Since 1993, the International Atomic Energy Agency has tracked 2,500 trafficking cases of nuclear material. While there has yet to be a detonation of a dirty bomb, the threat remains present. In the unlikely event of a nuclear attack on American soil, Notre Dame engineering professor Antonio Simonetti makes one thing clear: The perpetrator could and would be found.Simonetti is a geochemist who specializes in characterizing the chemical and isotopic composition of materials. Traditionally, that involves studying rocks and minerals, which Simonetti did for many years. In 2011 he pivoted to assess nuclear materials like trinitite at the request of National Nuclear Security Agency. In that role, he used laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to study blast melt from the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico in 1945 and precisely identified where remnants of plutonium fuel resided after the explosion.More: http://ntrda.me/FTProtectOurCountry
More from What Would You Fight For?
- 2:01Fighting to Uncover the EvidenceAt the St. Joseph County Cyber Crimes Unit, eight Notre Dame undergraduates raised their right hands to be sworn in as law enforcement officers. They’re the only students in the country with that designation, and with it comes a host of responsibilities.The students are key in researching online activity, creating suspect profiles, executing warrants, and gleaning digital forensics from all confiscated media. They’ve seen cases ranging from drug trafficking to homicides, and have helped local law enforcement lock up perpetrators and set innocent suspects free. While beat cops and detectives are experts on the streets, the students are experts in social media and the Internet. They’ve taken a months-long backlog and reduced it to a matter of hours.While the students have been immensely helpful to the police force in South Bend, they are getting beneficial experience as well. The skills they’re honing are attractive to law enforcement, the FBI, technology firms, and consulting groups, and the internship is helping them stand out to potential employers.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/UncoverTheEvidence
- 2:01Fighting for the Human HeartIn a given year, around 60,000 Americans experience advanced heart failure, and many of them need a heart transplant to survive. While 10,000 hearts are donated each year, nearly 7,000 of them are not used. About half are not healthy enough, and though the other half are fully functional, those hearts can’t get to the recipient within the four-hour window recommended for effective transplants.But thanks to a partnership between Notre Dame engineering professor Pinar Zorlutuna and the University of Florida, there may be a way to extend that window to eight hours, which would allow many more donated hearts to reach patients. Professor Zorlutuna has created a novel and ethical way of converting adult blood and skin cells to functioning, beating heart muscle. These heart cells are being used to test an improved preservative solution that lengthens a donated heart’s lifespan. This safe and inexpensive platform has allowed for treatments to be tested without using very precious donated hearts, and initial studies show promise for these solutions.Learn more: https://ntrda.me/FFHumanHeart Learn more about Professor Zorlatuna: https://go.nd.edu/WomenLeadZorlatuna
- 2:01Fighting for Religious UnderstandingIn the wake of 9/11, Professor Ebrahim Moosa was overcome with frustration at the acts of violence being committed in the name of Islam. A devout Muslim himself, he had also been the target of a terrorist attack for speaking out against extremists.One issue, he realized, was that the curriculum being taught in madrasas, traditional schools of Islam, hadn’t been updated for centuries. It failed to engage with modern science, history, politics, and new research in religion. He thought he could teach some of these subjects to madrasa graduates to illustrate how Islam and modern life could peacefully coexist based on his own experiences. Those lessons, he believed, would be useful for the graduates in their engagement and education of their own communities.Thus, the Madrasas Discourses project was born at Notre Dame with an inaugural group of 55 Indian and Pakistani madrasa leaders. These students take weekly online courses with Professor Moosa and his colleagues and also meet twice annually. Two years later, Moosa claims the project is the most rewarding accomplishment of his life. The participants, too, are highly enthusiastic. Plans to expand the program and welcome students from sub-Saharan Africa are underway.As the Keough School of Global Affairs welcomes people from all nationalities, religions, and traditions to help solve the world’s challenges, Professor Moosa serves as a powerful example of how working collaboratively can make dramatic change.
- 2:01Fighting the Spread of MisinformationProfessor Tim Weninger is searching for a way to make digital systems and social networks more secure. The engineering professor researches how humans behave in digital social networks, and how their interactions online can influence their decisions offline.The problem, he says, is that much of the information on the Internet is intentionally false with the hope of swaying readers and headline skimmers. But thanks to a partnership with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Weninger and his colleagues are hoping to make the Internet safer, stronger, and more resilient.
- 2:01Fighting to Protect Our CommunityIn the wake of a hurricane or storm, engineering professor Tracy Kijewski-Correa is often running towards the destruction. She's called in to assess damage to buildings and to see which structures weathered the storm well. The reconnaissance allows her to makes suggestions to building codes and regulations to improve resilience.But she also wants to help communities prepare for storms before they happen, so she, along with a team of colleagues, developed NJcoast. The website allows first responders, emergency managers, and municipal planners to have access to accurate storm hazard projections before the storm hits so they can make informed disaster preparedness decisions. NJcoast has completed pilot testing and is now available across the state of New Jersey, where it will make coastal communities more resilient to storms.Learn more about how Professor Kijewski-Correa is fighting to protect our communities: https://ntrda.me/ProtectOurCommunity
- 2:01Fighting For Fair HousingIt has been 50 years since the Fair Housing Act made discrimination in buying and selling homes illegal. Fifty years since Edward Brooke, the first African-American senator from Massachusetts, testified that upon his return from World War II, no one would sell him a home because of his race. And 50 years since the act was passed, without debate, just one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. But even after 50 years, there’s still discrimination and scheming against minorities who wish to own homes.Notre Dame Law professor Judy Fox is fighting to combat predatory lending and contract for deed, or rent-to-own, schemes that are prevalent in minority neighborhoods. Last year, in Illinois, she was instrumental in passing statewide legislation against these contracts. Similar efforts are underway in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. And at the Notre Dame Economic Justice Clinic, she’s also fighting individual cases.
