The National Academy of Inventors has named Ashley Thrall, the Myron and Rosemary Noble Collegiate Professor of Structural Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, to its 2024 class of fellows. Election as an academy fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors.

Dennis Brown, assistant vice president in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications at the University of Notre Dame and its spokesman from 2008 to 2023, will retire at the end of December after a 33-year career at the University.

When nearly 80,000 fans gather for the college football playoff game between the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University on Dec. 20, they will enjoy an improved overall gameday experience, thanks to the implementation of Wi-Fi 6E standard power. Notre Dame Stadium became the first outdoor college venue to implement Wi-Fi 6E this fall. To do so, the University of Notre Dame’s Office of Information Technology partnered with PIER Group to overhaul the stadium’s wireless network.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded $75 million to a consortium of leading global institutions, including the Pulte Institute for Global Development at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, to enhance the effectiveness of poverty alleviation programs through research.

The University of Notre Dame has once again received national recognition for its commitment to internationalization and global education in newly released rankings from the Institute of International Education. For the 2022-23 academic year, study abroad participation among Notre Dame undergraduates increased by more than 10 percentage points from the previous year — from 77 to 87.5 percent, according to new data published in the Open Doors report.

On Saturday (Dec. 7), the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture will host its second annual summit for the 100-Mile Coalition. Created by the school’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative, the coalition comprises community leaders from cities within a 100-mile radius of the University. The coalition seeks to bring together city and nonprofit organization leaders who are working toward solutions related to housing shortages, disinvested communities, failed infrastructure and stagnant economic growth, as well as talent and workforce retention.

Northern Ireland has long struggled to reckon with the trauma of the Troubles, a 30-year conflict that killed approximately 3,700 people — many of them civilians — through sectarian violence. Experts in the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs recently influenced the design of a Northern Ireland commission to address the conflict’s legacy, sharing key lessons from Colombia on the importance of centering victims in truth and reconciliation.

Frank Hadley Collins, professor emeritus in the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, died Nov. 16 in Tucson, Arizona. He was 80.

Black men on buses and trains — whether as passengers or transit workers — face hostile encounters that threaten their sense of safety and well-being, according to a new study by a Keough School of Global Affairs sociologist. By reinforcing racist tropes that they are dangerous or invisible, these encounters can also erode Black men’s sense of dignity and self-worth.

Each year, more than 3 million children in the U.S. are part of an investigation of suspected child abuse or neglect. Notre Dame professors Laura Miller-Graff and Kristin Valentino are working together to lower that number by developing programs to help prevent or reduce child maltreatment at critical points for development. The two are bringing their programs together with a $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Peacebuilding activists Nidal Foqaha, Tehila Wenger and Ezzeldeen Masri joined the University of Notre Dame’s Lisa Schirch on Nov. 11 for a discussion in DeBartolo Hall about how to resolve the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in a way that provides peace, security and equal rights for all people living in the region. The event was the second in the Israel-Palestine Series of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum on “What Do We Owe Each Other?”

The one-of-a-kind partnership enables Mendoza and Notre Dame Athletics to collaborate in new ways to help student-athletes fully realize their leadership potential through greater awareness of career pathways in business.

The union representing dockworkers at U.S. ports walked away from the negotiating table with port employers this week over automation concerns as the two sides face a mid-January deadline to finalize a deal and prevent the resumption of a strike. Business Analytics Professor Kaitlin Wowak discusses potential supply chain disruptions.

Undergraduate and graduate students at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs are conducting research that will inform policymakers working on global conflict prevention work, thanks to a partnership with the U.S. Department of State.

Global public debt may soon collectively catch up to the worldwide gross domestic product (GDP), likely matching it by 2030. New research from a Notre Dame economist suggests that this could happen even sooner, thanks to countries’ hidden debts. This misreported debt can lead to higher interest rates for borrowers and lower recovery rates for lenders, suggesting indirect adverse effects on global financial stability and consumer welfare.