Cyril O’Regan, the Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, has been selected to receive the 2024 Ratzinger Prize in Theology, widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the field. Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, will present the award to O’Regan and to sculptor Etsurō Sotoo during a ceremony at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on Nov. 22. Both winners will also have an audience with Pope Francis earlier that day.

Kirk Doran, an associate professor of economics, has a research mission to identify where and how new knowledge is created. He is one of four finalists from leading global institutions for the 2024 Adam Smith Panmure House Prize.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of chronic absenteeism have nearly doubled across the nation for students in kindergarten through grade 12. This increase was tied to the mode of instruction during the early years of the pandemic. In particular, schools that employed virtual learning as the primary teaching mode during the 2020-21 school year experienced a greater increase in chronic absenteeism in the following year. That increase was significantly greater in school districts with higher levels of poverty, according to new research from William Evans, the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics and co-founder of Notre Dame’s Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities.

E. Jane Doering, professor emerita in the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame, died Aug. 23. She was 91.

For the last seven decades, Earth has been operating in unprecedented ways, leading many researchers to argue that we have entered a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene. “While it may not have been formally accepted onto the geological time scale, the Anthropocene is real and its effects have drastically and irrevocably changed the living conditions on our planet,” said Julia Adeney Thomas, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. “It should therefore be treated as a de facto new epoch of Earth’s history.”

William H. “Bill” Leahy, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Notre Dame, died Sunday (Aug. 11). He was 89.

It has been one year since fires on the Hawaiian island of Maui killed 102 people, destroyed more than 2,200 buildings and displaced 5,000 people in the historic town of Lahaina. Today, signs of rebuilding are visible. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has leveled and graded the lots where homes once stood, and temporary FEMA housing is slated to open in October. Susan Ostermann, assistant professor of global affairs in Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs, studies housing resilience and is investigating the question of how to rebuild.

In the past three days, people on social media have embraced British pop star Charli XCX’s online pronouncement that “Kamala IS brat.” According to to Sara Marcus, an assistant professor of English and author of “Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution,” that translates to a declaration that Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presumptive new nominee for president, embodies the sort of messy, complicated, casual womanhood that the singer’s recent album, “Brat,” depicts and celebrates.

Forests can reduce hunger in rural households while also capturing carbon and advancing sustainability goals for low- and middle-income countries, according to new research by Daniel C. Miller, associate professor of environmental policy at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs.

Benjamin Radcliff, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, died June 10 after a long illness. He was 60.

Jason Rohr, the Galla Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, is one of three international winners of the 2024 Frontiers Planet Prize for his research that helps improve public health, agriculture, sustainability and poverty in Senegal.

State-level officials such as governors, state legislators and attorneys general are shaping U.S.-China relations as the two countries navigate a strained geopolitical relationship, according to new research by Notre Dame political scientist Kyle Jaros.

O. Carter Snead, the Charles E. Rice Professor of Law and director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, offered expert testimony on Wednesday (June 12) before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

Winfried “Fred” Dallmayr, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Notre Dame, died June 5. He was 95.

The Democratic Party is considering a virtual format for its 2024 Democratic National Convention much like the one held in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent survey conducted by a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame asked the delegates to the 2020 convention how they felt about the virtual format and found that while most of them considered the event a success, a large majority of them would prefer to attend in person to foster unity among party activists.

Dolores Warwick Frese, professor emeritus of English at the University of Notre Dame, died Thursday (May 30) in South Bend. She was 88.

Coordinated by the Office of the Provost, the annual University faculty awards recognize excellence in research, teaching and service to the University; signal milestone accomplishments and contributions across the disciplines; and celebrate outstanding members of the Notre Dame community.

Charles “Chuck” Frank Kulpa, professor emeritus in the Department of Biological Sciences, died April 30 in South Bend. He was 80. Kulpa was a respected scholar and professor of environmental and applied microbiology for 40 years.