great Lakes region.

“Our work is really about understanding the context as much as we can, mapping the landscape and building trust with key actors so that we can serve as a helpful resource for those at the negotiating table and those in civil society who want to participate more fully,” Serrano said.

The Peace Accords Matrix has engaged , a Ghana-based peacebuilder with decades of experience, to help coordinate this work.

Bombande, who co-founded the , has served as a senior mediation adviser to the United Nations, including with the U.N. mission in the Central African Republic, and previously worked with the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Kroc Institute as a fellow. Along with , a research associate with the Peace Accords Matrix, he is identifying key groups for the Peace Accords Matrix to consult with and planning workshops that will begin in fall 2026.

The resulting stakeholder map, grounded in social network analysis, will expand civil society groups’ understanding of their role in the peace process and identify opportunities to participate in it, addressing a key gap in the fragile implementation process, Serrano said.

“In every context in which we work, we prioritize relationships with local stakeholders,” Serrano said. “They play a critical role in shaping and sharing our analysis.”

Extending a proven model

The latest initiative expands the larger work of the Peace Accords Matrix, which maintains the largest collection of implementation data on intrastate peace agreements and is now active on three continents.

In Colombia, the Peace Accords Matrix is responsible for verification and monitoring of the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement — the first time a university-based research center has directly supported implementation of a peace accord, and the first time researchers have measured one in real time. In the Philippines, it works with Catholic Relief Services-Philippines to track progress on the 2014 Mindanao agreement.

In Africa’s Great Lakes region, the role of the Peace Accords Matrix will continue to evolve as the team builds relationships, Serrano said, adding that the opportunity to work on a new continent reflects the versatility of the Peace Accords Matrix and its capacity to adapt to the needs of local partners.

“It’s not about arriving with answers,” Serrano said. “It’s about listening to the local context so that we can be of service in a way that’s meaningful and supports a sustainable peace.”

The work in the Great Lakes region is supported by a grant from the , an independent, Swiss-registered foundation that invests in organizations that strengthen the resilience of the most overlooked communities.

Learn more and contact

To learn more about the Peace Accords Matrix, please visit To contact the program, please email peaceaccords@nd.edu.

Originally published by Josh Stowe at on Aug. 25.

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

The University of Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC) has received a $2.06 million award from Porticus to support Tout Moun Ladan 2.0 (TML 2.0): Each One, Teach One. Running from August 2026 through December 2028, the project will sustainably strengthen social and emotional learning (SEL) across the entire Grand North region of Haiti.

Tout Moun Ladan, Haitian Creole for “Everyone Is In It,” builds on the whole-school, whole-diocese approach implemented in the North Department from 2024 to 2026. The program is expanding child-centered SEL practices from 82 schools to 275 Catholic primary schools across the North, Northeast, and Northwest Departments.

Addressing cascading crises

Haitian schoolchildren face a cascading series of acute-on-chronic crises. Young children live in a general context of poverty, where families struggle to meet basic needs in an environment punctuated by both natural hazards—hurricanes, excessive rain, and earthquakes—and man-made crises. Since 2021, armed violence has displaced record numbers of people nationwide, reaching 1.4 million by 2026. This has overwhelmed communities in the Grand North as they absorb internally displaced persons fleeing violence in the capital.

Nationwide, over 1,600 schools closed due to violence in the 2024-2025 cycle. Catholic schools that remain open in the Grand North provide a lifeline to thousands of children and families who need safe havens that promote the SEL skills necessary to navigate their lived reality.

To address this, TML 2.0 employs an “each one, teach one” approach, in which each system-level actor in the Haitian Catholic education ecosystem is paired with their counterpart in a neighboring diocese. Arch/Bishops, directors, and lead coaches in the Regional Office of Catholic 91��Ƶs, parish priests, school directors, and master teachers will each serve as mentors and leaders to embed child-centered practices in schools and communities.

“As communities across the Grand North absorb thousands of displaced children and families fleeing violence, ensuring our schools are safe, nurturing sanctuaries is more urgent than ever,” shared Kate Schuenke-Lucien, GC-DWC director for Haiti and senior associate director for strategic planning. “Through TML 2.0, we are deeply embedding child-centered social and emotional learning practices across the entire regional system, empowering local Haitian education leaders to mentor one another and drive lasting, institutional change from within.”

Sustainable local leadership

The single greatest lever of sustainable change to improve SEL outcomes in Haiti is the Haitian Catholic education ecosystem, which serves roughly 20 percent of Haitian students. TML 2.0 brings a marked shift in leadership, with the Global Center administering and supporting the work with the goal of fully transferring the implementation, management, technical, and research capacity to partners within that ecosystem, including the National Office of Catholic Education; the University of Notre Dame, Haiti; and diocesan leadership.

Supporting this transition to local leadership is a robust monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework, in which dedicated Global Center staff oversee the design, implementation, and analysis of activities in close partnership with staff from the National Office of Catholic Education and the Regional Office of Catholic 91��Ƶs. Grounded in systems-level change, this approach focuses on qualitative data collection and tracking signals of change across mindset shifts, tools and approaches, and power dynamics. Structured reflection processes, including monthly check-ins, quarterly cross-diocese peer learning meetings, and mid-year learning checks, will directly connect learning to action, ensuring that evidence and implementation findings inform program adaptations across the Grand North and are shared across technical and non-technical fora.

Project reach

Over its 29-month timeline, TML 2.0 will directly impact 65,000 primary school students, including recently displaced children; 1,925 teachers and 275 school directors across 275 schools; 16,400 parents and caregivers through parent awareness meetings on SEL; three bishops and archbishops; three directors and 20 coaches from the Regional Office of Catholic 91��Ƶs; and approximately 100 master teachers.

“Using SEL to transform school culture is something we excel in,” Neil Boothby, professor and director of the GC-DWC explained. “By equipping local leaders across every layer of the Catholic education system, TML 2.0 ensures that safe, inclusive, and nurturing environments are sustained for children across Haiti for years to come.”

To learn more about the Global Center's work in Haiti, please visit:

Originally published by Brooke Parker at .

On Tuesday (Aug. 18), Pope Leo XIV appointed two University of Notre Dame faculty members, Emmanuel Katongole and Clemens Sedmak, as consultors to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. University Trustee Kathryn “Katie” Koch, president and CEO of TCW, a global investment management firm, was also named a consultor.

Katongole, a professor of theology and peace studies and director of the ; Sedmak, a professor of social ethics and director of the ; and Koch are among 12 new consultors from around the globe—and the only three selected from within the United States. They have been appointed for a five-year term.

Consultors may be religious or laypeople and are chosen “from among the faithful who are distinguished by their expertise, proven ability, and prudence,” according to the Vatican’s announcement.

“These appointments are a tremendous honor not only for Emmanuel, Clemens, and Katie, but for the University as a whole,” said Notre Dame President “We congratulate them on their selection, and we are deeply grateful for the Holy Father’s recognition of their expertise and abiding commitment to the Church. We look forward to the ways their leadership and wisdom will guide the important work of the dicastery.”

Established by the late Pope Francis in 2016, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development supports the Church’s worldwide efforts in the areas of human dignity and human rights, economic justice, care for creation, migration, and displacement, as well as peace, conflict, and humanitarian crises.

Katongole, who came to Notre Dame in 2013, holds a joint appointment in the University’s and . A native of Kampala, Uganda, and a priest of the Kampala Archdiocese, he is the founder and president of , a residential agricultural institute that works with young people to realize the vision, spirituality, and practice of Laudato si’ in Uganda. Before joining the Notre Dame faculty, he served as an associate professor of theology and world Christianity at Duke University and was a founding co-director of the Duke Center for Reconciliation. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity at the Pontifical University Urbaniana in Rome, as well as a master’s in religious studies and a doctoral degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

Sedmak, a concurrent professor of theology, holds a joint appointment in Notre Dame’s and the Keough 91��Ƶ. His research focuses on issues of poverty, justice, and the Catholic social tradition, as well as a collaboration with Notre Dame colleagues on the Church’s role in . A native Austrian, Sedmak holds a doctoral degree in theology from the Catholic Private University of Linz and doctoral degrees in philosophy and social theory from the University of Innsbruck. Prior to joining Notre Dame, Sedmak served as the F.D. Maurice Professor for Moral Theology and Social Theology at King’s College London. He also held multiple positions at the University of Salzburg and was president of the Institute for Advanced 91��Ƶ in Social Ethics in Salzburg.

Koch, a Notre Dame alumna, was named a University Trustee in 2023. Prior to moving to TCW, she spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs in a variety of leadership positions, including chief investment officer of public equity. She graduated from Notre Dame in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and English.

The inaugural , which runs January through June 2027, will feature more than 100 public events, including exhibitions, performances, community workshops, and guest artists slated to visit the South Bend area for a six-month festival of visual, literary, spatial, and performing arts. Most events are free to attend.

The biennial—thematically focused on the concept of symbiosis—is produced by the Notre Dame and curated by Initiative Director and Managing Director .

“Notre Dame’s flourishing is deeply connected to the vitality of South Bend and its surrounding communities,” said “The Arts Biennial exemplifies how the University’s commitment to the arts advances our Catholic mission by using creative expression to foster meaningful cultural exchanges and contribute to a thriving shared home.”

Highlights of the biennial will include a fireside chat with Maya Lin, a visionary artist and architect well-known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. Zadie Smith, author of the acclaimed novel White Teeth, and Sougwen Chung, widely regarded as a pioneer of artistic human-machine collaboration and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, are two featured speakers at the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good’s . Writer and photographer Cig Harvey will deliver the ’s annual Ruskin Lecture. Claudia Bernardi, internationally known for her work in the fields of visual art, human rights, and social justice, will join for a weeklong residency bridging Notre Dame and South Bend.

“The Arts Initiative is a powerful catalyst that energizes creative inquiry and practice across the University,” said Schreffler, a professor of art history and associate dean for the arts in the College of Arts & Letters. “A massive undertaking like a biennial festival is made possible only through sustained partnerships with the many faculty and staff who bring research and teaching expertise to our public arts programming.”

The and also announced some of their signature biennial programming in partnership with the Arts Initiative. The 96-member National Symphony Orchestra will perform, led by esteemed music director and conductor Gianandrea Noseda, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will perform at Notre Dame for the first time in nearly 20 years. The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art will unveil an expansive group exhibition of contemporary art, More Than: Artists in Collaboration for a Greater Good, which will remain on view to the public throughout the biennial.

Additional signature programming will be announced throughout the fall before the biennial’s opening in January.

“In our era of cultural fragmentation, the biennial’s inaugural theme of symbiosis is a radical invitation to re-examine our interconnectedness,” Struch said. “Together with more than 85 collaborating campus units and external organizations, we are actively cultivating an arts ecosystem rooted in accessible programming that brings people together.”

Alongside a roster of distinguished visiting artists, the biennial also features public arts programming connected to . For some, this support helps enhance established contributions to the regional arts scene. Fischoff National Chamber Music Association, Notre Dame’s and , New Industry Dance Company, Performing Media Festival, , , South Bend Civic Theatre, and South Bend Symphony Orchestra are all participating to continue bringing live music, dance, theater, and experimental performance to the region.

For others, Arts Initiative support provides critical resources to help launch new partnerships or new programs. The and Notre Dame’s have teamed up to design and install public art at Eddy Street Commons, which will be unveiled during the biennial. The Acting Ensemble; Equity in the Arts, an initiative of South Bend Venues Parks & Arts; Merrimans’ Playhouse; South Bend Community 91��Ƶ Corporation; and South Bend Museum of Art are each launching arts education programs focused on cultivating the next generation of artists and audiences. The biennial also features regional collaborations beyond South Bend, including with Elkhart County’s Goshen College Music Center and Michigan City’s Lubeznik Center for the Arts.

Supported projects also reflect the biennial’s commitment to global artistic exchange. A guest artist residency with internationally prolific Chinese theater director Wang Chong will culminate in the English-language premiere of his acclaimed Lying Flat 2.0, an immersive, participatory theater work that integrates live-feed video projection and real-time use of AI. Qhapaq Qolla, one of the most influential dance troupes in the Peruvian Andes, will make its US debut in a weeklong residency at Notre Dame. A collaboration with Ukrainian Catholic University and ICONART Gallery in Lviv, Ukraine, brings an exhibition of contemporary Ukrainian sacred art and iconography to campus, and a collaboration with launches a new artist exchange program between Mexico City, Dublin, and South Bend.

For more information about the artists and events featured in the inaugural biennial, visit . Subscribe to the and follow the Arts Initiative on Instagram and Facebook (@artsnotredame) for additional program announcements.

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

More than 100,000 people are awaiting an organ transplant in the United States, with a new candidate added to the list every 10 minutes. Even if the transplant is carried out successfully, recipients must take immunosuppressive medications, elevating their risk of broader infections, and adhere to a strict lifestyle for the rest of their lives—all while facing the possibility that their body could reject the donated organ at any time.

Scientists have been from a patient’s own cells for decades in an attempt to solve this problem. But a major obstacle to realizing lab-grown organs is replicating the scale and complexity of the body’s vascular networks, especially capillaries. These microvessels crisscross each organ to deliver oxygen and other nutrients to every living cell, making them an essential component of any useful bioengineered tissue model.

To overcome this central challenge, , the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Collegiate Professor in the at the University of Notre Dame, and colleagues have created a novel hybrid bioprinting technique that produces vascular networks containing capillaries fewer than 10 micrometers in diameter—smaller than that of the finest human hair. The work is detailed that was featured on a recent cover of .

“Printing blood vessels that mimic natural living systems is very difficult since the vessels vary in size,” Zhang said. “Getting the smallest vessels right, without losing scalability and structural integrity, has remained one of the greatest challenges to current state-of-the-art bioprinting.”

Zhang’s new approach integrates two distinctive 3D printing techniques and incorporates machine learning to autonomously optimize printing parameters for each desired vascular configuration. The hybrid method, developed in collaboration with Y. Shrike Zhang, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical 91��Ƶ and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, produced stable one-, two- and three-dimensional vascular structures, which were then successfully lined with living cells.

“We’ve reached a major breakthrough in the field of bioprinting,” said Zhang, an affiliate of Notre Dame’s and . “Achieving capillary-scale resolution in bioprinting is an important step towards engineering fully functional tissues and complete organs.”

Attaining such fine resolution required the harmonious integration of two complementary printing technologies. The matrix—a soft, gel-like scaffold that mimics real tissue—is printed by extrusion, a widely used method that uses pressure to dispense biomaterials one layer at a time. Once a section of the matrix is printed, thin threads of gelatin are deposited within by aerosol jet printing (AJP), which will eventually be removed to leave behind channels embedded inside the matrix.

Aerodynamic focusing using a sheath flow, a unique feature of AJP, enables dynamic adjustments and the printing of the channel sizes from hundreds of micrometers down to several micrometers, which mimic the varied architecture of natural vessels. Since small changes to the ink flow rate and sheath gas flow rate affect the ultimate size of the printed channel, the researchers developed and integrated a machine learning framework to efficiently determine the ideal combination of printing parameters for a given channel size.

“Machine learning is a very powerful tool that helps us to identify the optimal parameters much more quickly compared with the conventional trial-and-error method,” Zhang said. “Incorporating autonomous optimization has yielded a large boost in efficiency for realizing the desired quality and precision of the printed channels.”

Applied together, the hybrid printing approach successfully fabricated hierarchical vascular networks in one, two and three dimensions. Select channels were then seeded with endothelial cells, which line the body’s blood and lymphatic vessels, and yielded the formation of single-cell layers akin to those seen within living human tissues.

“We are very pleased to see living cells rapidly attach and spread along the inner walls of the channels, ultimately replicating the barrier function of real human capillaries,” Zhang said. “It’s a big step forward in showing that our hybrid-printed networks are capable of supporting living tissue structures without leakage."

Biomimetic tissue models such as Zhang’s offer a promising route for therapeutic discovery, in addition to regenerative medicine and organ engineering. By accurately mimicking human vascular networks down to the smallest capillaries, such platforms can serve as new “organ-on-a-chip” models to test drugs for safety and efficacy. Further, the use of patient-specific cells to form these models offers a potential path for personalized medicine, where therapeutic responses could be evaluated within the model system prior to full-scale treatment.

Zhang’s ultimate aim is to develop an autonomous, intelligent bioprinter to produce fully functional tissues and organs such as the heart, kidney and liver. In the near term, his research group and their collaborators at Harvard to design and build an even more powerful version of Zhang’s hybrid bioprinter and pursue the fabrication of lab-grown organs.

“There are so many people waiting for an organ transplant, and the ability to print organs in the lab has the potential to transform lives by helping humans to live longer and live healthier,” Zhang said. “We are not simply developing better technology, but shining light on a new future for organ transplantation and human health.”

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health. The instrumentation and staff of several Notre Dame core facilities supported this work: the core facility, the , the and the .

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

Over the past two decades, in particular, democracies all over the world have struggled with a lack of clear support. Democracy scholars have referred to these challenges as evidence of backsliding, where political institutions slowly erode from within by backing away from democratic rules and norms and abandoning pro-democratic behavior. This phenomenon has many political and social scientists concerned.

One indicator of a democracy’s health is how satisfied a country’s citizens are with their system of government, and how committed they are to making it successful. And, depending on how happy citizens feel about it, they will behave accordingly — either by participating in democratic processes and living out democratic ideals, or not.

Democratic dissatisfaction predicts lower civic engagement

On that point, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that dissatisfaction with democracy resulted in lower support for democratic behaviors in Mexico, according to development economist and co-author of the University of Notre Dame. Seira, the Joe and Deborah Loughrey Professor of , studies how economic issues can be caused by malfunctioning political institutions, and how democracy benefits and spurs economic growth in a country.

Surveying more than 50,000 Mexican citizens across 6,300 electoral precincts during Mexico’s 2017 state elections, Seira and his research team found that low levels of satisfaction led to a reluctance to participate in these separate democratic activities: attending poll worker training (a requirement for citizens during elections), staffing a polling station on Election Day, and voting in the presidential elections a year later.

“We find that dissatisfaction with democracy predicts lower democratic engagement across all three behaviors,” Seira and his co-authors wrote. Rather than relying on self-reported behaviors or country-level comparisons, the researchers studied the link between satisfaction with democracy and democratic behaviors at the individual level, merging administrative measures and analysis to create original data.

The research indicated that the more dissatisfied the citizens were, the less they engaged. Those who report the lowest level of satisfaction (in other words, surveyed as “not at all satisfied”) were 4.6 percent less likely to attend the poll worker training, nearly 12 percent less likely to staff their polling station, and 2 percent less likely to turn out to vote.

Based on data from the , Mexico ranks 54 out of 75 democratic countries in average levels of dissatisfaction with democracy, according to the study. This suggests that there are numerous other countries struggling with the same challenges — if not more so — than Mexico.

“Both globally and in Latin America, citizens’ satisfaction with democracy has decreased by 10 to 15 percentage points since 2010,” the researchers wrote.

Relatedly, in the United States, the share of citizens who think it is essential to live in a democracy is 71 percent for those born in the 1930s versus 29 percent for those born in the 1980s, noted Seira and his co-authors.

“Support for democracy as measured in surveys — which has been on a more than a decade-long decline — is worrisome, since it is associated with a decline in civic behaviors,” Seira said.

How corruption erodes trust, diminishes support

But what causes citizens to lose favor with their system of government and way of life?

According to Seira, who is also a , part of the , there are several potential reasons. One is that American voters and those in other latitudes are growing impatient with the gridlock in Congress and how the government struggles to accomplish goals and objectives. Another possibility is that the welfare state has been retreating in the world since the financial crisis of 2008, and citizens place blame on their democratic governments for causing some of that downfall. A third possibility is the influence of social media causing polarization in societies, both in the U.S. and abroad, making it harder for democracies to function.

Yet another possibility — and one that has received less attention — is that citizens increasingly perceive corruption (the use of public office for private gain) as endemic. “The fraction of Americans who think the U.S. government is corrupt has been increasing and is now close to 70 percent — and, surprisingly, it is on the same level as democracies in Latin America,” Seira said.

This statistic led Seira and his co-authors to conduct a second study around democracy — this one looking at whether and how government corruption leads to further civic disengagement. Seira and fellow researchers from MIT and Stanford studied 17 Latin American countries using both a field experiment and tens of thousands of surveys collected over a decade.

In , Seira and his team found that when citizens were exposed to high-level politicians’ scandals, individual voter turnout causally decreased by 10 to 20 percentage points. In addition, contributions to support elections, and honesty and trust between individual citizens, all suffered. Furthermore, voting was affected the most when incumbents perceived to be honest were implicated in corruption cases close to election time.

“When they hear about these scandals involving high-level officials such as presidents, cabinet members, prime ministers and justices, voters are less likely to turn out to vote by 20 percentage points,” Seira said. “When a president steals, citizens don't just lose faith in that president — they lose faith in democracy itself.

“And we show it causally,” Seira explained. “Watching real footage of top politicians taking cash cut actual voter turnout by up to 27 percent and lowered support for democracy. Democracy is built on the promise of political equality, and corruption undermines that very promise.”

Citizens’ willingness to donate time to support the organizations of democracy — by volunteering to be an electoral observer, for example — decreased by 43 percent (relative to the 4.9 percent who volunteered on average). It similarly reduced their willingness to donate money in support of election activities by 16 percent (relative to 22.8 percent who donated). Even more worrisome, the researchers discovered, is that when top-level politicians participated in corrupt activities, explicit support for democracy reduced in favor of authoritarianism.

Seira said that the media plays a big role in highlighting political scandals. “The number of news stories about corruption have tripled in Spanish and doubled in English in the last 20 years, which just means that more of these events are in the public eye than they used to be.”

This visibility creates an unfortunate tradeoff, one for which a solution needs to be found, according to Seira. On the one hand, public disclosure forces accountability and denouncement of such behavior, which is needed for democracies to work. On the other, when citizens see that the system is corrupt at the highest levels, then it can be very damaging to the credibility of the system itself. The culprit may be not that corruption is disclosed, but that it goes unpunished, as is often the case in Latin America and other developing countries.

In the field experiment part of the study, Seira and his colleagues found not only that corruption undermined citizens’ trust in democratic institutions, but trust in one another also suffered, with citizens less willing to entrust neighbors with money in incentivized lab-in-the-field experiments. In addition, exposing citizens to footage of their politicians taking bribes made it seem like such behavior was acceptable, prompting individuals to steal money the researchers endowed them with.

Can better civics education help?

Providing ample and relevant civics education to the next generation may be one way to strengthen democracy while combating dissatisfaction and corruption, Seira believes. Because the effectiveness of civics courses has not been widely tested yet, Seira and his co-authors are currently conducting research through a multi-country study of the effects of civics education on democratic behaviors.

“What we want to know is how effective these courses are,” Seira said. “Do they generate more informed citizens? Does it allow them to critically assess the alternatives to democracy? Are they more willing to donate time and effort to support democracy? And to what extent can we make better citizens through education?”

Seira noted that even though the first two studies were conducted in Mexico and Latin America, respectively, and were not specifically reliant on U.S. data, parallels can be drawn between the regions and in how survey participants would have responded. The third study is ongoing and is supported by a from the University of Notre Dame’s

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

Those who win have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization, according to the NSF. Each awardee at Notre Dame received more than half a million dollars in funding to support their research.

“We are thrilled to celebrate this latest cohort of CAREER Award recipients. Their forward-thinking research reflects Notre Dame's unwavering commitment to discovery that serves the common good,” said , the John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research and professor in the . “We appreciate that the National Science Foundation is supporting these high-impact research projects.”

Below are Notre Dame’s 2026 awardees, along with brief descriptions from their abstracts:

in the College of Science, will pioneer approaches to harness the interaction between light and molecules to power the next generation of energy and quantum technologies with his project, “Novel Theoretical Tools for Dynamics of Interacting Light-Matter Systems.” Light and molecules are constantly exchanging energy at the quantum scale across complex environments, such as inside tiny mirrors or near metal surfaces. His research group will develop methods that allow scientists to understand and predict how molecules behave in these complex environments.

in the College of Science, is seeking to understand the earliest chemical reactions and molecules involved in the first living cells for his project, “Reconstructing Primordial Life of the Lost RNA World.” Early life is thought to have used RNA as its genetic material as well as its enzymes. His research group aims to understand how RNA molecules could have facilitated the emergence of the first self-replicating cells. This project addresses this fundamental question by building simplified models of primitive cells, or protocells, in the laboratory.

in the College of Engineering, will investigate cancer with her research, “Mechanisms of Tumor Growth-Induced Immunomechanical Dysfunction.” The work is part of a newer area of research called immunomechanics, which lies at the intersection of mechanobiology and immunology. Her project investigates how these physical forces interfere with the ability of immune cells to find and destroy cancer cells, ultimately allowing tumors to grow unchecked. By uncovering how mechanical forces disrupt the immune system, this work addresses a fundamental gap in understanding how biology and physics interact in human health.

in the College of Science, will develop new chemical measurement tools that seek to help scientists detect and distinguish closely related small molecules in complex environments with his work, “Integrating Nanoconfined Interfaces and Aptamer Switches for Autonomous, Electrochemical Imaging of Chemical Analogs.” Many important molecules in medicine, biology, environmental monitoring, and manufacturing differ only slightly in structure, making them difficult to measure selectively in real time. The project would create electrochemical sensor platforms that use nanoscale materials and molecular recognition switches to identify chemical analogs without relying on large laboratory instruments.

in the College of Science, will study new types of materials, known as moiré materials, created by stacking extremely thin layers of matter with precise alignment and leading to unusual and potentially useful electronic behavior in his project, “Towards a Unified Optical View of Strong Correlation in Moiré Quantum Matter.” These new types of materials can switch between conducting, insulating, and superconducting states — properties that are important for future technologies but remain poorly understood. The research combines optical and electrical measurements to probe how these materials respond to energy and heat at very small scales, providing insight into how their internal structure governs their macroscopic behavior.

Established in 1995, NSF CAREER Awards currently support 34 active research projects at the University of Notre Dame. To learn more about the program, visit the .

Originally published by Deanna Csomo Ferrell at on August 05, 2026.

The University of Notre Dame Carrier Medalist for 2026, will share her lecture, “Innovation by Evolution,” on Monday, Sept. 14 in Jordan Hall of Science.

One of the recipients of the , Arnold is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. She won the Nobel Prize for pioneering "directed evolution" to engineer new enzymes, which are proteins that speed up chemical processes. Her work has helped develop “green” pharmaceutical manufacturing and has made renewable fuels possible.

Arnold’s talk for , presented in honor of Mary Burke Ryan, will share recent studies from her laboratory that show how directed evolution of enzymes can teach biology to carry out entirely new chemistry.

“Biology can learn to do chemistry invented by human beings much more efficiently and without the toxic components humans use,” she said. “And even more exciting, biology can learn to do chemistry that humans dream of but cannot yet do.

“These include transformations used to make important products we need in our daily lives.”

A precocious child who grew up with four brothers, Arnold knew she was as good at math, if not better, than they were. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, though she took a wide variety of classes in different areas before settling into her major.

After a job at the former Solar Energy Research Institute in Colorado (now the National Laboratory of the Rockies), and plenty of world travel, Arnold completed her doctoral degree in chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She credits having four brothers with cementing her lack of fear of working with men, which is something she needed in the 1970s and early 1980s when completing her degree and landing that first engineering job.

Even in 2026, many women shy away from engineering and some areas of science.

“Women often choose not to do it,” she said. “To change what they choose, you have to make it interesting; you have to make it impactful for people and planet. It has to compete with the many other things women find interesting.

“Because when they do it, they succeed very well.”

Throughout her career, Arnold has turned her attention toward specific applications of her work that are best done by industry, several times encouraging students and postdoctoral fellows to start companies. Today half of her research group is working with artificial intelligence, and she and her students were pioneers in the use of machine learning for engineering proteins.

Prizes like the Carrier Medal allow young people to see what it might be like to be a scientist or engineer, and could move them to consider a future STEM career, Arnold said.

“The Nobel Prizes, for example, inspire young people in the farthest reaches of the world," she said. “I get letters from students in sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, Indonesia, South America who say that it’s exciting and inspiring to see a woman win a Nobel Prize.

“For example, non-scientists might not realize their cell phones, or even their laundry detergents, are full of clever inventions, and awarding prizes reminds them that these were thought up by humans.

“Awards sometimes reach even more people than a science classroom,” she said.

The Carrier Medal is awarded annually in recognition of sustained, outstanding achievements in the sciences. It celebrates those whose pioneering contributions have advanced the frontiers of scientific knowledge and promoted the betterment of humanity.

Originally published by Deanna Csomo Ferrell at on August 03, 2026.

Cárdenas was born in post-World War II California, and the discrimination he faced as a Mexican American largely shaped his trajectory as a sociologist and scholar in Latino studies.

For more than five decades, Cárdenas devoted his life to expanding educational opportunity, advancing scholarship, and supporting artists and their work. He worked to ensure that future generations of artists, scholars, and community leaders would recognize the richness and importance of Latino history, culture, and the institutions that reflected them.

“Gil was one of the founders of Latino studies at Notre Dame. Ever since his arrival from the University of Texas, he recognized its importance, especially at a global Catholic research university, and devoted himself to its development,” said , the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “We share in the sadness of his death but also honor his many achievements."

As a young man, Cárdenas was involved in the Chicano Movement, and his activism connected him with leaders across movements for civil rights, labor justice, educational equity, and immigrant rights. This experience continued throughout his life, during which he served on presidential commissions, testified before Congress, and sat on national boards to ensure Latino communities had a place at the table wherever decisions about culture, education, and public life were made. Most notably, he was cited in Plyler v. Doe (1982), the U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming the constitutional right of undocumented children to receive a public education.

“Gilberto Cárdenas was indispensable to the development of Latino studies across the United States,” said , associate professor of anthropology, who worked with Cárdenas as an ILS postdoctoral student. “He devoted his life to building institutions in order to advance scholarship in the U.S. Latinos, expand opportunities in education and the arts, and further civil rights causes. He was a dear friend and a beloved mentor whose generosity, kindness, and compassion knew no bounds.”

Cárdenas received his Ph.D. in sociology from Notre Dame in 1975. During his time as a student, he studied under professor and co-authored Los Mojados: The Wetback Story, which redefined the study of immigration and Mexican American experiences. After graduation, he joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin and built up the , the oldest national consortium focused on Latino research. He authored, co-authored, and co-edited dozens of books and scholarly articles during his academic career.

Cárdenas returned to Notre Dame in 1999 as a professor of sociology and relocated IUPLR to campus. Upon his return, he was also appointed the founding director of ILS. For 13 years, Cárdenas led the institute and established many of the hallmark programs and initiatives that remain today, including the , the literary initiative , and . Through ILS, Cárdenas hoped to make Notre Dame "the premier place in the nation to study Latino populations.”

“In many respects, my work at Notre Dame would not have been possible without Gil. When I was a graduate student here, he went out of his way to support me — so much so that he offered me a job, leading to the creation of Letras Latinas. His prescient vision changed my life,” said , professor of the practice and director of Letras Latinas. “I can easily imagine this being the case for other artists and scholars who worked with him.”

Cárdenas’ impact also remains visible in the institute hallways in Bond Hall. Cárdenas was a lifelong supporter of the arts and had a particular commitment to preserving the visual history of the Chicano Movement. His collection of Latino/a/x art has become one of the most significant ever assembled, and many of the pieces are displayed throughout ILS spaces.

"From our first meeting — and for years to come — he has been a generous colleague, devoted friend, and staunch advocate for Latino studies,” said , professor of American studies and director of ILS. “The marks he made on the institute and, more broadly, in the field, are difficult to put into words, but he will be profoundly missed.”

Cárdenas is survived by his wife, Dolores Carrillo García; three children; three step-children, and nine grandchildren. A celebration of his life will be announced at a later date by the family.

Originally published by Mary Kinney at on July 29, 2026.

Notre Dame’s outlines a multi-year, campus-wide effort to position the University as a trusted leader in emerging technologies. The Initiative convenes discussions and action for research, education and impact across colleges, schools, centers, and disciplines in support of Notre Dame’s broader .

Directed by , the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and the Lucy Family Director for Data & AI Academic Strategy, the DAC Initiative brings together several existing University strengths under a unified institutional structure. This new framework includes the , the , and specialized spanning fundamental research and interdisciplinary applications, also guided by the dimensions of responsible, inclusive, safe, and empowering (RISE).

Additionally, research software engineers and data scientists from the Center for Research Computing and the Applied Analytics & Emerging Technology Lab will form a new (DOME) unit to support data and AI research across the University.

The effort reflects both the accelerating pace of AI adoption and the growing need for universities to prepare students for an economy and society increasingly shaped by data and computation.

“Data and AI-driven technologies are transforming nearly every sector of society,” said , vice president and associate provost for academic strategy. “Notre Dame’s distinctive strength lies in combining technological fluency in these emerging tools with a Catholic intellectual tradition that integrates faith and reason for the common good.”

At the center of the Initiative’s educational efforts are the , which explore how data, AI, and computational approaches could be integrated into curriculum and learning across undergraduate and graduate education. The work includes evaluating new interdisciplinary courses and degree programs that complement existing offerings, as well as ensuring support for faculty innovation and establishing long-term structures that allow curricular growth to scale across departments and colleges.

During an Initiative-hosted , University faculty and industry professionals convened to discuss the urgent need for graduates to have technical fluency combined with durable skills like adaptability and communications to navigate an increasingly AI-driven career pipeline.

“Through our conversations with industry leaders, we’re hearing a consistent message: AI is becoming part of nearly every role and every industry,” said , the Jack and Joan McGraw Family Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations. “That’s why Notre Dame is expanding opportunities for students to build AI and analytics skills while also strengthening the critical thinking, communication and ethical judgment that employers continue to value most.”

The University's expanding AI curriculum includes a new undergraduate minor in , launching through the in fall 2026.

Signature programs such as the , , and the provide students with technical data science training alongside opportunities to examine the ethical and societal dimensions of emerging technologies.

Beyond curriculum development, the Initiative supports a research ecosystem of spanning RISE AI, foundational methods, AI-enabled science and engineering, computational social science, health, and digital humanities. Several of these working groups also contribute to research discussions that work to leverage AI to reduce poverty, improve sustainability, address health access, and promote democracy.

“Data, AI, and computing are already shaping the future,” said Chawla. “Through the DAC Initiative, we’re helping shape that future with purpose by uniting expertise across disciplines to advance discovery that serves society, prepare students for an AI-enabled world, and ensure that technological progress remains responsible and deeply human.”

For more information about the Data, AI, and Computing Initiative, visit .

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

The partnership will begin with an invitation to residents, business owners and community stakeholders to participate in a series of listening sessions on Aug. 5, followed by a weeklong public urban planning session conducted by the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative with public events on Aug. 17, 18 and 20. All events will start at 5:30 p.m. and be held at the Benton Harbor Urban Innovation Lab, 510 W. Main Street.

This process, known as a Dean’s Charrette, will result in a shared long-term vision for the riverfront as well as a regeneration plan for downtown, which will help guide future investments in housing, recreation, public spaces, connectivity and economic development.

"Our community’s waterfront represents our shared future — a future where neighbors come together to enjoy world-class public spaces, programming and recreation, where new housing and investment will flourish, and a place we can all be proud of for generations to come,” said Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad. “This process gives our community the opportunity to move from ideas to action, transforming vacant spaces into vibrant places.”

“This work will draw on Benton Harbor’s rich history and strong community to provide a plan to activate the riverfront and regenerate downtown by creating places of lasting value.”

Directed by Professor , the 91��Ƶ of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative will lead the planning and design process. Known for its collaborative "Think-and-Do Tank" approach, the initiative works alongside communities to develop practical, community-informed solutions that strengthen neighborhoods and local economies.

To date, the initiative has conducted nine charrettes in six cities across the region, including in South Bend, Elkhart and Gary, Indiana; and Kalamazoo, Michigan.

“We are thrilled to partner with Benton Harbor to facilitate a process that establishes a plan to offer actionable short-term recommendations which build toward a long-term vision for the city,” Cusato said. “This work will draw on Benton Harbor’s rich history and strong community to provide a plan to activate the riverfront and regenerate downtown by creating places of lasting value.”

The Riverview Drive corridor has long been identified as a redevelopment priority for the city, appearing in community planning efforts since the 1980s and in successive City of Benton Harbor Master Plans. This initiative, however, marks the first time the corridor will receive a dedicated action-focused plan supported by the necessary funding to move projects from vision to reality. It also builds upon previous plans, including the 2016 Twin Cities Harbor Vision and the 2020 Twin Cities Sustainable Small Harbors Plan.

Through these efforts, the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative joins an ongoing partnership among the City of Benton Harbor, Cornerstone Alliance and the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission. A 2023 grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to address high-water infrastructure challenges laid the groundwork for this phase, which will focus on resilient infrastructure, improved public access to the waterfront, stronger pedestrian connections and long-term flood resilience.

"Combined with the recently announced BUILD Grant, this planning effort creates an important foundation for Benton Harbor’s riverfront," said Andrew Haan, senior vice president of Cornerstone Alliance. "The community's ideas will drive this vision. By bringing together residents, local partners and technical expertise, we have an opportunity to create a riverfront that is welcoming, resilient and positioned to support future housing, investment and economic opportunity."

The project also includes a complementary downtown Benton Harbor master planning effort that will identify redevelopment opportunities for key sites while developing strategies for activation, beautification and long-term place management.

Everyone who lives, works or invests in Benton Harbor and the surrounding area is encouraged to participate.

As the University of Notre Dame’s approaches its fourth year, Inaugural Director , the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy, is preparing to transition leadership of the initiative to renowned political scientist , the Dr. William M. Scholl Professor of Politics in the Department of Political Science and the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. Kollman began a six-month term as director-designate on July 1 and will formally take over as Democracy Initiative director on Jan. 1.

“David Campbell has done a superb job as founding director — developing a vision, building partnerships and turning an early idea into a thriving, University-wide endeavor,” said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “Under his leadership, the Democracy Initiative has advanced cutting-edge research, supported the recruitment of excellent scholar-teachers, expanded opportunities for students, helped realize a transformative $55 million gift for the Rooney Democracy Institute, and convened thought leaders to tackle urgent and complex challenges to democracy around the world.”

The Library of Congress recently named Campbell to the Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance, a prestigious research appointment focused on legal, constitutional and political issues related to the institutions of American government. During the spring 2027 residential appointment, he will make use of the world’s largest law library and the Library of Congress’ unique collection of manuscripts on the formation and development of the American Republic, and take advantage of opportunities to participate in ongoing dialogue with political leaders on matters of importance to civic life.

Kollman, an alumnus of Notre Dame, joined the faculty in January after 32 years at the University of Michigan. His includes award-winning books and journal articles, more than $47 million in external research funding, and key contributions to the development of major publicly available datasets used by researchers around the world.

“I’m confident that Ken Kollman is the right choice to lead the Democracy Initiative into this next chapter,” McGreevy said. “He is a leading scholar in both American and comparative politics, a gifted teacher, and an experienced administrator who has served in numerous leadership roles at Michigan, including as the director of the International Institute and director of the Center for Political 91��Ƶ.”

Democracy was one of the first three campus-wide initiatives launched as part of “.” It works to renew the strength of democracy in the U.S. and around the world by advancing rigorous research, preparing students for civic leadership and convening influential voices across political divides.

Together with his team, Campbell, who was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, launched the successful series, created an undergraduate and created the . To date, the program has funded nearly 70 faculty and graduate student projects that will produce dozens of new books, articles, convenings and courses on the subject of democracy. He also worked to build deeper connections between the Rooney Institute and the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ, as well as other democracy-related institutes, centers and programs across campus. Learn more at .

More than 3.4 million American children, or about 6 percent of the school-age population, now , and that group has grown at nearly three times the . Homeschooling is also increasingly popular in countries including Canada and the United Kingdom, as more parents look to customize educational options for their children.

A new study co-authored by University of Notre Dame researcher shows how artificial intelligence can empower parents to be engaged educators who tailor curriculums and learning plans that meet their children’s needs.

The study was published in the 2026 proceedings of the , the flagship conference for researchers working in human-computer interaction.

“91��Ƶ-centered platforms optimize for classroom control, standardized pacing and scale, but homeschooling families often prioritize adaptable routines, value-aligned materials and community-based support,” said Rifat, assistant professor of tech ethics and global affairs at Notre Dame’s . “We wanted to build something that keeps parents in control as reflective partners who shape what their children actually learn.”

Rifat and his colleagues designed a digital platform powered by a large language model. Their goal was to accommodate a diverse cohort of homeschooling families whose needs range from academic flexibility and cultural alignment to school safety concerns. During the study, they worked with Muslim families in the greater Toronto area, evaluating the platform’s usability and overall effectiveness from April to July 2025. Over time, they hope to work with larger groups in multiple communities.

Researchers designed the platform, called Homeroom, around three goals: supporting parents as active participants who shape their children's education; promoting culturally responsive personalization to help families create identity-affirming learning environments; and facilitating parents’ collaboration within a trusted circle of fellow homeschoolers.

The tool’s workflow enabled participants to brainstorm, create and refine stories for their children’s ethics education and to craft curriculums that incorporated family heritage and cultural norms alongside age-appropriate educational standards.

Findings underscore need for agency, representation

Researchers found that parents embraced a trust-but-verify approach, wanting to preview and edit educational materials before sharing them with their children. That desire for control was especially evident around cultural representation.

Some parents used the platform to fill gaps in available materials, generating stories that reflected their children’s cultural identities. One participant said she would use the tool primarily because heritage stories are difficult to find in libraries and too costly to keep buying. Parents appreciated being able to adjust tone, setting and cultural motifs including familiar foods, holidays and everyday customs until a story felt right for their child.

They also identified a need for precision around cultural values. When one participant asked the platform to generate stories emphasizing humility, she received moralizing narration rather than what she had in mind, which was a set of concrete, everyday practices her children already knew, such as sitting on the floor to eat. The experience pointed to a broader finding: Generic value labels are not enough. Families needed tools to define what those values actually look like in their household.

Researchers also found that participants preferred small, intimate groups over broad forums, which they found made it easier to ask sensitive questions and receive practical feedback. Parents wanted to follow trusted peers, adapt shared lessons while providing clear attribution and retain the option to monetize original content.

In addition, parents asked for tools to reduce administrative workload, including reusable rubrics, a portfolio generator and connections to local events that could feed directly into student records.

Addressing a larger challenge in human-AI collaboration

The study is a natural extension of Rifat’s broader research agenda, which examines how AI can move beyond one-size-fits-all design to with distinct cultural needs and values.

It also addresses the concern that AI risks being sycophantic and simply reinforcing what the user already believes. While that risk is real, Rifat said, well-designed personalization can create space for communities to encounter difference rather than avoid it. Homeroom included features that exposed children to materials from outside their own background precisely for that reason.

“One of the critiques I hear is that we’re building echo chambers,” Rifat said. “But personalization is already happening whether we like it or not. The question is whether we design it in a way that brings communities together or drives them further apart.”

Rifat co-authored the study with Ayla Khan, a student at the University of Toronto Mississauga; Nouran Yahya, a student at the University of Waterloo and a research assistant at the University of Toronto Mississauga during the study; and Samar Sabie, assistant professor at the University of Toronto. The study received funding from the Urban Challenge Grant program at the University of Toronto’s 91��Ƶ of Cities.

In addition to his role at the Keough 91��Ƶ, Rifat holds a concurrent appointment in the within Notre Dame’s . He is also a faculty affiliate of the Keough 91��Ƶ’s , and as well as Notre Dame’s and .

Originally published by Josh Stowe at on July 20.

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

The Library of Congress has named , the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame, to the , a prestigious research appointment focused on legal, constitutional and political issues related to the institutions of American government.

The spring 2027 residential chair position will enable Campbell to make use of the world’s largest law library and the Library of Congress’ unique collection of manuscripts on the formation and development of the American Republic, while providing opportunities for ongoing dialogue with political leaders on matters of importance to civic and political life.

One of five Kluge Chairs articulated in the founding documents of the John W. Kluge Center, the Chair in American Law and Governance is awarded to “scholars of great accomplishment chosen for their intellectual and communicative abilities.” Previous chairs include Gary Gerstle, the Paul Mellon Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Cambridge; Suzanne Mettler, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University; and Jacob Hacker, the Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale.

“Holding the Kluge Chair is truly an honor,” Campbell said. “The Library of Congress is one of America’s best ideas — a civic institution dedicated to fostering knowledge and inquiry. I look forward to spending time in this unique incubator of scholarship.”

A renowned scholar of civic and political engagement, Campbell’s work has advanced the understanding of how American attitudes toward religion have changed over the past 60 years, why secularization has rapidly advanced due to politics, and how women holding public office inspires political engagement among young people.

During his time in residence, he will work on a project titled “Kids These Days: The Civic Education of America’s Teens,” in which he will examine what, when and how young people learn about democracy — at home, at school, in their communities and online.

“David Campbell is an exceptional scholar of American politics, as his many accolades indicate — but he is also an essential thought leader who is pursuing solutions to strengthen American democracy in a polarized era,” said , the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts & Letters and Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame.

Campbell is the author or co-author of five books, including “,” with Robert D. Putnam (Simon & Schuster, 2010), which won book awards from the American Political Science Association and the Religion Communicators Council. His other books include “” (Princeton, 2006) and “,” with John C. Green and Geoffrey C. Layman (Cambridge, 2021), the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion’s Distinguished Book Award and was runner-up for the APSA’s Hubert Morken Award for the Best Book on Religion and Politics.

His most recent book, with Christina Wolbrecht, is “” (University of Chicago, 2025). He has written or co-written 20 book chapters and 38 peer-reviewed journal articles and edited three collected volumes.

He was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers. In February, the academy , titled “Preparing Students for Civic Life: A Guide for Higher Education Leaders,” developed by a group of university presidents, faculty and civic experts, led by Campbell.

Campbell holds a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a master’s and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2002 and has held multiple leadership positions on campus, including chair of the from 2015 to 2021 and director of what is now known as the from 2009 to 2015. He currently serves as director of the , an interdisciplinary research, education and policy effort focused on advancing solutions to sustain and strengthen global democracy, which launched in 2023.

Campbell is a go-to expert and op-ed author for major media outlets seeking perspective and commentary on American politics and religion, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press and The Conversation. He is the previous recipient of an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, and his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Templeton Foundation and the Spencer Foundation.

Trozzolo joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1975, after visiting campus in the early 1970s to give a series of lectures on photochromism, singlet oxygen, and dye lasers. A chemist who worked in the Radiation Research Laboratory, Trozzolo occupied the first endowed chair at the University offered to an outside candidate, and the first in the chemistry department at Notre Dame. He worked as a professor and researcher until 1998 and also served as the assistant dean of the College of Science from 1993 to 1998. Growing up in Chicago, Trozzolo was a lifelong Notre Dame fan, passing his love for the University down to his six children, who each graduated from the University. He and his wife, Doris “Dolly” (née Stoffregen), were great friends to Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, traveling with him to China several times in the early 1980s, contributing to greater collaboration in science with Chinese faculty and students.

Before his tenure at Notre Dame, Trozzolo was a research chemist at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey from 1959 to 1975. During the age of American innovation, Trozzolo, along with the five other chemists he worked with, made many scientific discoveries to enhance solid-state technology and materials science research, contributing to Bell Labs being known as “The Idea Factory.” Trozzolo organized the first Gordon Research Conference on Organic Photochemistry in 1964, which is still active today. In 1988, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Gordon Research Conferences. At Bell Labs, Trozzolo focused on the creation and detection of reactive intermediates such as carbenes, dicarbenes, ground-state triplet and quintet species, and singlet molecular oxygen. He was also interested in the oxidative photodegradation of polymers. At both Bell Labs and Notre Dame, he was involved in significant research developing practical applications of organic photochemistry, particularly photo-oxidation processes.

Trozzolo is survived by six children, 12 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, July 17, 2026 in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus, with burial taking place at Cedar Grove Cemetery. Visitation will take place from 2 to 8 p.m. on July 16, 2026 at , South Bend, Indiana.

Originally published by Harner, Ella at on July 10, 2026.

Stark statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also indicate that since 1999, approximately 860,000 people have died from an opioid overdose, with nearly 318,000 of those deaths attributable to prescription opioids. In 2024, 73.4 percent of drug overdose deaths were attributable to opioids, with 65.1 percent of those deaths from illegally made fentanyls, .

While much of the focus of the opioid litigation and public conversation in recent years has been on the role of the pharmaceutical industry and how their advertising campaigns led to an increase in opioid use and subsequent overdose deaths, there is more to the story behind this nationwide catastrophe.

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame found that doctors had a hand in fueling the opioid crisis by aggressively prescribing opioids to treat chronic pain. Their work shows the extent to which doctors’ prescribing practices can be linked to that increase, indicating that if there had not been such a strong push on the part of physicians, opioid-related death rates would have been much lower.

According to and , both from Notre Dame’s and co-authors of an , physicians began prescribing opioids to treat chronic pain more extensively and more often in the late 1990s. If their prescription practices had stayed at their 1995 levels, there would have been 43 percent fewer deaths by 2015, just two decades later.

The duo’s work has the potential to guide conversations about reeducating doctors on the appropriate use of opioids for pain relief and reframing how medical schools teach future doctors about appropriate prescribing practices.

“Most of the people who have followed this issue acknowledge that the changing prescribing practices of doctors played a critical role in the drug crisis,” said Evans, the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics and co-founder of Notre Dame’s “I think we’ve come up with a nice way to quantify the impact, and it is massive.”

To track physicians’ practice of overprescribing opioids as pain medication, Evans and Lieber first examined the county characteristics in 1990 that predicted the surge in drug deaths beginning in the early 2000s. They identified one factor that is particularly predictive for whether the county will eventually have a severe drug poisoning crisis: the fraction of the working age population receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

These benefits are for adults who have worked for a minimum of time in jobs covered by Social Security and who have a medical condition limiting their ability to maintain gainful employment. The co-authors showed that not only are those on SSDI in more pain than average, but those in high SSDI rate geographies also have higher levels of pain. Their work shows that as physicians became more aggressive at treating chronic pain with opioids, these high-SSDI, high-pain areas had, on average, a much more severe drug poisoning crisis.

Historically, opioids had only been prescribed for those post-surgical and cancer patients experiencing acute pain, leaving those with chronic pain untreated. Starting in the mid-1990s, however, there was a reevaluation of the use of opioids to treat chronic pain. In 1995, the co-authors noted, the medical community established the notion that pain was the “fifth vital sign,” specifically measuring pain levels and equating pain relief with quality of care. In that same year, medical experts released a statement advocating the use of opioids for chronic pain relief. As a result, physicians took note and became more aggressive in their prescribing of those drugs.

Using data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys from 1980 through 2015, Evans and Lieber demonstrated that prior to 1995, only about 7 percent of patients visiting a doctor with a condition likely to generate chronic pain received an opioid prescription. After 1995, this number increased dramatically, reaching 25 percent by 2015.

“We were struck by how much these numbers changed over time and how the timing coincided with the efforts to encourage greater use of opioids to treat chronic pain,” said Lieber, the Dillon Hall Associate Professor in Notre Dame’s .

Evans added that the dropped the use of pain as the fifth vital sign in 2016, noting that “the president of the AMA said at the time that physicians played a key role in the epidemic and now they must do their part to end it.”

The study takes into account other factors that potentially drive drug poisoning death rates such as local economic conditions, general access to health services, the decline of institutions like manufacturing jobs and relationships, the rise and marketing of opioid drugs like OxyContin, and prescription drug monitoring programs.

A key data set in their work was the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS), which tracks shipments of opioids from manufacturers to points of sale or distribution. Detailed transaction-level data from ARCOS was released as part of the opioid litigation.

In 2024, Notre Dame developed a user-friendly interface of the ARCOS database, which enables public access to more than 10 years of national controlled substance transaction information for 14 different opioids.

This research stems from the , a data-focused research effort fostering and advancing multidisciplinary work on a wide range of pressing demographic issues facing society. Evans leads ND Pop, which is facilitated by a partnership between the University’s and the .

To hear Evans and Lieber discuss their research, check out the , hosted by the Hoover Institution.

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

Each year, approximately 700,000 children worldwide die from diseases that vaccines could have prevented, nearly all of them in low- and middle-income countries. New research from University of Notre Dame economist finds that India’s national childhood immunization program helped address this persistent global health challenge, producing substantial reductions in child deaths.

The study, published in the , also found that the immunization program had mixed long-term effects on educational attainment. While exposure to the program reduced primary school completion, it increased secondary school completion, suggesting that improvements in child survival can influence education through multiple pathways. Findings underscore the importance of coordinating health and education policies so that gains in child survival are matched by investments in schools and learning.

“Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective investments a country can make in improving child health and human capital,” said Gautam, professor of development and global health economics at Notre Dame’s . “I wanted to understand not only how India's immunization program saved lives, but also how it affected educational trajectories and human capital development.”

An experiment that reduced infant mortality

India launched its Universal Immunization Programme in 1985 and implemented it district by district, reaching full national coverage by 1990. Because some districts received the program years before others, and because only children under age 1 were eligible for the vaccines, Gautam was able to compare children born just before and just after the program arrived in their district.

Drawing on a national survey of nearly 900,000 children, Gautam found that the program reduced infant mortality by 0.4 percentage points and under-five mortality by 0.5 percentage points — substantial gains at a time when nearly 1 in 10 infants died before their first birthday.

Those mortality gains were concentrated among children in rural areas, from poor households and from historically disadvantaged caste groups. Children from wealthier, urban or higher-caste households saw little change, Gautam said. This may be because many already had access to vaccination before the program arrived.

Mixed educational outcomes

The study also found nuanced effects on educational attainment. While the immunization program reduced primary school completion, it increased secondary school completion among surviving children.

Gautam said the results may reflect who survived because of the program. Some children who benefited from vaccination may not have reached school age otherwise; and, as a group, they tended to have poorer underlying health. That change in the student population may have lowered average primary school completion rates.

Meanwhile, children who would have survived regardless but were healthier because of vaccination were more likely to complete secondary school. Strained school infrastructure may also have reinforced the pattern, Gautam said. A sudden increase in surviving children can crowd classrooms and stretch already limited resources, particularly in the early grades.

Designing health and education policy together

Ultimately, Gautam said, the research shows health and education investments work best when they are planned holistically rather than treated as unrelated priorities.

“This study illustrates how health and education planners can strengthen their coordination and produce better outcomes by working together,” Gautam said. “In addition to focusing on saving lives, governments should design policies that follow children into the classroom.”

The study also challenges the assumption that large public health campaigns in developing countries are inevitably undermined by weak implementation, Gautam said. Despite documented problems with medical absenteeism and service delivery in India’s health system, the program still produced a measurable reduction in child deaths.

The research contributes to Gautam’s broader work as an economist who studies how investments in early child and maternal health can reduce poverty and help people thrive. It is particularly relevant for resource-constrained settings, where smarter policy design is critical to improving outcomes amid limited funding.

“Effective immunization policy requires measuring not only who vaccines protect, but also how they shape broader human capital and support the best use of scarce public resources,” Gautam said.

A development and global health economics expert at Notre Dame, Gautam is the director of doctoral studies for the Keough 91��Ƶ’s and directs the in the school’s program. He is an affiliate of Notre Dame’s and the (part of the Keough 91��Ƶ’s ) and a faculty fellow at the Keough 91��Ƶ’s .

The study received open access funding from the University of Notre Dame’s .

Originally published by Josh Stowe at on July 14.

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