Tag: Women in Engineering 2026

A pipette places drops of green liquid onto a microscope slide containing a small device

Heart-on-a-chip device identifies youth-enhancing “cocktail” to repair old hearts

The heart is a pump that wears out over time—that, at least, was the prevailing view. New research has shown that the heart’s aging results from changes in intercellular communications, which tell heart cells, sometimes even healthy ones, to stiffen and break down. By decoding these complex …

A young woman looks at a microscope slide that has a dab of clear gel in the middle of it

3D-bioprinted model offers new way to study and treat obesity-related heart disease

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among people with obesity, a condition affecting one in eight people worldwide. Studies show that fat around the heart can fuel inflammation, damage heart muscle cells, disrupt heart rhythm and increase the risk of heart failure, but the precise …

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 …

A group of students pose with a flag bearing the ND monogram.

Inaugural Notre Dame bioengineering club wins gold at international iGEM competition

A team of five undergraduate researchers from the University of Notre Dame’s College of Science and College of Engineering earned a gold medal at the iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris, France. iGEM—the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition—is an annual global event that …

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 …

Meenal Datta

Meenal Datta receives the 2025 Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society

Meenal Datta, the Jane Schoelch DeFlorio Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been selected by the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) to receive its 2025 Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award. This single-recipient award is BMES’s …

Pinar Zorluntuna with a white background

Pinar Zorlutuna elected to the Biomedical Engineering Society’s 2025 Class of Fellows

Pinar Zorlutuna, Roth-Gibson Professor of Bioengineering and director of the Bioengineering Program at the University of Notre Dame, has been elected to the Biomedical Engineering Society’s (BMES) 2025 Class of Fellows. Fellows are selected on the basis of their “exceptional achievements …

Maria Holland

Maria Holland named standing member of NIH Modeling and Analysis of Biological Systems Study Section 

Maria Holland, associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed to serve as a standing member of the Modeling and Analysis of Biological Systems Study Section (MABS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific …

Meenal Datta, a woman with long black hair, wearing a blue blazer and patterned blouse, stands in a laboratory with scientific equipment and glassware in the background. She has a confident and professional expression.

Notre Dame’s Meenal Datta launches cancer research — and students’ careers — through space industry partnerships

With its first voyage, planned for later this year, the Dream Chaser will make history as the only commercial runway capable spaceplane. The launch will also be a momentous occasion for University of Notre Dame researcher Meenal Datta. Among the spaceplane’s cargo, contained within a …