“By making thermoelectric devices a competitive and commercially viable technology, it can transform the way we cool things,” said Yanliang Zhang, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Collegiate Professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at Notre Dame. “We can make the cooling process become very environmentally friendly.”

In the past, widespread adoption of thermoelectrics has been challenging due to the high costs associated with traditional manufacturing processes. However, the research team led by Zhang has developed an innovative ink-based printing strategy that enables a scalable manufacture of low-cost and high-performance thermoelectric materials and devices.

According to the new study, these materials “are very advantageous in energy-efficient and localized cooling of electronics, medical devices, automobiles, data centers and buildings.”

This research was primarily supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH), whose mission is to create the first sustainable refrigerant lifecycle-engineered system. These advances pave the way for producing high-efficiency, compact cooling systems without the need for environmentally harmful refrigerants.

“These devices are highly effective in cooling and very conducive to large-scale industry manufacturing,” Zhang said. “We can make the devices faster and with less cost. I think the biggest advantage of our process is its simplicity.”

He continued, “We use blade coating or screen printing to directly convert the initial inks into the final device pattern, the same process as screen printers use for artwork on t-shirts. But our ink contains silver and selenium, which become the thermoelectric material after printing and post-print processing. We invented an ink that is highly compatible with the printing process, which allows for easy scalability.”

The results of the process create components for non-refrigerant thermoelectric coolers.

During the development process when the research team initially combined the silver and selenium elemental powders to make the ink, they discovered that the silver and selenium reacted very quickly to form the silver selenide alloy. Zhang said, “This fast chemical reaction speeds the manufacturing process, which can be more cost-effective.” The alloy ink composition was then further optimized between the two elements to achieve the maximum thermoelectric performances.

Upon testing and comparing with current state-of-the-art bulk materials available today, the optimized printed materials achieved competitive room-temperature performances for both P-type and N-type components. The team’s earlier research focused on the printed P-type thermoelectric alloy, whereas the newer silver-selenium alloy material is for N-type thermoelectric materials. Both P-type and N-type components are needed to make a thermoelectric cooling device.

“We are continuing to investigate how to transform high-performance material into high-performance devices. We want to discover how we can combine the P-type and N-type semiconductors, the metal electrodes, and then connect all the components into a final, complete system,” Zhang said. “We want to improve the material to the point that the Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning, and Refrigeration (HVACR) industry will feel very confident to adopt it. Our goal is to bring our technology to the market to benefit all of society.”

In addition to the support from NSF EARTH, this study was also funded by the US Department of Energy, and another NSF program. Md Omarsany Bappy, a recent Ph.D. graduate from Zhang’s lab and assistant professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, served as the first author on the paper, with contributions from other Notre Dame graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who led the machine learning and characterization aspects of the study. Tengfei Luo, the Dorini Family Professor for Energy Studies in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at Notre Dame; Mercouri Kanatzidis, professor of chemistry at Northwestern University; as well as Berardo Matalucci and Allen Gray at MIMiC Systems also contributed to this research.

To learn more about NSF EARTH, please visit https://erc-earth.ku.edu

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

EARTH Engineering Research Center
The Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) is an NSF- and corporate-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC). EARTH is dedicated to revolutionizing how refrigerants are formulated, manufactured, applied, monitored, and recycled to dramatically reduce the environmental footprint of the global cooling sector. Led by the University of Kansas, this consortium of partner research universities includes the University of Notre Dame, University of Maryland, Lehigh University, University of South Dakota, and the University of Hawai′i.

Originally published by Damienne Jugovic at research.nd.edu on June 18, 2026.

“This groundbreaking approach can shift ‘cooling by light’ technology from a theoretical possibility into a proven reality,” said Steven Koester, director of NDnano and the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Microelectronics in the Department of Electrical Engineering. “Since the novel concept of semiconductor optical refrigeration was first proposed almost a century ago, researchers have attempted to bring it to life. Through support of research teams like this one, NDnano and ND Energy are helping position Notre Dame researchers to address unsolved scientific questions for the greater good.”

Kuno and collaborators aim to develop a compact, reliable light-based cooling technology with potential applications in imaging, consumer electronics, industrial environments, and more. A form of solid-state cooling—cooling made possible through solids and applied forces, rather than refrigerants—this work can enable a range of new innovations.

For instance, the cooling platform can be applied in “silent” cooling systems for ultra-sensitive space-based sensors, telescopes, and satellites where mechanical vibrations from fans or pumps could interfere with data collection. This technology can also offer a water-free alternative for thermal management in modern data centers, which consume large amounts of energy and water for cooling. With many imaging and sensing devices needing extremely cold temperatures to function optimally, reliable cooling supports accurate, precise performance.

“The anticipated outcomes of this project are key for strategic energy, aiming not only for a paradigm shift in technology, but also for meaningful impact on the environment,” said Joule Bergerson, director of Notre Dame Energy and the Richard and Ellen Stanley Professor of Energy Systems Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “Notre Dame Energy is proud to co-sponsor this work, which brings new solutions to the present and future of sustainable energy.”

To reach this milestone in semiconductor optical refrigeration, Kuno—also a concurrent professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy—will work with Boldizsar Janko, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and concurrent professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Notre Dame; Sushrut Ghonge, assistant professor of physics at Saint Mary’s College; Peter Pauzauskie, associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Washington; and Denis Seletskiy and Alex Albrecht, associate and associate research professors, respectively, of physics and astronomy at the University of New Mexico. The NDnano Momentum Grant provides support for the team to close technical gaps, prove key concepts, and strengthen collaboration.

“Working together toward shared impact means opening doors for researchers to do the same,” Koester said. “By jointly supporting pathways to discovery, NDnano and Notre Dame Energy can accelerate progress and partnerships across our fields.”

To unlock the full potential of semiconductor optical refrigeration, one material in particular may hold key answers. The team hopes to validate that perovskite nanocrystals are a viable material for solid-state cooling. Unlike other substances that trap heat when their imperfections are struck with laser light, perovskite nanocrystals can maintain continual cooling amid defects. Kuno and collaborators have also previously identified perovskite nanocrystals as having a high emission quantum yield, meaning that nearly all light that enters is released, rather than wasted or turned into heat.

“Material impurities and thermodynamic hurdles have long challenged the research community in the quest for semiconductor optical refrigeration,” said Kuno, an affiliated faculty member at NDnano, Notre Dame Energy, and Materials Science and Engineering. “Our approach builds on existing knowledge to establish a novel and efficient solution. By leveraging the unique properties of perovskite nanocrystals, we aim to demonstrate practical solid state optical refrigeration.”

To learn more about outcomes supported by the Momentum Research Grant, please visit NDnano’s website.

Contact

Martha Reilly / Program Director, Research Content Strategy

Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame

mreill14@nd.edu

research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch / linkedin.com/company/undresearch

About Notre Dame Research

The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please visit NDR's website or NDR's LinkedIn.

Originally published by Martha Reilly at research.nd.edu on May 21, 2026.

• 41% water savings via low-flow fixtures.
• LED lighting is 56% better than Indiana's energy code standard.
• A heat recovery system exists to capture waste heat to pre-cool and pre-heat air for the laboratories.
• 89% of the project waste was diverted from the landfill by separating waste streams where feasible, and engaging a local partner to separate co-mingled materials further.
• The geothermal campus heating water system was extended to the building to provide high-efficiency building heating and to move away from campus steam generation.
• 29% of the previously disturbed site area was restored with native or adapted vegetation.
• Biophilic design principles were incorporated with the exterior courtyard design, as well as bringing the site design into the building via layout, material selection, views of the exterior, and daylighting.
• Short- and long-term bicycle storage were provided alongside shower facilities to encourage building occupants to bike to campus.

Stay tuned for more news coming soon on the LEED-Platinum certification of McCourtney East.

Originally published by Olivia Farrington at green.nd.edu on May 08, 2026.

On Earth Day, students, faculty, staff, and members of the Michiana community gathered for Notre Dame’s Third Annual Sustainability Celebration to honor the collective achievements of campus sustainability champions and recognize both external and internal partners who are part of Notre Dame’s ongoing journey to care for our common home. This year's gathering had a notable reason to celebrate: It's been ten years since Notre Dame's original Sustainability Strategy was published, and much has changed in the last decade.

During the celebration, University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., offered reflections on the many sustainability achievements thus far, as well as the continuing work ahead for Notre Dame.

Reflections of progress

Before assuming his presidential role, Father Dowd was an original member of the Sustainability Strategy Standing Committee, which published the University’s first Sustainability Strategy a decade ago.

“Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ was a call to all of us, and we have done our best to answer that call,” he said.

Father Dowd reflected on his time as a member of the Committee and the process of envisioning possibilities for a more sustainable campus, saying, “We came up with all kinds of ideas, but of course, putting those ideas into action in the real world is the real heavy lifting.”

Father Dowd shared examples of the University’s commitment to sustainable endeavors, recounting the detailed work of special projects, including the hydroelectric facility and advancing decarbonization, achieving LEED building certifications, establishing sustainability-focused academic programs, and reducing food waste.

“We’re still at the very beginning of this work, and it’s going to be an ongoing effort to translate research and education into transformative action. I know, based on my conversation with Pope Leo, that [sustainability] matters to him,” said Father Dowd. “We must continue building on the legacy of Pope Francis and Laudato si’, ensuring that we are caring for our common home and caring for one another with special attention to those who are most vulnerable among us.”

Honoring external partners

Now in its seventh year, the External Partnership Sustainability Awards honored five campus partners. The award categories recognize the holistic nature of sustainability work, keeping in mind the three sustainability pillars: ecological, human, and economic health. Procurement Services and Notre Dame Sustainability presented repurposed slate roof tile plaques to five deserving organizations. The awardees were as follows:

Business Furnishings received the “Bridging to Business” Award. This recognition honors a local small business partner who not only provides the University with the highest level of customer service, but also serves as a model partner for other businesses in the region. Business Furnishings has consistently helped to repurpose and reuse furniture items from one project to another, saving money and supporting sustainability through circular use. Their work alongside the University has extended the lifespan of furniture across dozens of buildings and counting.

Leanpath received the “Innovative Food Solutions” Award. This company provides and supports the software and equipment that the University uses to track and categorize food waste in the Dining Halls. Using the Leanpath system, Notre Dame’s culinary teams receive real-time data to make informed decisions that help avoid food waste before it happens. Avoiding food waste through meal planning is considered one of the most effective ways to keep food out of the landfill.

Paramount Coffee was recognized for the “Human Rights and Social Responsibility” Award. Through this partnership, the University can serve coffee sourced directly from farms with traceable supply chains, supporting a respect for both the land and the people working on the coffee farms. Coffee is a crop that has considerable sustainability implications, and Paramount is a company dedicated to prioritizing both people and planet as a part of its business practices.

LiveRoof was honored with the “Resilience and Climate Impact Reduction” Award, which recognizes an outstanding partner whose work supports the areas of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Currently, Notre Dame has over 212,000 square feet of green roofs spanning across ten different buildings. Since 2009, LiveRoof has been instrumental in designing, installing, and maintaining these systems.

Finally, R&R Excavating was recognized with the “Operational Excellence” Award. R&R has been a major contributor to several sustainability projects executed by the University’s Utilities team, including South Campus Geothermal, ND Hydro, and West Campus Solar. Throughout these projects, R&R has acted as an extension of the University’s team, helping navigate complex challenges to deliver innovative and often collaborative solutions. This partner’s work aligns closely with the University’s long-term goals and operational mission. Their contributions have helped the University to reduce carbon emissions by 48% since 2005, as Notre Dame continues working to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Recognizing internal sustainability champions

With the introduction of alcohol at the Stadium in fall 2025, it became critical to further refine the collection process of recyclable materials during game days and special events. Alcohol sales mean a higher number of recyclable materials are making their way into the Stadium—with the increased potential of not making it to a recycling bin. Collecting recyclables for large-scale events is no easy task; it is laborious work that requires dedication, consistency, and a desire for continuous improvement. Committed to reducing waste and increasing recycling collection, the Stadium Operations team stepped up to the challenge, increasing recycling by 80% from the 2024 to the 2025 football season. Through their efforts, the Stadium Operations team demonstrated the power of partnership to advance a common goal.

A wide variety of other internal partners were also recognized in verbal remarks, including student sustainability leaders such as the Sustainability Commissioners, Green Team members, and undergraduate and graduate student government leadership. Additionally, all current and past members of the Sustainability Strategy Standing Committee and Small Working Groups were recognized for their invaluable work to advance sustainability on campus.

As the University looks toward the future, the Third Annual Sustainability Celebration served as both a reflection on a decade of progress and a source of enthusiasm for the work yet to come. By honoring the synergy between innovative external partners and dedicated internal teams, coupled with the dedication of campus leadership, the University is well-positioned to meet the challenges of the next decade and beyond.

External Partner Sustainability Awardees are selected through an open nomination process for the Notre Dame Community. Students, faculty, and staff are eligible to nominate partners as a part of the annual process. Nominations are reviewed by a committee of students, faculty, and staff.

Year-round, Notre Dame Sustainability encourages the campus community to celebrate and elevate internal colleagues for consideration in our Sustainability Spotlight! You can nominate them to be featured in our monthly newsletter, The Green Ambassador. To stay up to speed with what is happening on campus, join the newsletter mailing list. Learn more about employee opportunities for sustainability involvement by visiting our staff and faculty resources page.

Originally published by Olivia Farrington at green.nd.edu on May 06, 2026.

"I'm honored to have been selected to serve on the EPA Science Advisory Board,” Doudrick said. “The board plays an important role in providing independent, research-based guidance on complex environmental issues, helping ensure that decisions are informed by the best available evidence and remain practical for communities."

Doudrick, a faculty affiliate of Notre Dame Energy and Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative, is the only academic researcher among the selected board members fromt the state of Indiana.

An environmental engineer, Doudrick specializes in emerging contaminants of concern in drinking water, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—also called “forever chemicals”—and micro- and nanoplastics. His work focuses on identifying viable, cost-effective solutions to treat emerging contaminants and improve conventional water treatment processes.

“We aim to target and eliminate these contaminants in ways that are both effective and fiscally responsible, which is increasingly important as utilities and regulators navigate these challenges,” Doudrick said. His lab is currently working on multiple PFAS-related projects, including a study of PFAS leaching from contaminated pavements into the surrounding environment.

"Kyle Doudrick’s appointment to the EPA's Science Advisory Board is outstanding news for public health and the environment," said Patricia J. Culligan, the Matthew H. McCloskey Dean of the College of Engineering. "His expertise on the critical environmental problems of microplastics and PFAS will be critical to protecting vital resources upon which we all depend."

Doudrick earned undergraduate and masters degrees in civil engineering at the University of Memphis. He completed his doctoral studies in environmental engineering at Arizona State University. He joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 2014.

To learn more about Notre Dame’s engagement in the nation’s capital, please visit the Washington Office website. To learn more about Doudrick’s research, read the story “The Forever Problem: A Real Mess,” produced by the Office of Public Affairs and Communications.

Contact

Erin Fennessy / Writing Program Manager

Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame

efenness@nd.edu / +1 574-631-8183

research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch / linkedin.com/company/undresearch

About Notre Dame Research

The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please visit NDR's website or NDR's LinkedIn.

Originally published by Erin Fennessy at research.nd.edu on April 30, 2026.

ND Energy hosts the following annual fellowship opportunities: the Vincent P. Slatt Fellowships for Undergraduate Research in Energy Systems and Processes, the Patrick and Jana Eilers Graduate Student Fellowship for Energy Related Research, and the John '00 and Karla Forgash Graduate Student Fellowships for Solar Energy Research and Energy Storage Research.

“It’s an honor to offer these opportunities to such talented students,” said Joule Bergerson, the ND Energy Faculty Director and Richard and Ellen Stanley Professor of Energy Systems Engineering. “ND Energy is immensely grateful to the Slatt, Eilers, and Forgash families for their generous support of these fellowships, which enable our students to pursue impactful projects year after year.”

Slatt Fellowships for Undergraduate Research

The Vincent P. Slatt Fellowships for Undergraduate Research in Energy Systems and Processes provide awards during the academic year of up to $2,500 per student per semester, as well as awards of up to $8,500 for students participating in full-time research over the summer, to students engaged in research on energy systems and processes.

Slatt Semester Fellows

Natalya Avendaño, Aerospace Engineering major and Energy Studies minor
Advisor: Peter C. Burns
Project Title: Impact of High-Vanadium Rocks on Uranium Recovery

Avendaño’s project focuses on improving uranium recovery from ores that contain high levels of vanadium, which can bind with uranium and reduce the amount that can be extracted. She will investigate how vanadium behaves in uranium-rich environments and explore ways to either remove it or prevent it from interfering with uranium recovery.

William Brown, Chemical Engineering
Advisor: Ruilan Guo
Project Title: Engineering Non-leaching Sulfonated Dopants in Polybenzimidazole Membranes for Energy-Efficient High-Temperature H2/CO2 Separation

Brown’s project focuses on engineering advanced polymer membranes for high-temperature gas separation. By blending material combinations, he aims to develop durable, efficient membranes that will assist in lowering the cost of clean hydrogen production.

Dani Fielding, Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace concentration) and Gender Studies majors
Advisor: Ian Lightcap
Project Title: Graphene for Transmission Lines

Fielding will investigate the cooling effect of various graphene coatings when applied to materials used in power transmission lines. Through rigorous laboratory testing in realistic conditions, her work will enable cost-effective, sustainable materials that can be adopted in real-world infrastructure.

Ryan King, Chemical Engineering major and Energy Studies minor
Advisor: Ryan McClarren
Project Title: Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Reactor Optimization

King will focus on designs for a reactor equipped with a strong electric field to induce a fusion reaction in deuterium gas, advancing efforts toward the practical realization of fusion energy.

Madeline Schearer, Chemistry major and Energy Studies and Environmental Earth Sciences minors
Advisor: Adam Jaffe
Project Title: Dimensionality-Driven Optical and Electronic Evolution of Naphthalenediimide-Templated Hybrid Metal Oxides

Schearer will create new hybrid metal-organic oxide materials relevant to energy technologies such as electrochromics, energy storage, and catalysis. She will explore the incorporation of naphthalene diimides, redox and photoactive ligands, into hybrid metal-organic oxides, and the corresponding properties of these materials.

James Sutterlin, Chemistry and Philosophy (Science and Math concentration) majors
Advisor: David Bartels
Project Title: Electrochemical Investigation into Oxide Growth Kinetics and Charge-Carrier Dynamics of Electron-Irradiated Zirconium

Sutterlin will investigate the mechanisms by which zirconium alloys, which are commonly used in nuclear reactors, corrode in reactor environments by irradiating zirconium samples with an electron beam. By simulating these radiation effects, mitigation strategies can be refined, and nuclear power generation can be optimized to provide even more consistent and reliable low-emission energy.

Slatt Summer Fellows

Ignatius Caro, Chemistry and Piano Performance majors, Glynn Family Honors Program
Advisor: Seth Brown
Project Title: An Inquiry into Anomalous Sn2 Self-Exchange Rates in Cobalt Metal-Ligand Complexes

Caro will examine the reactivity of cobalt metal-ligand complexes by synthesizing new complexes and exploring their potential relevance in creating energy-efficient biochemical and industrial processes.

Margaret Kelley, Chemical Engineering major and Energy Studies minor
Advisor: Jennifer Schaefer
Project Title: Investigating the Impact of Acetamide Concentration on the Ionic Conductivity Electrolytes

Kelley will analyze the effect of solvent ratios on the conductivity of battery electrolytes, attempting to optimize cation dynamics and make the batteries more efficient for use in a wide variety of industry settings.

James Phillips, Chemical Engineering major, and Energy Studies and Engineering Corporate Practice minors
Advisor: Prashant Kamat
Project Title: Quantum Dot Size Exclusion

Phillips will contribute to improving the efficiency of solar energy by creating hybrid materials that better capture and convert sunlight into usable power. By adjusting the size of quantum dots, he aims to control how energy is transferred to specialized dye molecules, contributing to the development of more powerful and cost-effective renewable energy technologies.

Ian Talty, Chemistry and Mathematics majors and History minor
Advisor: Aliaksandra Lisouskaya
Project Title: Transition Metal Reaction Kinetics and Mechanistic Pathways in Nuclear Coolant Water

Talty will simulate and analyze reactions between metal ions that enter nuclear coolant water and the highly reactive species present in that water due to the high energy radiation produced by nuclear reactors. This study aims to help engineers more effectively model corrosion in reactors, preserve reactors currently in use, and develop new reactors with greater longevity.

Slatt Visiting Summer Fellows

Royce Jaret Ugarte Cruz, Chemical Engineering major and Bioseparation and Bioprocesses minor, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Advisor: Yamil Colón
Project Title: Rapid screening of MOFs for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture

Cruz will computationally identify metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with high selectivity for carbon dioxide, particularly in mixtures with gases such as nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide. He will run mixture adsorption simulations, generate adsorption isotherms, evaluate desorption behavior, and implement active learning for improved efficiency.

Berenice S. Serrano-Ortiz, Mechanical Engineering major, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Advisor: Yanliang Zhang
Project Title: 3D Printing of Soft Bioelectronic and Environmental Sensors

Serrano-Ortiz will develop functional, 3D-printed electronic devices that are relevant for next-generation bioelectronics and environmental sensing. She will fabricate and characterize these recording devices and print sensors for monitoring and evaluating environmental behaviors and diagnostics.

Miguel A. Irizarry Roman, Industrial Engineering major and Economics minor, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Advisor: Alexander Dowling
Project Title: Supply Chain Modeling and Analysis for Refrigerant Circularity

Irizarry will develop a refrigerant recycling supply chain model for the U.S. based on historical import and demand data, which will then be used to assess the opportunities for economic circularity using various recovery technologies.

Esra Omer, Chemical Engineering major and Chemistry minor, Howard University
Advisor: William Phillip
Project Title: Designing MOSC-Polymer Composite Structures for Enhanced Solute Capture in HVACR Systems

Omer will incorporate Metal-Organic Supercontainers (MOSCs), which possess promising molecular-recognition capabilities, into porous polymer matrices to create composite materials capable of more rapid and efficient separations. The outcome will improve and accelerate materials applicable to sustainable heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) systems.

Eilers Graduate Student Fellowship

The Patrick and Jana Eilers Graduate Student Fellowship for Energy Related Research provides awards of $11,572 to graduate students engaged in energy-related research to support their stipend.

Paul Ubiododo Chibuzor Amagada, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Advisor: Edward Maginn
Project Title: Computational Discovery and Design of Next-Generation Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) for High-Performance Energy Storage with a Focus on Redox Flow Batteries

Amagada will apply molecular simulations and machine learning to design deep eutectic solvent (DES)-based electrolytes for safer, more affordable large-scale energy storage. These unique solvents have the potential to replace conventional redox flow battery electrolytes, enabling more reliable storage of renewable energy from wind and solar.

Bikram Ghosh, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Gregory Hartland
Project Title: Plasmon-Exciton Coupling in Metal-Semiconductor Heterostructures for Solar Energy Harvesting and Advanced Optoelectronics

Ghosh will explore new ways to control how light energy moves and is shared between metals and semiconductor materials. By combining gold nanostructures with a semiconductor, Ghosh aims to control how light energy moves and transforms at the nanoscale, paving the way for more efficient solar energy harvesting and faster, low-power optical computing technologies.

Navya Gupta, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Adam Jaffe
Project Title: Exploring Chemical Reactivity Within the Organic Framework of Hybrid Tungsten Oxides

Gupta’s work focuses on hybrid tungsten oxides as a tunable solid-state platform for studying chemical reactivity and enabling post-synthetic transformations. These hybrid metal oxides combine 2D metal-oxide layers with organic species, enabling applications across energy storage, catalysis, energy conversion, gas separation and absorption, and the capture and reactivity of halogenated gases and key greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide.

Logan Hennes, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Advisor: Jonathan Whitmer
Project Title: Thermodynamics and Structural Distortions of Inorganic Interfaces

Hennes will investigate how to control defects, interfaces, and disorder in quantum materials, focusing on neutral divacancy (VV) defects in silicon carbide (SiC), a material which offers long coherence times and is already widely used in the semiconductor industry, making VVs in SiC a readily available and scalable qubit platform for quantum information science.

Manish Mukherjee, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Prashant Kamat
Project Title: Room Temperature Size Tuning of Quantum Dots for Photocatalysis

Mukherjee will examine the behavior of emerging materials such as perovskites and quantum dots—a key step toward using them in advanced solar cells, future clean-energy devices, and even solar fuel generation. These materials can be made cheaply and possess exceptional light-harvesting efficiency, making them promising for finding sustainable methods of meeting growing global energy demands.

Capra Williams, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
Advisor: Ashley Thrall
Project Title: Additive Manufacturing of Extraterrestrial Structures with Integrated Energy Efficiency

Williams will investigate the construction and design of habitats on the Moon, focusing on structural design practices that support the regulation of environmental temperatures suitable for human life, contributing to NASA’s goal of permanent habitation in the extraterrestrial environment and informing energy-efficient design of structures on Earth. Her work will integrate thermal energy efficiency into structural designs to significantly decrease the power and fuel required to regulate the internal temperature of such a dwelling.

Forgash Graduate Student Fellowships

The John '00 and Karla Forgash Graduate Student Fellowship for Solar Energy Research provides an annual award of $6,000 to a graduate student engaged in solar energy research to support their stipend, laboratory supplies, and travel to a national conference to present their work.

Kasuni Umeshika Handunge, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Emily Tsui
Project Title: Modulating Nanocrystal Surfaces for Tunable Photocatalysis and Photostability

Handunge will study how ligand and metal effects influence the surface chemistry of semiconductor nanocrystals, which can drive useful photochemical reactions relevant to renewable energy conversion and sustainable chemical synthesis, but are susceptible to material degradation under prolonged illumination. Her work will contribute to the development of robust, high-performance materials for solar-driven chemical transformations.

The John '00 and Karla Forgash Graduate Student Fellowship for Energy Storage Research provides an annual award of $5,000 to a graduate student engaged in energy storage research to support their stipend, laboratory supplies, and travel to a national conference to present their work.

Suchen Wan, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Adam Jaffe
Project Title: Developing Low-Dimensional Hybrid Vanadium Oxides for Energy-related Applications

Wan will design new organic-inorganic hybrid metal oxide materials with precisely tunable energy storage and electrical conduction properties, helping make energy use more efficient and responsive. By understanding how a material’s structure affects its behavior under light or electricity, his work supports future technologies such as more efficient batteries and smart window coating.

To learn more about these student research fellowships and how to apply in future cycles, please visit the ND Energy website.

On February 2, 2023, the late Pope Francis founded the Laudato Si’ Higher Education Center to begin transforming the gardens of Villa Barberini and the Pontifical Villas into a place of training in integral ecology — a framework that seeks to care for both nature and the most vulnerable among us.

“He said, ‘Let’s create an educational center here, but also a spiritual center,’” said Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., the vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of theology and global affairs at Notre Dame. “Here’s a place to encounter the beauty of nature that God has created — and a place that can facilitate an ecological conversion.”

Pope Leo XIV, who has likewise emphasized sustainability as one of his major priorities, dedicated the Borgo Laudato Si’ last fall, calling it “a seed of hope” that promises to bear the fruits of justice and peace.

As the Vatican seeks to bring Pope Francis’s vision to life, it has asked the University of Notre Dame — an institution that has also sought to enact the principles of Laudato si’ in its teaching, research, and operations — to serve as an academic partner.

Read the story

Originally published by Carrie Gates at news.nd.edu on April 22, 2026.

The Society for Freshwater Science has named Jennifer L. Tank, Ludmilla F., Stephen J., and Robert T. Galla Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative, as the recipient of its 2026 Award of Excellence – the society's highest career honor.

The Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) is the leading international organization advancing the science of freshwater ecosystems – from organisms to landscapes – and connecting that science to resource managers, policymakers, and the public. The Award of Excellence is presented annually to a single recipient for exceptional and career-long contributions to freshwater science.

"Jennifer Tank’s career has had a profound impact on freshwater science, advancing our understanding of aquatic ecosystems while also shaping how that knowledge is applied in practice," said Steve Corcelli, William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science. "Her work stands out for its scientific depth and reach, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and communities to address urgent challenges in water quality and environmental stewardship. This honor is a fitting recognition of a career defined by excellence, collaboration, and lasting influence."

Tank has contributed significantly to the SFS via science leadership, service, and contributions to foundational and applied freshwater science. Notably, she served as the Society’s President in 2019, became an SFS Fellow in 2020, and received the SFS Environmental Stewardship Award in 2022.

"I am deeply honored to receive this recognition from a society that has shaped my scientific identity and where my students and postdocs have built theirs,” said Tank. “Innovative freshwater science has never been more urgently needed, and I am grateful to be recognized for work that bridges what we discover in the field with what land managers need to make better decisions. This award belongs to every student and collaborator who has ever waded into a stream with me."

Advancing Science at the Intersection of Agriculture and Freshwater

Tank's research contributions have advanced scientific understanding of the ecology and biogeochemistry of streams and rivers and have directly influenced stream management and policy. She has published more than 220 peer-reviewed journal articles and her research has been cited nearly 25,000 times.

Her research spans the fundamental processes that keep streams healthy – how nutrients cycle, how organic matter breaks down, how stream communities respire – as well as emerging challenges like the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes, the use of environmental DNA for species detection, and how Arctic systems are responding to a warming climate. Combining innovative field experiments, high-frequency monitoring, and modeling, her work addresses some of the most pressing questions in freshwater ecology.

A Career of Scientific Leadership and Mentorship: Translating Science into Action

A recognized leader in translational ecology, Tank has spent her career connecting science to real-world decisions and the people who make them – a commitment that was deepened by her experience as a Leopold Leadership Fellow.

Through the long-running Indiana Watershed Initiative, Tank has worked directly with farmers to demonstrate how conservation practices such as cover crops and two-stage ditches reduce nutrient loss from agricultural fields to streams. The results of her work have informed federal and state conservation policy and reflect her broader mission to find win-win solutions that reduce nutrient runoff while supporting the productive, profitable agriculture that feeds the world.

Tank earned her doctorate from Virginia Tech and served as a postdoctoral fellow on the first Lotic Intersite Nitrogen eXperiment (LINX) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Throughout her career at Notre Dame, she has graduated 19 doctoral students, with four more doctoral students currently in progress, and has mentored 10 postdoctoral researchers.

Tank will be formally recognized at the SFS 2026 Annual Meeting in Spokane, Washington, in May 2026.

Originally published by Alex Hardy at environmentalchange.nd.edu on April 15, 2026.

“I am honored to have been elected to such a distinguished group of scholars,” Swenson said. “I am grateful to my colleagues and, particularly, the students I’ve worked with over the years. They have inspired me to integrate multiple disciplines and novel perspectives, which has resulted in exciting new insights into forest health and biodiversity.”

This recognition honors his integration of genomics data into community ecology with a special focus on trees and forests. Swenson is one of eight Fellows elected this year.

A plant biologist by training, Swenson’s research seeks to understand the distribution and dynamics of biodiversity through space and time, with a focus on woody plant ecology and evolution. His interdisciplinary approach to studying variation in tree performance spans draws on concepts and techniques from several fields, including genomics, remote sensing, and machine learning. The collection of large data sets across disciplines allows his research group to quantify drivers of tree performance over time, which is essential for predicting the fate of individual species and forests in the future.

Swenson completed his undergraduate degree at St. Olaf College before going on to complete his masters of science at New Mexico State University. His Ph.D., from the University of Arizona, was in ecology and evolutionary biology with a focus on global change. Swenson then went to Harvard University to complete a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. He joined Notre Dame in 2021.

Swenson’s work has been published in leading scientific journals, including Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His scholarship has been recognized with a Guggenheim fellowship and Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researcher award. He currently serves as the associate editor for Ecology Letters.

“We are incredibly proud of Nate for this well-deserved honor,” said Jeffrey F. Rhoads, the John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research and professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. “His individual scholarship is exemplary, and we are grateful for his leadership at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center, which serves as a vital outdoor classroom and field laboratory. By integrating advanced data science and artificial intelligence with traditional field ecology, Nate ensures that our students and scholars have access to the most sophisticated tools available to address the pressing environmental challenges of our time.”

The ESA Fellows program, established in 2012, recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement or application of ecological knowledge in academics, government, non-profit organizations, and the broader society. Fellows are elected for life and are celebrated for their leadership in ecological science.

“These Fellows represent a remarkable group of scientists whose contributions are shaping the direction of ecological research and its application,” said Peter Groffman, president of the ESA. “I am delighted to see their achievements recognized by their peers. Their work is expanding how we understand ecological systems while also informing decisions that affect ecosystems and communities. ESA is proud to count them among its members, and we look forward to the continued impact of their work.”

“While I am humbled by the recognition of my work as an individual researcher, this honor also highlights the University of Notre Dame’s role in advancing ecological science and underscores the necessity of the field-based research we prioritize at UNDERC,” Swenson said.

He will be formally recognized during a ceremony at ESA’s 2026 Annual Meeting this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Contact

Erin Fennessy / Writing Program Manager

Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame

efenness@nd.edu / +1 574-631-8183

research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch / linkedin.com/company/undresearch

About Notre Dame Research

The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please visit NDR's website or NDR's LinkedIn.

Originally published by Erin Fennessy at research.nd.edu on April 15, 2026.

Corcelli, who has served as interim science dean since July, was selected through a comprehensive national search launched after his predecessor, Santiago Schnell, was appointed as Dartmouth’s provost.

“In multiple roles at Notre Dame, including associate dean, department chair, and most recently as interim dean, Steve has consistently earned the respect of his colleagues and proven to be a wise and visionary leader who is deeply dedicated to our Catholic mission,” Father Dowd said. “I am confident that under his leadership, the College of Science will continue to play an essential role in Notre Dame’s pursuit of excellence as a global Catholic research university.”

As dean, Corcelli will lead six departments comprising more than 280 faculty, more than 600 doctoral students, and 1,726 undergraduate student majors. He will guide the college in its mission to prepare the scientific leaders of tomorrow, seek greater understanding of the natural world and foster discoveries that answer the world’s toughest questions and solve its most enduring problems.

John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, said Corcelli rose to the top of a highly qualified pool of candidates. “Over the past two decades at Notre Dame, he has shown a commitment to collaboration and innovation in the laboratory and the classroom,” McGreevy said. “Steve’s leadership experience, his background as a first-generation college student, his distinction as a nationally recognized computational chemist and his commitment to the University’s Catholic mission will make him a superb dean of the College of Science.”

Corcelli leads a research program focused on the molecular-level understanding of aqueous acids, bases and salts, as well as on the mechanisms of biomolecular binding. His lab uses advanced simulations to investigate ion transport in aqueous electrolytes — relevant to battery technologies — and the binding interactions critical to biological function and drug development.

He has received national recognition for his research, including an NSF CAREER Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award. Corcelli is a fellow of the American Chemical Society and a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He has authored over 90 publications and given more than 100 invited talks.

Corcelli is also a dedicated educator who has received multiple teaching awards, including the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Thomas P. Madden Award for Excellence in Teaching First-Year Undergraduates.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Brown University and his doctoral degree in chemistry from Yale University. After completing a postdoctoral research position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he joined Notre Dame’s faculty as an assistant professor in 2005.

Prior to his appointment as interim dean, Corcelli served as chair of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry from 2022 to 2025, and as the associate dean for interdisciplinary studies and faculty development in the College of Science from 2019 to 2022.

“I am deeply honored to serve as the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science,” Corcelli said. “Notre Dame has a unique opportunity to integrate scientific discovery with its Catholic mission in ways that serve both the University and the broader world. I look forward to working with our community to strengthen partnerships across the University and beyond; support our faculty, students and staff in their pursuit of discovery and learning; and advance an intellectually ambitious vision for science in service to the common good.”

McGreevy thanked the search committee for its work over the past several months. “Members represented the University well and were diligent in identifying, evaluating and recruiting an excellent pool of candidates,” he said. “I appreciate their steady work and discernment throughout the search process.”

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

Originally published by Kate Garry at news.nd.edu on March 24, 2026.

The Global Alliance was created to strengthen cooperation among universities worldwide and connect sustainability leaders in academia and beyond to advance a shared vision for transformative change. Responding to Pope Francis’ call to “hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” the partners hope their combined efforts will effectively address global environmental degradation, inequality and ecological injustice.

The alliance launched with an inaugural meeting March 9-10 at the Laudato Si’ Village in Castel Gandolfo, the pontifical summer residence outside of Rome. Nearly 100 researchers and institutional leaders — representing more than 60 universities across Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa, as well as major international organizations — gathered to develop a shared research and action agenda and a long-term vision for the alliance.

Speakers and participants stressed the need for collaboration that connects the natural and applied sciences with philosophy, anthropology, the social sciences and theology — building research networks that generate cutting-edge knowledge, inform public debate and contribute to the development of policies and strategies for sustainable development.

“We emerge from this first gathering of the Global Alliance with a renewed sense of purpose and hope,” said University of Notre Dame President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. “These interdisciplinary research and education initiatives reflect our commitment to an integral ecology that recognizes the deep connections between environmental sustainability and human dignity and flourishing. We look forward to the many ways this collaboration will serve the common good and advance care for our common home in the days ahead.”

Representatives from both Notre Dame and the Vatican attended the meeting at the Laudato Si’ Village, including Cardinal Fabio Baggio, director general of the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and one of the founders of the Global Alliance, and Sister Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and member of the board of directors for the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education.

The convening will serve as a catalyst for significant positive action at the local, regional and global levels, and the insights that emerged will provide a roadmap for the alliance to follow.

“This enthusiasm must now be translated into concrete objectives through working groups that will continue beyond the conference, launching a lasting process of collaboration among research centers and institutions,” Cardinal Baggio said.

Arun Agrawal, founding director of Notre Dame’s JTS Initiative and the Pulte Family Professor of Development Policy at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, said Notre Dame’s research expertise and mission-driven approach to addressing environmental issues make it uniquely suited to help advance this effort.

“We feel that Notre Dame, a leading Catholic research university, is positioned to assist the Holy See in its objective to seek transformative change in a manner consistent with the best available science, as well as the foundational elements of integral ecology and integral human development,” Agrawal said.

Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of theology and global affairs, said that it was important for the alliance members to gather together as a global community because the issues being faced are shared. “The environment is something that affects all of us,” he said. “We can come together as a human community before God and reflect on how we can work together to preserve our common home.”

“It’s also important to see how Notre Dame can be at the service of the Church,” Father Groody added. “We can connect the research engine of Notre Dame with the research needs of the Church, especially as we’re looking at the problems of the world and helping those who are afflicted, particularly the most vulnerable members of our human community.”

Together, the Global Alliance hopes to advance three main goals: to form a global network of leaders and institutions focused on sustainability, to create thematic working groups for developing research plans and educational curricula on sustainability, and to strengthen Catholic visibility and contributions to international sustainability dialogue.

Six interdisciplinary working groups will advance the main research areas of the Global Alliance in the coming years. Their work will focus on strategic priorities that include:

• • removing barriers to access to water, energy and food security
  • transforming economic systems toward more sustainable and just models
  • developing best practices and tools to promote collective action

“There is already so much inspiring work being done all over the world,” Agrawal said, “and the goal of the Global Alliance is not to substitute for any of that work, but rather to share, to learn, to connect and to support what is already going on and to provide a space in which anyone who is interested in sustainability and integral ecology can learn from what others have done and to build on that.”

A key element of Notre Dame’s strategic framework, the JTS Initiative is the University’s far-reaching response to the urgent and cascading effects of sustainability challenges on food, energy, water and infrastructure — all of which threaten the well-being and dignity of people everywhere. The initiative brings together interdisciplinary scholars, dedicated students and action partners from around the world to advance transformative solutions for a more just and sustainable future.

“We look forward to cultivating these new relationships with other global leaders in the sustainability field and operationalizing the interdisciplinary research needed to effect this deep and lasting change in our world,” Agrawal said.

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

Originally published by Notre Dame News at news.nd.edu on March 13, 2026.

New research conducted at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) suggests that upland forests harboring trees with a common and incurable fungal disease known as heart rot could actually be emitting more methane than they take in, therefore releasing more greenhouse gases than previously thought. Methane, a flammable natural gas, is more than 30 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

“Historically, upland forests were thought to be strong methane sinks because they have organisms in their dry soils that take up methane instead of releasing it to the atmosphere,” said Adrian Rocha, an ecologist at the University of Notre Dame who supervised the research. “Heart rot disease has the potential to switch upland forests from being methane sinks to methane sources since diseased trees emit more methane than healthy trees.”

The healthy trees that Rocha and colleagues investigated in the northwoods of Wisconsin and Michigan emitted less methane than nearby trees infected with heart rot, a slow-acting, internal disease caused by fungi that results in the decay of a tree’s trunk and branches from the inside and affects hardwood trees globally. As the severity of the infection increases, so too does the amount of methane released from each tree.

The study, among the first to link methane venting to tree health, was published in New Phytologist, an leading international plant science journal.

To non-invasively measure the severity of the heart rot, researchers employed a technique called sonic tomography, which uses sound waves to map the location of the rot inside each trunk. Sound moves differently through rotted wood and healthy wood and, once captured by sensors placed onto the bark, is used to generate a map of disease severity.

From there, the researchers measured the carbon-based greenhouse gases flowing out of each tree. While carbon dioxide venting remained largely stable from tree to tree, regardless of disease state, methane emissions increased according to the level of heart rot severity in the tree.

Further, Chathuranga Senevirathne, a Notre Dame graduate student in Rocha’s lab who led the study, pinpointed where each type of gas was coming from by drilling into the tree at regular intervals and taking new gas measurements as he went. In doing so, he found that carbon dioxide quantities peaked just underneath the bark, a section called the sapwood, while methane emissions topped out in the very center of the trunk, called the heartwood.

“While it’s been established for a few decades that trees do give off some methane, even when in a healthy state, the connection between methane and heart rot hadn’t been explored,” said Rocha, who is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. “Everyone in the field had accepted that it was coming through the soil, but it turns out it’s coming from the center of the tree itself.”

To rule out soil transport, the researchers sampled the carbon dioxide and methane flows in the soil around the base of each tree studied. Regardless of the disease progression of the tree, the soils released small amounts of carbon dioxide and absorbed small amounts of methane.

Despite the apparent correlation between heart rot and gas emission, the fungi that cause the disease are not directly responsible for the elevated methane levels observed, as heart-rot fungi taken from a diseased tree did not produce methane in the lab. Instead, the fungi are aided in breaking down heartwood by methanogens, a group of methane-producing single-celled microorganisms called archaea, whose presence the researchers verified by removing samples of wood from the heart of each tree and analyzing them with genomic sequencing.

“Decomposition is a complex process which involves both the heart-rot fungi and methanogens, since methanogens ‘eat’ the wood to produce methane,” said Rocha, who is a faculty affiliate of Notre Dame Energy and Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative. “The fungi are not directly responsible for the methane emissions, but at the same time, heart rot creates an ideal microenvironment for the archaea to thrive.”

One characteristic of this microenvironment is bark fractures, which appear on the surface of the tree as the interior deteriorates. Fractures in a tree’s skin also permit the more efficient release of methane from the heartwood to the exterior. As trees become sicker and sicker with heart rot, methanogen production receives a boost, while proliferating bark fractures create methane emission “hot spots” on the surface of the tree.

“With the progression of heart rot, diseased trees become methane hotspots on the forest level, while bark fractures act as hotspots at the tree level,” Senevirathne said. “With the discovery of these new emissions, there’s a good chance that the amount of methane upland forests take in has been overestimated in ecosystem models.”

“Identifying the sources and sinks of methane is one of the biggest mysteries and hottest topics in forest science,” said Nathan Swenson, a forest ecologist and the Gillen Director of the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center. “The work from Rocha’s laboratory has elegantly demonstrated the important role disease plays in the carbon cycle.”

Rocha and Senevirathne’s future work at UNDERC will investigate these flows on an ecosystem level and aim to determine the tipping point where upland forests could transition from carbon sink to carbon source, which could challenge the widely accepted impact of forests on climate.

“The outstanding natural setting and scientific infrastructure at UNDERC uniquely position the center to host cutting-edge research like that performed by Senevirathne and colleagues, integrating genomic analysis to ecosystem gas flux,” Swenson said.

Funding from the National Science Foundation and NASA supported this research. Senevirathne was funded by the Merrilee Clark Redmond Endowment, and field work was supported by the Hank Family Endowment.

Contact

Erin Fennessy / Writing Program Manager

Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame

efenness@nd.edu / +1 574-631-8183

research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch / linkedin.com/company/undresearch

About Notre Dame Research

The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please visit NDR's website or NDR's LinkedIn.

Originally published by Erin Fennessy at research.nd.edu on February 25, 2026.

AIChE is a professional organization for chemical engineers that has 60,000 members from more than 110 countries. 

Dowling’s research integrates chemical engineering, computational optimization, and machine learning to develop advanced models and decision support tools across molecular to systems scales. He has made significant contributions in integrated energy systems and separation systems modeling, including work that couples economic electric grid models with the dynamic operation of industrial systems.

“Professor Dowling is one of the rare examples of a researcher who embodies and excels at all three pillars of the CAST community: research excellence, educational excellence, and computation,” wrote one nominator.

Dowling, who joined Notre Dame’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 2017, plays a leading role in major international research collaborations involving multiple laboratories and universities. His work spans energy systems, carbon capture, sustainable hydrogen, critical materials, and advanced separation technologies. Supporting these broad applications, Prof. Dowling’s research group contributes to several open-source software projects for mathematical modeling, optimization, uncertainty quantification, and experiment design for complex systems.

“I am deeply impressed with how he has been able to expand his research portfolio to include a range of contemporary applications (e.g. renewable energy systems, data science, and machine learning) while simultaneously providing a better fundamental understanding of such systems from a materials, chemistry, physical properties, and systems engineering perspective,” wrote another nominator.

Dowling has published 56 journal articles and 27 refereed conference publications. His impact has been recognized nationally and internationally with such awards as a 2023 Junior Sargent Medal from IChemE, an NSF CAREER award in 2020, and inclusion in I&ECR’s 2024 Class of Influential Researchers.

His teaching and mentorship have also received accolades. In 2025, he won the James A. Burns, C.S.C., Award for his exceptional aptitude and dedication to mentoring young scholars in his field. He was also invited to present at the Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering (CACHE) 50th Anniversary conference in recognition of his stature as an outstanding young chemical engineering educator.

Third-year Ph.D. student in Dowling’s lab, Shammah Lilonfe, said of his advisor: “Professor Dowling has played a pivotal role in my graduate research and professional development, guiding my research strategy and addressing roadblocks. In short, Professor Dowling is always available and provides the push necessary for his graduate students to be successful.”

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Members are selected by their peers for pioneering advancements in their fields and for leadership in major engineering endeavors, including the development and implementation of innovative approaches to engineering education.

“I am honored and humbled to have been elected to such a distinguished group of scholars,” said Maginn, who also serves as an associate vice president of research. “I am grateful to my colleagues and students here at Notre Dame who I have had the privilege to work with in the development and application of molecular simulation methods to help tackle some of the most challenging problems in energy and sustainability facing society.”

Maginn is a globally recognized leader in research linking the physical properties of materials to their chemical composition. The NAE is recognizing him “for development and application of molecular modeling and simulation of complex systems involving slow dynamics and long-ranged interactions.”

Maginn’s research has had a major impact on chemical engineering by enabling engineers to design and optimize materials and processes at the molecular level for energy and environmental applications. By developing widely used computational tools and design methods, his research allows engineers to predict material performance before materials are synthesized, reducing development time, cost and risk. These advances have helped move molecular simulation from a specialized research tool into a practical engineering approach used in academia, industry and national laboratories worldwide.

A pioneer in the use of molecular simulations to investigate ionic liquids, Maginn developed new algorithms and open-source simulation tools that made predictive modeling of charged fluids both accurate and broadly accessible. He holds nine patents in this field, and his work led to the development of the open-source Monte Carlo package Cassandra, most commonly used to compute the thermodynamic properties of fluids.

“Ed Maginn’s foundational research in molecular simulation has helped shape modern chemical engineering,” said Patricia J. Culligan, the Matthew H. McCloskey Dean of the College of Engineering. “His election to the National Academy of Engineering is a fitting recognition of his scientific leadership, innovation and lasting impact on the field.”

Maginn’s work has directly informed the development of new materials for carbon capture, energy storage, separations and sustainable refrigeration. He is an active contributor to the Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub, a National Science Foundation-funded Engineering Research Center, alongside 11 other Notre Dame faculty members. He also participates in two Energy Frontier Research Centers supported by the Department of Energy: Breakthrough Electrolytes for Energy Storage and Molten Salts in Extreme Environments.

Maginn has published more than 270 peer-reviewed papers with more than 34,000 citations. He has written 10 book chapters. Maginn has been a senior editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry and served on the editorial boards for leading publications in his field, including the Journal of Ionic Liquids, Fluid Phase Equilibria and the Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data.

“I extend my heartfelt congratulations to Ed on the remarkable achievement of election to the NAE,” said Jeffrey F. Rhoads, the John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research and professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. “He is both a top researcher and highly respected administrator and educator — such an outstanding recognition for his tremendous research impact and national leadership is well-deserved.”

Since joining the Notre Dame faculty in 1995, Maginn has served as chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, as well as associate dean for academic programs in the Graduate School. Maginn is also recognized for his excellence in teaching, having received Notre Dame’s highest honors for faculty instruction: the James A. Burns, C.S.C., Award for Distinction in Graduate Education in 2018 and the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2022. In addition, Maginn has mentored more than 35 doctoral students and over 20 postdoctoral scholars. He is a trustee and executive director of the nonprofit CACHE Corporation, which promotes the use of computational methods in chemical engineering.

Maginn was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2023. He was recently honored with the Ernest Thiele Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2021 and the Iowa State University College of Engineering Professional Achievement Citation in Engineering (PACE) award in 2020. Maginn is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Maginn graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, followed by a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

With his election to the NAE, Maginn joins a distinguished group of Notre Dame colleagues who have also received this honor, including Ahsan Kareem, the Robert M. Moran Professor of Engineering; Thomas Degnan, professor emeritus of chemical and biomolecular engineering; Frank Incropera, the Clifford and Evelyn Brosey Professor Emeritus of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering; Steve Walker, professor of the practice; and Charles Wampler, the Huisking Foundation, Inc. Collegiate Research Professor.

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

Originally published by Erin Fennessy at news.nd.edu on February 10, 2026.

In addition to giving students the opportunity to live alongside Nepalese families and experience their daily life—from the challenges that come with rural living to the beauty of the mountains and terrain—the program enabled them to make a difference in the very communities they engaged with. Thanks to a forged connection with the Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences (KIAS), the Notre Dame students got to work with local Ph.D. students on joint research projects focused on community impact. For mechanical engineering major Daniel Barragan ’28, the work didn’t stop when he left Nepal.

Together with KIAS, Burns and Barragan are continuing research to determine if the air quality in Kathmandu and surrounding areas is hazardous, specifically to children, owing to heavy metals from industrial activities. While scientists at KIAS were able to gather air particulate samples from several locations in Nepal, they do not have instrumentation to do the necessary analyses. So they shipped the samples to Notre Dame, where Burns and Barragan are working with colleagues on campus to study the samples.

“Our role at ND will be chemical analyses of selected particulate samples for heavy metals,” Burns says. “If we do detect significant heavy metals in the particulate matter, we will work with our Nepalese collaborators at KIAS to try to determine the source.” From there, they will work with government officials to either develop new regulations or improve current regulations to better address the problem. “We hope that our work will be the first step towards reducing the risks.”

Reflecting on his role in the project, Barragan shares, “The research has been very exciting and it has influenced my undergraduate experience as I am now pursuing a minor in energy studies to pursue a cleaner future. I loved how this program and researching ties into my morals and my passion to help others in need. I believe that our findings will help not only the communities of Nepal, but also make possible permanent changes to reform regulation laws.

With the success of the 2025 program, Prof. Burns will once again be teaching the course in Nepal this summer. Interested students can apply at studyabroad.nd.edu. The application deadline for summer programs is February 15.

Originally published by Jessie Carson at studyabroad.nd.edu on January 23, 2026.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to manage decline

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

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

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

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

Originally published by Renée LaReau at keough.nd.edu on January 29, 2026.

Prashant Kamat, Rev. John A. Zahm Professor of Science in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, has been selected as a 2025 Pioneer in Energy Research (PIER) by Energy & Fuels. This honor, awarded since 2021, recognizes scientists who have made substantial fundamental contributions in energy research. A special issue of Energy & Fuels published in Kamat’s honor can be found here.

Prof. Kamat’s research focuses on solar energy and fuels, developing fundamental understanding of light-induced charge-transfer processes in quantum-confined semiconductors and other hybrid materials. His pioneering work on the design of nanostructured materials for energy conversion and storage using hybrid assemblies laid the groundwork for understanding the interfacial charge transfer processes in quantum dot and perovskite solar cells. He is a prominent figure in advancing the understanding of photodynamics and photochemical processes in semiconductor nanomaterials, particularly dye-sensitized and quantum dot-sensitized wide-band semiconductors. Kamat has also explored the utilization of carbon nanotubes and graphene-based assemblies to improve efficiencies in solar and fuel cells.

Prof. Kamat has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters that have garnered over 91,000 citations, resulting in him being named to Clarivate Analytics “Most Cited Researchers” list from 2014-2023. He has also been recognized with numerous awards, including the Henry H. Storch Award in Energy Chemistry, the Porter Medal, and the Richard E. Smalley Research Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters, a Fellow of the Materials Research Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and The Electrochemical Society. Prof. Kamat also serves as Editor-in-Chief of ACS Energy Letters.

Originally published by Rebecca Hicks at chemistry.nd.edu on January 30, 2026.

Now a senior, Gross is pinpointing an ambitious goal: protecting the Moon. When asked to introduce herself, Gross begins modestly: “I love physics, I love space, and I love people.” Behind this opening is a story shaped by curiosity, community, and fearless initiative.

Gross’s characteristic yes to new experiences has paved her way from Ireland to the research labs and playing fields of Notre Dame. Her campus life is a blend of scientific rigor, community, and leadership.

From Irish Geography to Lunar Legacy

Gross's academic interests began with geography lessons at home, exploring not just the landscapes of Ireland but also the social geography that shapes communities. This introduced her to sustainability, long before she encountered it as an academic field. Today, Gross describes sustainability as “not only environmental, it's economical, it's social”— noting that these three make up the pillars of sustainability, which are key to improving the living world.

During her freshman year at Notre Dame, Gross met Philip Sakimoto, the director of the sustainability minor and professor of the practice in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. While taking his class during her sophomore year, Gross was first introduced to the principles of sustainability and was greatly influenced by Sakimoto's physics background and career at NASA. This sparked a mentorship that shaped her undergraduate career. At his encouragement, Gross applied and was accepted to the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative, where she was a 2025 sustainability summer intern. This led to a three-person collaboration with a student from political science and another from computer science, who worked together to develop the initiative’s sustainability activities.

Sakimoto describes Gross as a “whirlwind” of multiple academic and leadership activity. Whether it is manning the table at Welcome Weekend for sustainability or writing the minors' weekly newsletter, Gross is always willing to volunteer, Sakimoto said.

Gross also brings a sustainability lens directly into her physics research in the Civil & Environmental/ Earth Sciences Department (CEES) within the Department of Engineering. She works with Professor Clive Neal, and initially analyzed Apollo 11 samples. He now studies the implications of sustaining a human presence on the Moon.

“She brings a sense of purpose to the work,” Neal said, adding that he has found this trait rare among undergraduate researchers. Her sustainability capstone, “Lunar Legacy,” examines legal and ethical frameworks for protecting the Moon’s environment despite it being a non-living landscape. This project intentionally brings together planetary physics and sustainability.

Neal appreciates Gross’s holistic perspective to lunar research. Her strength lies in her ability to ask not just scientific questions about the lunar environment but also ethical ones about lunar exploration, he said.

While Neal initially challenged Gross’s proposal, wondering why there would be a need to protect the environment in a place that hosts no life, he said that Gross was persistent.

“Most sustainability definitions focus on living environments,” she said. “But what responsibilities do we have to a place with no life at all? And what gaps exist in the treaties and ethics guiding how we explore it?”

For Gross, the Moon’s scientific, cultural, and ethical value demand protection long before humans alter it. Her project is “a way to connect love of space, planetary science, and lunar geology with sustainability,” she said.

Combining these questions is rooted not only in science, but also in Notre Dame’s Catholic mission, Sakimoto said.

“The Moon is part of creation, as is everything else, and we have a fundamental obligation to care for all of it,” he said.

Looking Ahead, After Notre Dame

Outside of the classroom, Gross is co-president of the Society of Physics Students and also enjoys working with others in a variety of different ways, including as a resident assistant in Howard Hall and as a leader on the Notre Dame Gaelic Athletic Association’s four-time championship team during the National Collegiate Gaelic Championships.

Gross can go many different directions with her career, and says she knows her future lies in exploration informed by responsibility, physics, collaboration, and curiosity in service of something greater.

“I’ll be happy as long as I get to apply what I learn, and work in a team,” she said.

Whatever comes after Notre Dame, she will continue saying yes to discovery and to the call to care for the places we venture in, on this world and beyond.

Originally published by Ondrea Sajini Amandhi Mathews at science.nd.edu on January 09, 2026.

The West Campus Solar Project

Moving along the Saint Mary’s Lake Trail, you may have noticed that the West Campus Solar Project is now officially online! This 46,000-square-foot array provides roughly 1% of our campus electricity, and has the capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 700 tons annually—the equivalent of taking nearly 140 gasoline-powered cars off the road. The site isn't just for power, either. Notre Dame's values continue to be exemplified through this project, as both native, pollinator-friendly species have been planted to support local biodiversity, and the solar panels were purchased from a local supplier that actively prioritizes human dignity as part of its business model. From the University’s collective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Notre Dame has seen a 48% reduction in carbon emissions (2005 baseline).

Green Roofs are Growing

Notre Dame’s skyline is getting greener. Major buildings such as the Rockne Memorial and South Dining Hall are part of an expanding network of vegetative “green” roofs. With over four acres of green roofs now across campus, these roof systems can add longevity to a building’s roof by protecting from thermal shock and UV radiation, support local biodiversity, reduce urban heat island effects, and can help insulate a building to reduce energy demands.

Food Rescue and Reuse

Ever wonder what happens to uneaten food in the North or South Dining Halls? Notre Dame recognizes the nutritional gift of food and has taken a multi-pronged approach to help uneaten food avoid the landfill and serve a higher purpose. Two key pathways include Cultivate Food Rescue and Grind2Energy. Food that has been prepared but is still safe to consume is donated to Cultivate to create meals for food-insecure families in our community. In fall 2025, campus’ food donations provided more than 39,860 meals for our neighbors!

Meanwhile, food that is no longer safe for human consumption, such as plate scraps, is diverted from the landfill via three campus Grind2Energy (G2E) systems. The slurry produced by G2E is then used at a local dairy farm to create energy, fertilizer, and cow bedding. By keeping food waste out of the landfill, G2E helps avoid harmful greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane, which are produced when food decomposes in the landfill. The impact of Notre Dame’s G2E emissions avoidance - in the fall semester alone - is equal to the sequestration of planting 91 acres of forest.

Recycling Rate Increases

Everyday recycling collection and football game day recycling both saw dramatic improvements in diversion rates. Compared to last year, everyday recycling collection in toters around campus increased by 62%, and football gameday recycling improved 98%. These improvements have been made possible through the support of our collective campus community, like students sorting their recyclables in residence halls and collaborative efforts between Stadium Operations, Building Services, and the Sustainability team working to expand recycling collection.

Keeping up the Momentum in 2026

While individuals may not have the power to create new large-scale infrastructure projects, everyone can contribute to shifting daily habits for more sustainable outcomes. Here is how you can contribute to mindful care of our common home in the next year:

• Food Choice: Eat as much as you’d like, but take only what you know you'll eat. Reducing food waste at the source is even better than sending it to G2E or Cultivate.

• Sorting Waste: Check the labels on waste bins and sort recyclables that are mostly free of food debris and liquid. Contamination in recycling toters can compromise a load of recyclables, forcing some materials to be rejected and sent to the landfill. When in doubt, check out Notre Dame’s recycling directory.

• Power Down: Simple changes like turning off lights and unplugging "vampire" electronics, like chargers or gaming consoles, when you head to class or a meeting, help reduce the overall load on our grid. Did you know? An iPhone charger can draw 135W of power in a month. This may not seem like much power, but multiply that by everyone on campus, and that’s a lot of energy being drawn!

• Participate: Stay informed about what's happening on campus. Get involved with sustainability programming to continue learning and contributing to our common home. Students can connect with their residence hall’s Sustainability Commissioners. Staff and faculty can check out our employee resources page to learn more.

Learn more about Notre Dame’s sustainability work by checking out the Sustainability timeline and green tour. Save the date for our Spring 2026 Sustainability Celebration, which will be held this year on Earth Day!

Originally published by Olivia Farrington at green.nd.edu on January 08, 2026.

Traditional sampling is too labor-intensive for whole-forest surveys, while modern genomics—though capable of pinpointing active genes—is still too expensive for large-scale application. Remote sensing offers a high-resolution solution from the skies, but currently limited paradigms for data analysis mean the images obtained do not say enough, early enough.

A new study from researchers at the University of Notre Dame, published in Nature: Communications Earth & Environment, uncovers a more comprehensive picture of forest health. Funded by NASA, the research shows that spectral reflectance—a measurement obtained from satellite images—corresponds with the expression of specific genes.

Reflectance is how much light reflects off of leaf material, and at which specific wavelengths, in the visible and near-infrared range. Calculated as the ratio of reflected light to incoming light and measured using special sensors, reflectance data reveals a unique signature specific to the leaf’s composition and condition.

“This has the potential to revolutionize forest health monitoring,” said Nathan Swenson, the Gillen Director of the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) who led the study. “By connecting reflectance with gene expression, we can get a real-time measure of forest health at the genomic level that picks up the early indicators of declining forest health and connects them back to real changes happening on the cellular level.”

While reflectance is a strong indicator of both physical and chemical leaf properties, the utility of knowing these features is limited without the ability to determine their molecular origin.

“We now have the ability to fly an airplane over a whole forest and rapidly document the traits of every tree’s canopy, but what we can actually say about a certain tree’s condition is still quite simple,” said Swenson, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. “So, we wanted to go beyond that, asking: Is there a significant relationship between the reflectance of a leaf and its gene expression?”

In short, the answer is yes.

Swenson, with the help of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, collected leaf samples from two common tree species—sugar maple and red maple—at the University’s UNDERC field site in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

At the point of collection, reflectance data for the surface of each leaf was measured and recorded, before the sample was preserved and processed for gene expression analysis. This analysis focused on genes related to water response, drought, photosynthesis and plant-pest or plant-pathogen interactions. The reflectance data was also processed to determine the wavelengths of light reflected or absorbed by a particular leaf.

For more than half of the genes analyzed, the researchers found a strong correlation with specific reflectance wavelengths. This means that across most of the trees surveyed, those whose leaves expressed a certain gene reflected or absorbed the same “signature” wavelengths of light as other leaves that expressed the same gene.

“We’ve done it here on just a small scale, but the potential for predicting the expression of hundreds to thousands of ecologically important genes from reflectance is immense,” Swenson said. “We could monitor whole forests on the genomic scale, via sensors on the international space station.”

To apply this newly-defined correlation to whole forests, Swenson is looking to scale previous research. A 2024 study published in PLOS Biology combined satellite images with artificial intelligence-enabled computational networks to create tree species maps for the National Ecological Observatory Network.

The AI model, developed by a multi-institutional team including Swenson, can be trained to identify particular trees by species using images of the whole forest’s canopy collected by sensors. When layered together with reflectance and gene expression data, the model has the potential to generate a complete profile for a single tree based on its species, reflectance signature and the gene expression map for that species. Doing so would allow researchers to single out struggling individuals or clusters more efficiently for intervention.

"You can take these models that we're generating at the leaf level and apply them to those new data sets of reflectance whether that's from an airplane or from a satellite. And then you can build a map of gene expression on the scale of a national forest,” Swenson said. “The end goal here is using the right data to rapidly assess how trees are responding to stressors, so that we can intervene before the forest hits a crisis point.”

Such an undertaking requires the input of experts in remote sensing, genomics and ecology, all of which are members of Swenson’s research team within the University’s Department of Biological Sciences. Co-authors of the Nature Communications study include postdoctoral scholar Yanni Chen, graduate student Alexander Cox, and former graduate students Logan Monks and Vanessa Rubio.

“This work doesn’t happen without scientists from vastly different fields, ecologists alongside genomicists alongside data scientists, sitting down at a table together and engaging with the same question from different angles,” Swenson said. “We need all of our individual strengths pulling together to meet these challenges.”

Originally published by Erin Fennessy at news.nd.edu on January 08, 2026.