Robert J. Bernhard, associate vice president for research and professor of mechanical engineering atPurdueUniversity, has been elected by theUniversityofNotre Dame Boardof Trustees to the newly created position of vice president for research, effective Aug. 1. He also was appointed a full professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.

Bob Bernhard is a gifted researcher and teacher, a skilled administrator and leader, and a successful facilitator of large-scale research programs and investments,said Thomas G. Burish, Notre Dames provost.He has the background, commitment, talent, integrity and work ethic to help propel Notre Dames research efforts forward. He was the unanimous choice of the faculty search committee. We are grateful that he will be joining us and excited about his leadership of our overall research efforts.

Burish also thanked the seven faculty members of the Universitys national search committee for their efforts in attracting Bernhard to Notre Dame.

The members of the search committee worked tirelessly to identify, evaluate and recruit a strong slate of candidates for the position,he said.With Professor Bernhard in particular, who was sought out by the committee and did not apply for the position, the committee members were articulate and energetic in describing Notre Dames research vision and opportunities, and in defining its distinctive mission. They deserve much of the credit for this most successful search.

Bernhard said thebold visionof Burish and Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., the Universitys president, to take Notre Dame to the next level as an institution fullycommitted to research, undergraduate teaching and its Catholic character ispersonally exciting to me. The challenge of leading the research component of that vision is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that fits my background and experience very well. Im honored to be given this opportunity.

He added:Ive been at Purdue for 25 years and had a wonderful career here. Its very difficult to leave, particularly with all of the exciting new initiatives that have begun here in recent years.

Bernhard is one of the nations leading experts on noise control, with a focus on tire and traffic noise, numerical noise control design methods, noise source identification, active noise and vibration control, and machinery noise control applications. He has directed the research of 49 engineering graduates and is the co-author of more than 170 journal and conference publications on various aspects of noise control engineering, numerical methods, vibrations and design.

Bernhard is a frequent consultant to industry and government and has had his research activities funded by more than a dozen corporations as well as by NASA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Indiana Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Highway Administration and the National Science Foundation.

A graduate ofIowaStateUniversity, Bernhard worked from 1973 to 1977 as an engineer with Westinghouse Electric Co. inBaltimore. At the same time, he worked on and earned his masters degree in mechanical engineering from theUniversityofMaryland. He returned toIowaStatein 1977 to pursue his doctorate and to serve on the engineering faculty as an assistant professor of freshman engineering.

After completing his doctoral studies, Bernhard joined the faculty of the91��ƵofMechanical Engineeringat Purdue in 1982. He has been affiliated with the Acoustics and Noise Control Research Program of the Ray W. Herrick Laboratories at Purdue, and served as its director from 1994 to 2004. He has been the director of the Institute for Safe, Quiet and Durable Highways since 1998 and for the last three years has served asPurdues associate vice president for research.

Bernhard holds two patents and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has been the secretary general of the International Institute of Noise Control Engineering since 2000, is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and was named a distinguished noise control engineer by theInstituteofNoise Control Engineeringin 2003.

Bernhard and his wife, Debbi, are the parents of four children ages 25 to 16. Among his civic activities, Bernhard served on the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish Pastoral Council in WestLayfayette,Ind., for four years and was president in 2006. He was a Little League baseball coach for 13 years.

Bernhards position is newly created and a result of the administrative restructuring of graduate education and research at Notre Dame. The new structure splits the former position of vice president for graduate studies and research into two positions that will each report directly to the provost. The reorganization was recommended by the Academic Council and the president and approved by the Board of Trustees.

Bernhard will address infrastructure and support of researchthe work of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students alikeand the competition for funding dollars, as well as support for the Universitys technology transfer efforts.

A new and unnamed position in the provosts office will have oversight of graduate studies.

The search committee for the vice president for research position was composed of seven faculty members and one graduate student: Neil Delaney, philosophy and honors program; Stephen Batill, aerospace and mechanical engineering; Richard Taylor, chemistry and biochemistry; Malgorzata Dobrowolska-Furdyna, physics; Scott Monroe, psychology; Gary Bernstein, electrical engineering; Frank Collins, biological sciences; and Amber Handy, a graduate student in the Department of History.

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TheUniversityofNotre Dame Boardof Trustees will confer two honorary degrees in early February when it holds its annual winter meetings inRome.

L. Francis Rooney III, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, and the Most Rev. Rino Fisichella, auxiliary bishop ofRomeand rector ofSt. JohnLateranUniversity, will receive honorary doctor of laws degrees during an academic convocation and conference to take place atSt. John, also known asPontificalLateranUniversity.

The conference is titledContribution of Catholic Universities to the Church and Cultureand will include addresses by Bishop Fisichella, Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and the Most Rev. Daniel Jenky, C.S.C., bishop ofPeoria,Ill., and a Notre Dame Trustee.

The five-day trip also will include visits with keyVaticanleaders in papal congregational offices and pontifical councils that closely relate to Notre Dames mission. The Boards visit takes place only nine months after the election last April of Pope Benedict XVI.

As the worlds most prominent Catholic university, we will have the chance to foster positive relationships with those who assist in leading the Church,said Patrick McCartan, chair of the Board of Trustees.

Father Jenkins added:As leaders of Notre Dame, it is important that we see ourselves as part of and in service to the Church. This visit is first and foremost a pilgrimage that will allow our Trustees to explore and deepen that commitment.

At theVatican, Trustees will meet with representatives of the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Secretariat of State.

The Board will conduct its regular business meetings Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 (Tuesday and Wednesday). The academic convocation follows the end of those sessions. Bishop Fisichella is to address the topic,The Role of theRomanUniversities.Father Jenkinsaddress is titledNotre Dame: A Catholic University within American Academe.Bishop Jenky will discussThe Congregation of Holy Cross and Catholic Education.

In 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Fisichella rector of thePontificalLateranUniversityand president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for 91��Ƶ on Marriage and Family. He is considered a thoughtful, articulate spokesperson for Catholic views, especially on matters of public policy. A primary contributor to John Paul IIs 1998 encyclicalFides et Ratio(Faith and Reason), he is an advocate of the need to defend Christian identity against the forces of modern culture.

Bishop Fisichella was ordained a priest in March 1976 and ordained as an auxiliary bishop in September 1998. He is a member of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from thePontificalGregorianUniversityinRome, where he served as a member of the fundamental theology faculty from 1981 to 2001. He has written 18 books and published several hundred articles.

Bishop Fisichella visited Notre Dame last June to address a bishops conference titledDei Verbum: the Word of God in the Life of the Bishop.

Last November, Rooney became the seventhU.S.ambassador to the Holy See since full diplomatic relations were established in 1984. Rooney and his wife, Kathleen, have been active in Catholic, political and civic circles at the national level and in bothTulsa,Okla., andNaplesFla., the home bases of Rooney Holdings, Inc.

Prior to his appointment to theVatican, Rooney was the chief executive officer of the family-owned corporation and the chairman of Manhattan Construction Company, whose projects include the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library inCollege Station,Texas; portions of theOklahoma Cityand Dallas-Forth Worth airports; the visitor center under construction at the U.S. Capitol; convention centers inDallasandMobile,Ala.; and the Santa Fe Opera Theater inNew Mexico.

Rooney is a member of the Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture Advisory Council. Other affiliations with Catholic organizations include membership of the strategic planning committee of the St. Francis Health System inOklahomaand the board ofCasciaHallPreparatory 91��Ƶ, an Augustinian middle and high school inTulsa. A noted supporter of the Republican Party and President George W. Bush, Rooneys philanthropic and civic activities also have included support of the Southwestern-area chapters of the American Red Cross, theUnited Way, the Boy Scouts and numerousOklahomaandTexasbusiness organizations. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees fromGeorgetownUniversity.

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Church/state: The Supreme Court’s decision this week in Good News Bible Club v. Milford was good news, indeed, for the First Amendment, according to Richard W. Garnett , assistant professor of law at Notre Dame. “The court reaffirmed that the First Amendment does not require ? in fact, it does not permit ? government to discriminate against religious persons, organizations and ideas,” Garnett wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. “No doubt some will complain the decision permitting a Christian youth group to meet after school hours in public school facilities somehow lowers ‘the wall of separation’ between church and state. It does not. Justice Clarence Thomas’ clear and well-reasoned majority opinion honors our constitutional traditions of religious freedom and pluralism by welcoming, on equal terms, the faithful to the public square.” Professor Garnett can be reached for further comment at (219) 631-6981 or mailto:garnett.4@nd.edu p. Tech transfer: Universities that jumped into the technology transfer business after passage of the 1980 Bayh-Dole act are pulling down almost $650 million a year from some 6,700 inventions created by their researchers. That amount could be higher if universities were to fine tune the process of tying ongoing inventor involvement to profits, according to research by Richard A. Jensen , professor of economics at Notre Dame. “Bayh-Dole mandated that the inventor be paid. But it’s how you pay them that makes the difference,” says Jensen, whose findings were published in American Economic Review. The vast majority of university-developed inventions require a lengthy incubation period, and have the best chances of reaching the markeplacet when the inventor remains tied in through such long-term fiscal incentives as stock options. Jensen can be reached for further comment at (219) 631-9382 or Jensen.24@nd.edu p. Jeffords: The recent shift in party control of the Senate illustrates yet again the ongoing close competition between the two major parties in the United States, says a Notre Dame political scientist who specializes in American political parties and interest groups. “The recent presidential election was decided by a razor-thin margin, and the current majorities in both the Senate and House are equally narrow,” says Christina Wolbrecht , Packey J. Dee Assistant Professor of Government and International 91��Ƶ. "These narrow margins mean that if Democrats and Republicans are unwilling to compromise in order to achieve their goals then deadlock seems likely. " For Democrats, the change in the Senate is particularly momentous. Majority party status confers considerable institutional powers, the most important of which is the power to designate the chairs of the standing committees. Most of the policy making work of the Senate occurs in committee, and chairs have long been recognized as holding significant gate-keeping and agenda-setting powers. Democrats started the year locked out of control of either the executive or legislative branches; they have now been granted unexpected influence over the important business of the Senate. Professor Wolbrecht can be reached at (219) 631-3836 or wolbrecht.1@nd.edu p. Race relations: A new book coauthored by Heidi Ardizzone , visiting assistant professor of American studies at Notre Dame, provides a riveting portrait of race relations and the justice system in 1920s America. “Love on Trial: An American Scandal in Black and White” tells the true story of first the love and then the trial between Alice Jones, a former nanny of mixed race, and Leonard Rhinelander, a young socialite from one of New York’s wealthiest and most prominent families. The couple met in 1921 and, after a three-year romance, married against the wishes of Leonard’s father. A month after the wedding, with questions arising in the news media about Alice’s background and race, Leonard left his wife and sued for annulment, charging she had defrauded him. The trial, before an all-male, all-white jury, hinged in large part on the question of whether ? as Alice claimed ? Leonard knew she was black when he married her. But it also included myriad questions concerning status, wealth, ancestry and morality. Generating as much media and public attention as any modern scandal, the case was chronicled in stories on the front page of The New York Times nearly every day for more than a month. Ardizzone and Lewis examine in detail the multiple racial, socioeconomic, sexual and ethical issues that arose in this national scandal that rocked jazz-age America. Published this month by W.W. Norton&Company, the book was coauthored by Earl Lewis, dean of graduate studies at the University of Michigan, where Ardizzone earned her master’s and doctoral degrees. Professor Ardizzone can be reached at (219) 631-4144 or ardizzone.1@nd.edu p. p. p. Missile defense: “Some form of missile defense is nearly inevitable,” says Notre Dame political scientist Daniel A. Lindley . “Although defenses do not work now and will never be perfect, most technological hurdles will eventually be overcome. Problems such as decoys and multiple warheads will be greatly reduced once we focus more heavily on boost-phase defenses (the intercept of a missile in the early stage of flight). Boost-phase defenses make it easier to spread the “defensive umbrella,” and sharing defenses should go a long way towards mitigating other states’ objections.” He adds: “It is noteworthy that the reaction worldwide has been muted. Russia wants to talk, India was encouraging, Europe did not go ballistic. The sky is not falling.” Professor Lindley can be reached at (219) 631-3226 or lindley.3@nd.edu p. Nuclear crossroads: “South Asia at the Nuclear Crossroads,” a new study sponsored in part by the Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ at Notre Dame, examines the threat posed by nuclear weapons proliferation in South Asia. Coauthored by David Cortright , a visiting fellow in the Kroc Institute, and Samina Ahmed, a research fellow in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, “South Asia at the Nuclear Crossroads” urges policymakers to employ a more effective use of economic sanctions and incentives to curtail nuclear proliferation and defuse tension between India and Pakistan. Cosponsored by the Kroc Institute, the Managing Atom Project at the Belfer Center and the Fourth Freedom Forum in Goshen, Ind., the study analyzes attempts by the United States to contain nuclear danger through the use of sanctions and incentives. The authors assess the limitations of past strategies and offer suggestions for more refined and effective future actions. Among the study1s proposals is a “debt for disarmament” plan that would forgive Indian and Pakistani external debt obligations in exchange for concrete steps toward arms removal. Cortright and Ahmed hope the study “will be of value as the new U.S. administration reviews policy options toward nuclear proliferation in South Asia.” For more information, contact the Kroc Institute at (219) 631-6970

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