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The magazine of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame Winter 2010 COLLABORATE Working together in a joint intellectual effort Letter from the Dean this edition of notre dame science focuses on collaborations. The acceleration of breakthrough discovery in science is a direct result of the acceleration in collaboration. We are more than a century away from Nobel’s requirement that no more than three scientists could receive his prize, and light years away from the days of the white-coated scientist working alone in a laboratory. Hundreds of scientists in such laboratories as Fermilab and CERN are investigating the origins of the universe. Notre Dame researchers among them have participated in the discovery of single quark production. Laboratories where faculty, postdoctoral asso- ciates, graduate students, and undergraduates collaborate on the Notre Dame campus are studying protein pathways and mathematical logic. Some of these collaborations are within departments. Some are across the University, such as the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Bio- complexity (ICSB). Some bring researchers together with clinicians, such as gregory p. crawford the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and the Ara Par- William K. Warren Foundation Dean seghian Medical Research Foundation. Still other collaborations form when of the College of Science, instructs our scientists partner with organizations such as The Nature Conservancy. science-business interns. The new ESTEEM—Engineering, Science, Technology and Entrepreneur- ship Excellence Master’s—program and a new Scientific Entrepreneurship course for undergraduates expose students to the breadth of knowledge they will need in the modern world. New leaders on campus, including the deans of the Graduate School, the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Letters and the director of the Office of Technology Transfer share our emphasis on collaboration, and we will see more joint ventures with them in the future. The world is an increasingly complex place, and the problems we seek to solve with science are huge. We need each other—all of us collaborating in every way possible—to confront and overcome the challenges of disease, energy, and environment that affect the well-being of millions of people in the world. We want to understand the world where we live as fully as we can, and we want to move that understanding into commercial applications that will benefit all of humanity. This is how we fulfill our mission to care for creation and to serve our brothers and sisters across the globe. We are ND! Yours in Notre Dame, dean Gregory Crawford editor Marissa Runkle associate editor Bill O’Hayer writers Gene Stowe, Bill Schmitt photo credits Matt Cashore, gregory p. crawford Cheryl Kelly, Steve Toepp William K. Warren Foundation Dean Copyright © 2009. All rights reserved. College of Science 168 Hurley Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 science.nd.edu [email protected] (574) 631-4465 cold spring harbor laboratory collaboration The College of Science has partnered with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) to offer one outstanding Notre Dame Science student an undergraduate research position at CSHL in New York. Katie Washington ’10 who conducted research on campus with Professor David Severson at the Eck Institute for Global Health was selected to be one of about twenty undergraduates from across the nation to participate. The magazine of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame Winter 2010 Contents Undergraduate News + Research 26 Notre Dame’s Vision for Undergraduate Education 72 Science Education Opens the Door to Discovery and Service Feature Stories 82 Energy and Environment Class Addresses U.S. 2 Notre Dame Joins Clinical Translational Energy Policy Sciences Collaboration 92 Scientific Entrepeneurship 4 Irish Ingenuity 03 Undergraduates Publish Research with 6 New Leaders Bring Fresh Visions for IU School of Medicine Faculty Interdisciplinary Work 32 MySpace Study Warns Teens of Risky Behavior 8 Core Research Facility Forms Out of Collaborations 43 Medical School Admissions 01 Notre Dame Launches ESTEEM Program 11 Biomedical Workshop Brings Clinicians and New Titles + New Faces Researchers Together 63 Faculty Spotlight: Steven Corcelli 21 Group Discovers Compound that Prevents 73 Graduate Student Spotlight: Stacy Hoehn Cancer Metastasis 73 Undergraduate Spotlight: Andrew Manion 41 Physicists Discover Top Quark and Narrow 73 Alumnus Spotlight: Keith Sherin Higgs Boson Range 83 Kenneth W. Henderson Named Chair of Department of 61 Genomics Research Facility Opens Chemisty and Biochemistry 81 Parseghian Receives Honorary Doctorate 12 American Midland Naturalist Celebrates a Centennial Year College News 39 New Faculty 22 Notre Dame Particle Physicists Have Strong Connection to Nobel Prize-Winning Research 04 And They’re Off! (The Lights, We Mean) 42 Research Training in Mathematical Logic 14 Faculty and Student Researchers Recognized at Notre Dame Games 14 Student Athlete Spotlight: Tara Enzweiler and Justine Stremick 24 A Green Light for More Work on Sustainability 34 Nanotechnology for Next Generation Solar Cells 44 Standing Ovations: Faculty, Students, Alumni 84 Alumni Offer Research Mentorship Feature Notre Dame Joins Clinical Translational Sciences Collaboration Notre Dame has become a full partner of the Indiana participate in Pasteur’s Quadrant, where Anantha Shekhar, Clinical Translational Sciences Institute (Indiana CTSI), fundamental science is driven by medical director of Indiana CTSI a new organization with $25 million from the Nation- needs and applications.” Crawford says Notre Dame’s involve- al Institutes of Health and nearly another $25 million ment will lead to more collaboration in from other agencies and groups in the state. The Indi- the region, recognition for tangible con- ana CTSI is a collaborative effort of Indiana and Pur- tributions to healthcare and the economy, due universities, Clarian Health, private industry, state opportunities for NIH grants, new avenues of research and engagement with faculty in and local government, BioCrossroads, and others to other colleges, such as Engineering, Busi- implement a new program of translational research— ness, Law, Arts and Letters, and Architec- the process of turning basic science discoveries into ture. It will contribute to broad biomedical new medical treatments and business opportunities. sciences research proposals relevant to the Indiana CTSI. Bernhard says the Univer- “the indiana ctsi has the unique ability to sity’s increased involvement in addressing shape an entire state’s biomedical educa- social needs reflects an evolving role for the tion; to access and study most of the state’s institution: “Universities are the places in population health data through medical the United States where the hardest prob- informatics capabilities; and to innovate lems are going to be solved.” and influence both public and private Twelve Notre Dame research teams, along health services through partnerships with with researchers at other Indiana CTSI mem- the governor’s office, state legislature, state ber institutions, submitted research propos- service agencies, and health insurance pro- als to the Indiana CTSI in December 2008. grams, as well as through partnership with Brian Baker, an associate professor in the WellPoint, the state’s—and the country’s— Department of Chemistry and Biochemis- largest commercial health insurer,” says try, has already received a small grant to Greg Crawford, dean of the College of Sci- help advance his research into improving T ence, who worked with Robert Bernhard, cells that could be part of using the immune vice president of research, to bring Notre system to fight cancer. Baker is collaborat- Dame into the group late last year. “This is ing with a researcher at IUPUI and with the a unique opportunity for Notre Dame and National Cancer Institute, whose research Notre Dame Science, in particular, to grow involves making weak T cells stronger. its translational research. It will provide The Indiana CTSI aims to accelerate Notre Dame Science with a mechanism to the availability of discoveries by bridging 2 Undergraduates Conduct Biomedical Research with Indiana CTSI Five University of Notre Dame undergraduates conducted research at IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis) this past summer, an early examplef o the benefits of Notre Dame’s rolen i the Indiana Clinical Translational Sciences Institute (Indiana CTSI). Marita Neidecker, Scott Barton, Maureen Early, Meg Griffin, and Jason Miller conducted research that has medical applications. the historical gap between basic science Brian Baker in the Department of Chemistry and Neidecker, a junior biology major, did researchers and clinical scientists. Both Biochemistry has received a grant from Indiana research aimed to gain further under- CTSI to advance his research into improving T cells. fields have developed to such a degree that standing into which pathway is respon- advances in one domain may rapidly inform sible for regulating bone formation. The or precipitate advances in the other. In the databases, and disease modeling that can work involved three colonies of genetical- past, discovery often languished or was lead to further discovery and more precise ly-altered mice to test different candidate long delayed before it could be applied to treatment of individuals’ illnesses. The pathways. Barton’s research on the role the disease management or population health. emerging

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