Tag: research

Meenal Datta, Yichun Wang, and Donny Hanjaya-Putra

Notre Dame Engineering faculty earn three consecutive CMBE Rising Star Awards (2024–26)

For three years in a row, a faculty member from the University of Notre Dame’s College of Engineering has won the prestigious CMBE Rising Star Award given by the Biomedical Engineering Society’s (BMES) Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Special Interest Group (CMBE-SIG). CMBE-SIG …

Two researchers in white lab coats and safety glasses work in a lab. A man in blue gloves uses a tool to transfer liquid into a small container near a multi-well plate with reddish liquid. A woman observes him, smiling softly.

Physical pressure on the brain triggers neurons’ self-destruction programming

To think, feel, talk and move, neurons send messages through electrical signals in the brain and spinal cord. This intricate communication network is built of billions of neurons connected by synapses and managed and modified by glial cells. When neurons die, this communication network is …

Three men work on scientific equipment in a lab. A man in a blue plaid shirt holds a black conical object, while another with a beard inserts a black tube into a large silver metallic apparatus. A man in a blue polo observes the process.

Alumni founder of carbon-capture start-up receives NSF funding to collaborate with Notre Dame researchers

Alec Houpt, who earned his doctorate from the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) at the University of Notre Dame in 2020, will collaborate with Sergey Leonov, research professor in AME, to pursue the development of a supersonic nozzle designed to freeze and …

A blue glove holds a petri dish while a pipette places pink drops of liquid

Fighting to cure brain cancer

To better understand glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, Meenal Datta, the Jane Schoelch DeFlorio Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, thought outside the box—and off planet Earth. Read the …

Two blue, gloved hands hold the superblack material

Robust, low-cost superblack material leverages fundamental geometry and engineering methods

Cave entrances often appear black and forbidding.  Light enters, but little escapes, absorbed as it “bounces around” the interior. To trap light in much the same way, engineers at the University of Notre Dame have devised a superblack material from a matrix of microscopic, …

The Golden Dome against a blue sky

Notre Dame opens applications for 2026 Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program

The University of Notre Dame is accepting applications for the next cohort of Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellows, a select group of early-career scholars in science, engineering, and the liberal arts who are committed to Notre Dame’s mission to be a powerful force for good in the world. Up to …

Cushing Hall of Engineering relief

Notre Dame Awards Prestigious Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2025

This fall, the College of Engineering welcomes seven new postdoctoral fellows through the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and the Bioengineering and Life Sciences (BELS) initiative. Six of the fellows will join as part of the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, a …

Anatomical model of vertebrae with an artificial spinal disc implant.

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

It is the summer of 2023, and Dr. Stephen Smith sits face-to-face with a model skeleton in the Engineering North building on the University of Notre Dame campus. Smith is a neurosurgeon at Beacon Health System’s Memorial Hospital in downtown South Bend, Indiana, about a mile southwest of the …

A machine to detect certain molecules in air samples. The machine consists of a glass box connected with various wires, with a green air pump on one side.

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

Airborne hazardous chemicals can be dilute, mobile, and hard to trap. Yet accurately measuring these chemicals is critical in protecting human health and the environment.  Now, a new, small, low-cost device, nicknamed ABLE, could make the collection and detection of airborne hazards much …

The Golden Dome framed by green trees

Notre Dame announces 2025 Strategic Framework Grant recipients

The University of Notre Dame has announced the awardees of its 2025 Strategic Framework Grant (SFG) Program. Launched in 2024, the program is an internal funding opportunity that stimulates engagement with the priorities outlined in Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework. The program, sponsored …