Fighting to Protect the Brave
When firefighters run into a burning building, they know the dangers associated with their job. But new research suggests firefighters are at risk before they ever leave the firehouse.Using a spectroscopic technique and the St. Andre particle accelerator, Notre Dame professor Graham Peaslee has found alarming amounts of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in firefighter gear. These chemicals have been linked to elevated rates of cancer and have also been found in fast-food wrappers, cosmetics, drinking water, carpet and flame retardants. He is now working to test many years of new and used gear to better assess the risks for firefighters.Professor Peaslee’s work in this area has encouraged several companies to reduce or eliminate PFAS, and the EPA and state legislators have also made policy changes. He hopes this new study will make firefighters safer, so they can continue to keep all of us safe.
More from What Would You Fight For?
- 2:01Fighting For Research That MattersPOTS, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, is an autonomic nervous system disorder that affects blood flow in between 1 million and 3 million Americans, typically women and young adults. Those numbers are growing as POTS and other forms of dysautonomia have been diagnosed as long-term impacts from COVID-19. The symptoms include fainting spells, seizures, respiratory issues and digestive trouble.Nina Kikel-Coury, a graduate student in Professor Cody Smith's lab, suffers from POTS which placed her at a higher risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. She needed to remain completely isolated during the pandemic and could no longer work alongside others in her research lab. But the team rallied around her.Her lab mates designated hours when Nina could work alone, and they continued her experiments when she couldn’t be present sending results via email or FaceTime. With all this support, Nina made a scientific breakthrough, discovering a new cell in the heart—cardiac nexus glia—which may help explain and treat conditions like hers.“Identifying cardiac nexus glia could have a huge impact, not only with the neuroscience field but also the cardiovascular field,” she says. “Currently no one knows why dysautonomia occurs in a lot of people. And so personally it’s really exciting to know that maybe we’re just one step closer to figuring out the cause of dysautonomia, and in particular, long term down the road maybe even POTS.”Read more: https://go.nd.edu/ResearchThatMattersWWYFF
- 2:02Fighting for JusticeProfessor Jimmy Gurulé, Notre Dame Law School "Notre Dame Law School seeks to train a lawyer that isn't principally concerned with money and prestige, but a lawyer who has a responsibility to build a better society." Learn More: Watch "What Would You Fight For?" Series: http://nd.edu/video/ About Professor Gurulé: http://law.nd.edu/people/faculty-and-administration/teaching-and-research-faculty/jimmy-gurule Notre Dame Law School: http://law.nd.edu/
- 2:01Fighting for Our HometownWe read the headlines every day. Cities and towns across America have seen businesses shut down. Citizens have lost their jobs and communities are struggling to adequately fund public services. But by partnering with the entrepreneurial spirit and talent of Notre Dame's student body, the South Bend community is solving some of these problems in a new way. Since 2012, the enFocus fellowship program has partnered with the community to ignite change in local companies, nonprofit organizations, and public entities. South Bend native Andrew Wiand tells the story of how hometown pride inspired him to join the enFocus team, and begin to develop a scalable model for economic and community development.The enFocus fellows are graduates of Notre Dame's ESTEEM program, a one-year master's program in innovation and entrepreneurship that develops a select group of science and engineering students to put their skills to work commercializing technology to serve the common good. These entrepreneurs create, shape, and deliver positive impact across a variety of public and private sectors. In its first year, the enFocus team helped save the South Bend community approximately $3.2 million. These are dollars that will support its schools, emergency services, and healthcare clinics—making life better for the people of South Bend.The University of Notre Dame asks you, "What would you fight for?" Learn more about this work and how to support it at http://fightingfor.nd.edu
- 2:00Fighting For Our ChildrenIn response to a need for skilled teachers and school leaders, the University of Notre Dame founded ACE, the Alliance for Catholic Education. The program trains and places educators into needy Catholic schools all over the United States.ACE Teachers form a select cohort of the nation’s top emerging Catholic school teachers and leaders, and through ACE’s innovative instructional model, they develop the skills and knowledge necessary to serve some of the most under-resourced schools in the United States.Applications for ACE Teaching Fellows are due January 20, 2015. Learn more at http://ace.nd.edu/teachLearn More: http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/12259 Alliance for Catholic Education: http://ace.nd.edu/ What Would You Fight For? Series: http://nd.edu/video
- 2:01Fighting to Inspire the Mind and SpiritThe great thinkers of the world, past and present, extend the realm of the possible. Year after year, they also continue to inspire generations of University of Notre Dame students and alumni. While studying philosophy at Notre Dame, Paul E. Tierney Jr. ('64) was inspired to "think different." Today, after a successful career in business, he is chairman of TechnoServe, a nonprofit organization that provides training and guidance to entrepreneurs in developing economies in India, Africa, and Latin America. And thanks to Notre Dame Professor of the Humanities Steve Fallon and other scholar-teachers like him, tomorrow's thought leaders—students such as Elizabeth Davis who plans to address food sustainability after her graduation in 2012—are still being educated to ask questions that matter and to use their curiosity, critical thinking skills, and creativity to analyze complex problems in service of the common good. They demonstrate that while there are no simple answers to universal problems, there are new perspectives and solutions worth pursuing. Finding Inspiration in the Great Questions—and History's Great Thinkers (video) http://video.nd.edu/209-academically-speaking-steve-fallon Stephen Fallon Leads Marathon Student Reading of Milton's Paradise Lost (video) http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/21683-marathon-reading-of-paradise-lost-highlights-miltons-masterpiece/Paul Tierney: The Investor (ND Magazine story) http://magazine.nd.edu/news/18884/ Elizabeth Davis (2012) Notre Dame Student Selected as Truman Scholar (ND news story) http://al.nd.edu/news/21949-notre-dame-student-named-2011-truman-scholar/
- 2:01Fighting For God, Country, Notre DameRev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame from 1952 to 1987, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and one of the nation’s most influential figures in higher education, the Catholic Church, and national and international affairs, died at 11:30 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 26) at Holy Cross House adjacent to the University. He was 97.“We mourn today a great man and faithful priest who transformed the University of Notre Dame and touched the lives of many,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president. “With his leadership, charisma and vision, he turned a relatively small Catholic college known for football into one of the nation’s great institutions for higher learning.“In his historic service to the nation, the Church and the world, he was a steadfast champion for human rights, the cause of peace and care for the poor.“Perhaps his greatest influence, though, was on the lives of generations of Notre Dame students, whom he taught, counseled and befriended.“Although saddened by his loss, I cherish the memory of a mentor, friend and brother in Holy Cross and am consoled that he is now at peace with the God he served so well.”