Women lead: Profiles of six pre-eminent faculty members
The power to lead is the power to transform. Notre Dame is proud to celebrate women whose scholarship and leadership are leaving an indelible imprint on the global community.
The power to lead is the power to transform. Notre Dame is proud to celebrate women whose scholarship and leadership are leaving an indelible imprint on the global community.
Prof. Jim Kolata has always had an appreciation for the many ways in which the subfields of physics intersect, nowhere more so than in the field of cosmology. Though an experimental nuclear physicist and a long-time leader in Notre Dame’s radioactive beam program, Kolata developed in 1989 a course in elementary cosmology aimed at curious students wanting to understand the current developments in that rapidly advancing field. That course is today a stalwart of the Notre Dame Physics Department’s curriculum, taught to nearly 200 students a year. Kolata has now brought together his notes and insights from teaching that course, combined with the latest news from the field, and published a textbook on the subject. Entitled "Elementary Cosmology: From Aristotle’s Universe to the Big Bang and Beyond” and published by the Institute of Physics, the book begins with an introduction to the concept of the scientific method. It then describes the way in which detailed observations of the Universe, first with the naked eye and later with increasingly complex modern instruments, ultimately led to the development of the “Big Bang” theory. Finally, the book traces the evolution of the Big Bang including the very recent observation that the expansion of the Universe is itself accelerating with time.…
Gwyneth Cravens, an American author and journalist who is best known for her writings on nuclear power as a safe and reliable alternative energy source and as an essential preventive of global warming, will present a lecture titled “Can We Save the World with Nuclear Energy?" at 4 p.m. Tuesday (Oct 6) at Washington Hall Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Prof. Dan Bardayan, Department of Physics, has been elected to the User Organization Executive Committee for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University. The goals of the Users’ Organization are to work towards the realization and timely construction of FRIB, to act as an advocate for the needs of the FRIB user community, to articulate and promote the scientific case for rare-isotope science, and to advocate for rare isotope science in the USA.…
Prof. Ani Aprahamian, Freimann Professor of Physics, has been reappointed as a Board Member by Governor Dennis Daugaard to the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority. The reappointment is through December 2018. She has served on the board since 2009.
Maxime Brodeur, the Ortenzio Family Assistant Professor in Applied Medical and Nuclear Physics, conducts basic research in nuclear physics that holds promising potential for medical applications.
Jay LaVerne, professional specialist in the University of Notre Dame’s Radiation Laboratory and a concurrent research professor of physics, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in honor of his efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.
The 2nd Notre Dame-Europe Symposium on Nuclear Science and Society (SNSS15) was held at the Notre Dame Rome Center during November 4-6, 2015. Website The first in this series of symposia, organized by the Nuclear Physics Group at the University of Notre Dame, was held at the Notre Dame London Center in October, 2014 (http://isnap.nd.edu/events/NSS2014/).