The dead mice were a shock. Not the fact that they had died within a day or so of birth — that was expected. Rather, it was the cause of death that stunned Frank Castelllino and his associates. When the scientists examined the animals they found widespread internal bleeding in the chest and head. Looking more closely, they saw malformed and weakened blood vessels. The mice were victims of leaky plumbing.
Really they never had a chance. Their genes did them in — or, more precisely, their lack of certain genes. Scientists from Notre Dame's Center for Transgene Research, working with colleagues from Belgium's Catholic University Leuven, had performed a "targeted gene deletion" on the mice. They used "molecular scissors" — sophisticated biochemical techniques — to snip out a section of DNA known to regulate blood coagulation. When they opened up the lab animals, however, they found the obvious evidence that one of two interlinked blood clotting proteins also played a role in forming blood vessel walls — a heretofore unknown function.
"You never could have made this discovery in a test tube experiment," says Castellino, dean of Notre Dame's College of Science and director of the Center for Transgene Research. "It's something you never would have predicted, never would have even dreamed of. The ability to knock out genes allowed us to define new physiology."
The surprising results of the experiment, which cost $1 million to perform, were published November 1997 in the prestigious journal Nature. As noteworthy as the science may be, however, for ND's provost, The Center for Transgene Research is one of the newest bright spots in Notre Dame's academic constellation. Founded in 1995, it already has made a mark with its early efforts, and Castellino has even higher hopes for the future.
"This is a field that has unbelievable potential for medical research because once you're able to knock out a gene, you can pick the disease you wish to study," he says.
The center offers enormous potential for the University as well. It is a powerful resource for those at Notre Dame and elsewhere who need altered gene animals for their research. It is sure to strengthen cooperation between ND and the medical community, especially the Indiana University medical school. It gives the University more visibility in the increasingly important field of molecular biology, and it is precisely the type of "center of excellence" Hatch sees as lifting ND's academic fortunes.
The strategy is straightforward: The surest way for Notre Dame to increase its impact in academia is through high quality, highly focused scholarship. "Center of excellence" is a term the provost uses broadly. "The real idea here is an area of excellence," he says. "Sometimes it might be a center or institute, other times just a strong group of faculty within a department. It's what you're known for as an institution."
The tactic recognizes that Notre Dame is at a disadvantage with much, if not most, of its competition. Hatch points out, "Our whole College of Engineering, for instance, is comparable to a department at Purdue or Illinois. That doesn't mean we want to be any less good. It just forces us to concentrate our efforts."
Historically the strategy is tried and true. The Medieval Institute, one year past its 50th anniversary, is perhaps Notre Dame's longest running center of excellence. In its first half century, the institute has firmly placed ND on the map of medieval studies while it strengthened a host of departments within the University. As Lingua Franca's recently published The Real Guide to Grad School notes, "The University of Notre Dame has always been strong [in medieval studies] and its Medieval Institute is probably the most important of such interdisciplinary centers [in the nation]."
How it got that way is a matter of good fortune, good decisions and good people. Since so much Christian theology and church structure traces its roots to the Middle Ages, medieval studies is a natural for a Catholic university. Father Philip Moore, CSC, who had distinguished himself in the field in the 1930s, persuaded his superiors of that wisdom. With the help of a $20,000 gift from the Michael P. Grace Foundation, the Medieval Institute opened in 1947 as the first such institute in the United States.
Abbot Astrik L. Gabriel, an authority on medieval universities, soon assumed the directorship and presided over the institute's growth for more than 23 years. During his tenure, the University founded the first publications series dedicated specifically to medieval topics. With help from Father Theodore Hesburgh, who established contact with Milan's Cardinal Giovanni Montini (later to become Pope Paul VI), the institute acquired a complete microfilm and photographic collection of all the medieval manuscripts and materials from Milan's Ambrosiana Library.
The Frank M. Folsom Collection consists of microfilms of 12,000 manuscripts and 50,000 photographs of miniatures and illuminations, supplemented by 15,000 color slides from the Amrbrosiana. This resource supplements the institute's library collection of more than 70,000 volumes and about 3,000 microfilm copies of medieval manuscripts from other European libraries.
A collection so rich was sure to become a magnet for scholars, and students. Today about 40 faculty members from 10 academic departments are involved with the institute, which offers an undergraduate major and concentration as well as master's and doctoral programs. Traditionally, it has attracted some of the University's strongest graduate students and for many years has accepted only one in 10 applicants to its doctoral program
It continues to attract strong faculty as well. The institute's newly named director is a prime example of its drawing power. Patrick Geary, who was to join the Notre Dame faculty in July 1997, currently heads the medieval program at the University of California, Los Angeles, perhaps ND's strongest rival in the field. "Geary was very clear about coming in to take over a program that could be the national leader," says John VanEngen, who is stepping down after 12 years to concentrate on his research in intellectual history.
While the Medieval Institute and the Center for Transgene Research are indeed bright stars, they are not the only ones in Notre Dame's night sky. To be ranked among the top 20 universities in the nation (number 19 in the 1997 U.S. News and World Report survey) a school must be known for some things beyond the prowess of its football team. In fact, according to The Rise of American Research Universities, published in 1997 by Johns Hopkins University Press, Notre Dame is "building a strong claim in the sciences and other fields as the nation's leading Catholic research university." The authors rank ND sixth among 11 "rising private research universities."
Consider the following bright spots: Notre Dame's philosophy department generally is regarded as the strongest in the University. The Real Guide to Grad School cites it for excellence in metaphysics, epistemology and continental analytic philosophy. "We are strong not only in philosophy of religion, the history of philosophy and traditional fields, such as ethics, but also the philosophy of science," says Arts and Letters Dean Mark Roche. One indicator of the department's strength is that recent Ph.D. graduates have received tenure track faculty positions at Harvard and Yale.
Notre Dame also is particularly strong in American religious and intellectual history, a strength reflected in a recent survey of 2,000 scholars of American religion. The survey cited two Notre Dame historians among "the most important in the field." Provost Hatch was singled out for his seminal book The Democratization of American Christianity, and George Marsden was cited for The Soul of a University and other books.
Another manifestation of ND's strength in the field is the Cushwa Center, which is widely regarded as the leading center for the historical study of U.S. Catholicism. Currently, the Cushwa Center, directed by R. Scott Appleby, is engaged in a wide-ranging study of American Catholicism in the 20th century, underwritten by the Lilly Foundation.
Notre Dame, of course, also has one of the largest and most distinguished theology departments at a Catholic university. Members of the department are leaders in the translation, editing and analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and are particularly strong in New Testament and Christian origins and historical theology, as well as systematic theology, moral theology and liturgical studies.
In physics, the National Science Foundation has cited ND as one of the top three U.S. universities engaged in low-energy nuclear physics research. Meanwhile the "high energy" physics researchers made waves last fall when they announced their discovery of evidence for a long-suspected but never confirmed new sub atomic particle called an "exotic meson."
Not to be outdone, researchers from the College of Engineering's new Center for Nanoelectronic Science and Technology made their own waves in August 1997. In the journal Science, the researchers revealed they had successfully controlled the position of one electron with another in an entity known as a "quantum dot." The feat is significant because it is the first experimental indication of the feasibility of "quantum cellular automata," an atomic level approach to computing. If successful, the quantum dot system could one day lead to computers 1,000 times more powerful than current machines.
Meanwhile the Notre Dame Law School is ranked among the top 20 in the nation, while the law faculty is fifth in prestige and among the top five in student satisfaction. In business, the MBA program is ranked among the top 50 in the country and the Department of Accountancy is rated among the top 10 in the nation.
Entrepreneurship is a newly emerging area of strength within the College of Business Administration. The new Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship will begin operation in fall 1998. Funded by a $2 million gift from Gary E. Gigot, a 1972 Notre Dame graduate, the program will initially offer two courses in entrepreneurship open to students from any college. A special feature is that seed money to fund business plans will be available to students in the program. Also, through the Center for Social Concerns, students will assist low income and minority startup businesses.
An anonymous gift of $1.5 million in November 1997 launched the Erasmus Institute. The unique research institute, directed by James Turner, has as its mission "reconnecting Catholic intellectual traditions with mainstream scholarship in the humanities, arts and social sciences." It will offer fellowships, sponsor publishing as well as conferences, colloquia and summer seminars for graduate students.
The Keough Institute for Irish Studies, directed by the noted Irish critic and novelist Seamus Deane, is another center of excellence in special tune with Notre Dame's character. Last fall the University announced a $13 million expansion of the institute that includes three new endowed professorships, an endowed directorship for the institute's Dublin center and a Fulbright initiative for faculty exchanges between Notre Dame and Irish universities. Further expansions include additions to Notre Dame's library; expansion of Irish language studies and conference programs; acquisition of the Irish studies journal Bullan; a major new publication series in Irish studies; and new campus offices in Flanner Hall.
For more than 30 years, Notre Dame has been a leader in parasitology and vector biology, particularly the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. That tradition continues under vector biology's new director Frank H. Collins, who with his colleagues is attempting to identify the genes that allow a certain strain of mosquito to encapsulate and kill malaria parasites early in its development.
The list could go on, of course, but you get the idea. The preceding enumeration of "Some Things ND is Known For" begs a crucial question: How did they come to be? If you know the answer, then you can "grow" emerging areas of strength into full-fledged centers of excellence.
"Hiring pivotal scholars is key," says Hatch. A couple of corollary axioms follow: First, "You can't build top-flight programs with a number of modestly good people." Second, "Strength follows strength." Once a center of excellence establishes itself it becomes a magnet for good people.
Business Dean Carolyn Woo would agree with all of the above. She notes that the ND business school was able to recruit a senior scholar from Ohio State University who is a leader in the study of stock market behavior in large part because Notre Dame already had two faculty members who were strong in the area, including one who is on the board of NASDAQ. "Most schools are lucky to have one, and we have three," she says.
Engineering Dean Anthony Michel reports a similar story. In recent years, two distinguished scholars James Merz, now vice president and dean of Notre Dame's Graduate School, and Gerald Iafrate, former director of the Army Research Office, were attracted to Notre Dame precisely because they were excited by the nanoelectronic group's innovative work in quantum cellular automata.
As much as the University may wish to develop areas of strength, there is, however, a built-in tendency working against it. "A department must be well-rounded," Hatch observes. "You have undergraduate and graduate teaching obligations that require you to cover an entire field of study." In other words, as outstanding as it might be, you can't have an English department composed solely of medievalists. You need people who know 19th century British authors and contemporary American writers as well.
The Generations campaign plays a critical role in getting around the problem. "There's a certain momentum to fill the weakest link in a department, and that's as it should be," Hatch says. However, new resources offer the flexibility to add outstanding people without worrying about always filling the gap. A case in point is the distinguished Catholic philosopher of science Kristin Schrader-Frechette. The philosophy department did not have a budget line for a position, but the availability of an endowed chair made it possible to bring her to the faculty next year.
The Colloquy for the Year 2000, Notre Dame's planning document, calls for an additional 150 faculty members to be added to the University, and 100 of these are to be funded by endowment. The impact is already being felt. For instance, an $8 million anonymous gift to the Generations campaign is funding the Sorin Distinguished Professors, one each of whom will be added to each of the colleges and the schools of law and architecture. Currently, a search is underway for the first Sorin Distinguished Professor, a Middle English and Chaucer scholar.
Landing a world class scholar has a profound effect on all aspects of a program, from faculty to student recruitment. "When we hired the [intellectual historian] George Marsden, graduate applications in American intellectual history went through the roof. It had a galvanizing effect," Hatch observes. A few years after Marsden arrived, the distinguished historian of British and American intellectual life James Turner joined the Notre Dame faculty as well.
Sometimes the impetus for a "center of excellence" may come from a resource rather than a person. Science Dean Frank Castellino points out that Notre Dame has a strong aquatic biology program primarily because Martin Gillen donated 7,500 acres of wilderness on the Michigan/Wisconsin boundary that includes more than 30 lakes and countless ponds, streams and woodlands. Additional gifts from the Jerry Hank family enabled the University to develop the site into a premier ecological research station, which is used by many universities as well as Notre Dame. "If we were designing a biology department from scratch we might not include this, but this resource has given us a tremendous advantage in the field," Castellino says.
A surprising resource that Castellino says would have the greatest impact on developing areas of strength within the College of Science is the new Science Teaching Facility. The projected $6 million building, to be funded by the Generations campaign, will consolidate all of the college's teaching labs. The move will free up much needed space for the college's research labs.
Establishing an area of strength is just the first part of the puzzle. Once you have it, you need to keep it. And that can be difficult; when it comes to academic talent, it's a jungle out there. Other universities are continually trolling for "distinguished but dissatisfied" scholars, and it raises eyebrows and lowers morale if you lose an academic star. "That has a certain emotional effect on recruitment," Roche, dean of arts and letters, says wryly.
Not long ago, for instance, Seamus Deane was wooed by New York University, and it would not be surprising if Manhattan looked slightly more tempting than South Bend. However, Notre Dame's strong commitment to develop the Irish studies program strengthened Deane's commitment to Notre Dame, and Irish studies remains a strength.
Roche believes that part of Notre Dame's abililty to attract world class scholars stems from the fact that it is the ideal size for having centers of excellence that can cross-fertilize one another. For example, while the Center for Transgene Research is obviously a resource for the biology and chemistry departments, such a leading edge research effort with implications for medical ethics also is an asset for the philosophers, theologians and other scholars of Notre Dame's Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values, as well.
"We are small enough to have contact across discipline, yet large enough to have a significant number of world class scholars," Roche says. "We have an environment here that is conducive to attracting people who are excellent scholars and teachers who want to have discussions at a high level of intellectual debate with a broad range of colleagues."
Hatch adds, "I think we are the most creative experiment in what it is to strive for academic quality and have a religious identity that is not vestigial but creative and substantive. It's never been done before. We are making the rules."
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