Andrew J. Medford Associate Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology As a faculty member, his group’s research lies at the intersection of catalysis and surface science, computational chemistry, and machine learning, and he has received several research awards, including the NSF CAREER Award and the Early Career Award from the ACS CATL division.2025 THIELE LECTURESHIP AWARDEESeminar Title: Machine learning in computational catalysis: from electronic structure theory to kinetic models Abstract: Heterogeneous catalysis is an inherently multi-scale process that ultimately connects the behavior of electrons to the global-scale production of chemicals. Understanding how these processes interact is a never-ending challenge, but recent research has shown that application of machine learning and artificial intelligence models is a promising strategy for discovery of novel catalytic materials and advancing fundamental insight at the interface between chemistry and physics. This talk will present progress in the application of machine learning from opposite ends of the multi-scale spectrum. At the scale of electrons, the talk will introduce the use of machine learning approaches to establish a new paradigm of exchange-correlation functional design that uses "multipole features" to provide flexibility between the solid-state and molecular electronic environments that arise in solid-gas/liquid interfaces of heterogeneous catalysis. At the scale of reactors, the use of "kinetics informed neural networks" will be presented as a route to directly analyze large volumes of transient kinetic and spectroscopic data to extract rate parameters that can help elucidate intrinsic kinetics and reaction mechanisms. The talk will demonstrate how these fundamentally different approaches have complementary strengths and weaknesses, indicating that a combination of methods will ultimately be required to understand the complex multi-scale processes involved in heterogeneous catalysis. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Thiele Lecture Series

Andrew J. Medford Associate Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology As a faculty member, his group’s research lies at the intersection of catalysis and surface science, computational chemistry, and machine learning, and he has received several research awards, including the NSF CAREER Award and the Early Career Award from the ACS CATL division.2025 THIELE LECTURESHIP AWARDEESeminar Title: Machine learning in computational catalysis: from electronic structure theory to kinetic models Abstract: Heterogeneous catalysis is an inherently multi-scale process that ultimately connects the behavior of electrons to the global-scale production of chemicals. Understanding how these processes interact is a never-ending challenge, but recent research has shown that application of machine learning and artificial intelligence models is a promising strategy for discovery of novel catalytic materials and advancing fundamental insight at the interface between chemistry and physics. This talk will present progress in the application of machine learning from opposite ends of the multi-scale spectrum. At the scale of electrons, the talk will introduce the use of machine learning approaches to establish a new paradigm of exchange-correlation functional design that uses "multipole features" to provide flexibility between the solid-state and molecular electronic environments that arise in solid-gas/liquid interfaces of heterogeneous catalysis. At the scale of reactors, the use of "kinetics informed neural networks" will be presented as a route to directly analyze large volumes of transient kinetic and spectroscopic data to extract rate parameters that can help elucidate intrinsic kinetics and reaction mechanisms. The talk will demonstrate how these fundamentally different approaches have complementary strengths and weaknesses, indicating that a combination of methods will ultimately be required to understand the complex multi-scale processes involved in heterogeneous catalysis. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Thiele Lecture Series

Michele WaslinAssistant Director, Immigration History Research Center, University of MinnesotaCarol CleavelandAssociate Professor of Social Work, George Mason University Moderated by:Cat GarganoKellogg Doctoral Student AffiliatePhD student in Peace Studies and Clinical Psychology As part of Graduate Student Appreciation Week, the Kellogg and Klau institutes welcome Michele Waslin, a Notre Dame alumna, and her co-author Carol Cleaveland for a talk based on their book of the same name. Private Violence exposes how the US asylum system fails to protect Latin American women fleeing severe gender-based violence, including assault and death threats from intimate partners and gangs. The book reveals the legal challenges these women face due to asylum laws rooted in outdated views that persecution must come from state actors, not private individuals. It advocates for policy reforms to incorporate a gender-based perspective in asylum law, highlighting both the system's flaws and the resilience of survivors and their advocates. Presented by the Kellogg Institute and the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights.Michele Waslin is the assistant director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, where she tracks and analyzes immigration research and policy. She has nearly 20 years of experience in immigration policy research, writing, and advocacy. She holds a PhD in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame. Carol Cleaveland is associate professor of social work at George Mason University whose research focuses on Latino immigration and gender-based violence. She earned her PhD from Bryn Mawr College and specializes in immigration-related trauma and advocacy for vulnerable populations. For more information, visit the events page.

Michele WaslinAssistant Director, Immigration History Research Center, University of MinnesotaCarol CleavelandAssociate Professor of Social Work, George Mason University Moderated by:Cat GarganoKellogg Doctoral Student AffiliatePhD student in Peace Studies and Clinical Psychology As part of Graduate Student Appreciation Week, the Kellogg and Klau institutes welcome Michele Waslin, a Notre Dame alumna, and her co-author Carol Cleaveland for a talk based on their book of the same name. Private Violence exposes how the US asylum system fails to protect Latin American women fleeing severe gender-based violence, including assault and death threats from intimate partners and gangs. The book reveals the legal challenges these women face due to asylum laws rooted in outdated views that persecution must come from state actors, not private individuals. It advocates for policy reforms to incorporate a gender-based perspective in asylum law, highlighting both the system's flaws and the resilience of survivors and their advocates. Presented by the Kellogg Institute and the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights.Michele Waslin is the assistant director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, where she tracks and analyzes immigration research and policy. She has nearly 20 years of experience in immigration policy research, writing, and advocacy. She holds a PhD in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame. Carol Cleaveland is associate professor of social work at George Mason University whose research focuses on Latino immigration and gender-based violence. She earned her PhD from Bryn Mawr College and specializes in immigration-related trauma and advocacy for vulnerable populations. For more information, visit the events page.

Emma Murphy will share an overview of her book, Agonistic Transitional Justice and the Pursuit of Post-Liberal Peace: Beyond One Single Truth, followed by responses from Colleen Murphy and Catherine O'Rourke.   About Emma Murphy   Emma Murphy is a postdoctoral research associate with the Clingen Family Center for the Study of Modern Ireland and the Peace Accords Matrix in the Kroc Institute. Her current project supports the Legacy Project, which preserves and engages the digital archive of the Colombian Truth Commission to understand the lessons the Colombian peace process holds for Ireland. Her book explores an alternative to liberal approaches in transitional justice design in Northern Ireland, Colombia, and Uganda. This alternative, agonistic transitional justice, centers on creating avenues within transitional justice institutions for engaging in contestation and encouraging multiplicity rather than focusing on consensus in the post-conflict space. The book examines these agonistic institutions through a gender lens. Murphy completed her doctorate in politics and international relations at University College Dublin as an Irish Research Council Laureate Award-affiliated fellow. She previously served as a teaching fellow at University College Dublin, where she taught courses on egalitarian theory and transitional justice.Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.

Emma Murphy will share an overview of her book, Agonistic Transitional Justice and the Pursuit of Post-Liberal Peace: Beyond One Single Truth, followed by responses from Colleen Murphy and Catherine O'Rourke.   About Emma Murphy   Emma Murphy is a postdoctoral research associate with the Clingen Family Center for the Study of Modern Ireland and the Peace Accords Matrix in the Kroc Institute. Her current project supports the Legacy Project, which preserves and engages the digital archive of the Colombian Truth Commission to understand the lessons the Colombian peace process holds for Ireland. Her book explores an alternative to liberal approaches in transitional justice design in Northern Ireland, Colombia, and Uganda. This alternative, agonistic transitional justice, centers on creating avenues within transitional justice institutions for engaging in contestation and encouraging multiplicity rather than focusing on consensus in the post-conflict space. The book examines these agonistic institutions through a gender lens. Murphy completed her doctorate in politics and international relations at University College Dublin as an Irish Research Council Laureate Award-affiliated fellow. She previously served as a teaching fellow at University College Dublin, where she taught courses on egalitarian theory and transitional justice.Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.

The Materiality of Medieval Texts working group, sponsored by the Medieval Institute and convened by Laura Banella, CJ Jones, and Johannes Junge Ruhland, invites you to its first meeting of the year. Please import meeting details to your calendar using this link.   We will discuss "(Un)Illustrating the Lyric: Possibilities of an Intermedial Dante," a pre-circulated chapter from Laura Banella's monograph, Rewriting Dante: Lyric Books and Cultural Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Italy (1290-1550), which is in its final stages of revision. Annie Killian will launch us off into discussion with a response, and we will have ample time to share thoughts and questions on the readings. If you are pressed for time and can only skim through the reading, please do come anyway!  Contact information: jjungeru@nd.eduOriginally published at romancelanguages.nd.edu.

The Materiality of Medieval Texts working group, sponsored by the Medieval Institute and convened by Laura Banella, CJ Jones, and Johannes Junge Ruhland, invites you to its first meeting of the year. Please import meeting details to your calendar using this link.   We will discuss "(Un)Illustrating the Lyric: Possibilities of an Intermedial Dante," a pre-circulated chapter from Laura Banella's monograph, Rewriting Dante: Lyric Books and Cultural Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Italy (1290-1550), which is in its final stages of revision. Annie Killian will launch us off into discussion with a response, and we will have ample time to share thoughts and questions on the readings. If you are pressed for time and can only skim through the reading, please do come anyway!  Contact information: jjungeru@nd.eduOriginally published at romancelanguages.nd.edu.