2022 Naughton Fellowships awarded to 33 students and faculty

The University of Notre Dame’s Naughton Fellowship program has announced 33 faculty member and student awardees in its 2022-2023 cohort.

Funded by a gift from the Naughton family in 2008, Naughton Fellowships foster leadership through international partnerships and stimulate collaborative research efforts. Fellows from Ireland have the opportunity to study and conduct research at the University of Notre Dame. Fellows from Notre Dame complete their fellowship at one Ireland’s leading research universities.

Among the awardees are faculty members, Masters students and undergraduate researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin City University (DCU), and National University of Ireland - Galway (NUIG).

The 2022 Naughton awardees are as follows:

Faculty

Faculty from leading Irish research universities and Notre Dame have come together to work on three different projects as a part of the Naughton Fellowship program.

One project will investigate climate, storm inundation, and coastal boulder deposits in Western Ireland. Andrew Kennedy and Melissa Berke from Notre Dame will work at TCD, UCD, and DCU. Mary Bourke from TCD, Niamh Cullen from DCU, James Herterich, Ronadh Cox, and Frederic Dias from UCD will contribute to the project at Notre Dame.

Investigating a novel strategy for managing Cystic Fibrosis lung infections will be Rob Nerenberg and Al Cerrone from Notre Dame and Marta Martins from TCD.

In a collaboration between Notre Dame and UCD, scientists will be investigating the effects of subconcussive head impacts on dynamic balance performance. Edgar Bolívar-Nieto and James Schmiedler from Notre Dame and Brian Caulfield from UCD will contribute at each of the partner universities.

Masters

From Notre Dame

• Samuel Bosio, an environmental sciences major and sustainability minor, will complete a master in the biodiversity and conservation program at TCD.
• Chemical engineering major and energy studies minor Emma Kerr will study at TCD and complete a master in energy science.
• Arianna Latuda is a Notre Dame environmental engineering major and French minor. Latuda will travel to TCD to complete a master in sustainable energy engineering.
• Biological sciences and English major Caroline Pitts will complete a master in public health at UCD.

From Ireland

• Sophie Cairns, who majored in biomedical engineering at TCD, will come to Notre Dame to complete a Master of Science in Engineering, Science, and Technology Entrepreneurship Excellence (ESTEEM) program.
• Economics major from DCU Cathal Canavan will come to Notre Dame to complete the ESTEEM program.
• Harry Crowley will complete the ESTEEM program at Notre Dame. Crowley was a mechanical engineering major at TCD.
• From NUIG, Laura Hession will complete the ESTEEM program at Notre Dame. Hession received her degree in biotechnology.
• Also from NUIG, Daniel Johnson was a biomedical engineering major. Johnson will complete the ESTEEM program at Notre Dame.
• Darren O’Hara Duggan, a nanoscience major from TCD, will come to Notre Dame to complete the ESTEEM program.

Undergraduate

Ten undergraduate students have been awarded summer Naughton Fellowships as part of a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.

From Notre Dame

• Thomas Baldwin, an aerospace and mechanical engineering major, will study at UCD under faculty member John Sheridan. Baldwin’s project is aimed at investigating new computational techniques for measuring sub-pixel displacements in images.
• Biological sciences major Claire Bass will spend the summer at DCU under Brian Kelleher. Her project will investigate Bull Island, a low-lying island off the Dublin Bay, as a functioning blue carbon ecosystem.
• Jack Drey is also a biological sciences major who will spend the summer at DCU. Drey will work with Silvia Giordani to look at the use of carbon nano-onions as drug delivery systems for the targeted delivery of anticancer therapeutics.
• Mechanical engineering major Joshua Hernandez’s project will center around cold-formed steel (CFS) modular construction subject to progressive collapse loading. He will study at UCD with Daniel McCrum.
• Dominic Stoner is a biochemistry major who will study at UCD under Siobhán McClean. His project will aim to determine the host response to novel vaccine antigens.
• Biological sciences major Meghan Swantkowski will spend her summer researching injectable and conductive hydrogels as biomaterial scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Her project will take place at TCD with mentor Michael Monaghan.

From Ireland

• Josh Buckley, a biomedical engineering major from NUIG, will spend his summer at Notre Dame under Yasemin Ozkan-Aydin in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Buckley’s project will investigate the role of tail flexibility in the movement of a quadrupedal robot.
• Lorcan O’Rourke is an electrical and electronic engineering major from UCD. O’Rourke will spend the summer at Notre Dame with Maria Holland in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering studying comparative neuroanatomy in non-human primates.
• Seán Roche, a physics major from UCD, will study at Notre Dame with Graham Peaslee from the Physics Department.
• Biomedical engineering major Aoife Sidaway is from NUIG. She will work with Notre Dame faculty Ed Kinzel in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. Sidaway’s project centers around additive manufacturing of glass and optical materials.

On Monday, October 3, 2022, the applications for the Naughton Fellowships, including undergraduate, masters, and faculty, will open for submissions. To learn more, please visit naughton.nd.edu.