The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. The White House, following recommendations from participating agencies, confers the awards annually. To be eligible for a Presidential Award, an individual must be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident. Some of the winning scientists and engineers receive up to a five-year research grant.
Richard H. Herman is a mathematician, currently Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, who had served as the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2005-2009. He previously served there as Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs since 1998. As provost he garnered support for, and administered, a “faculty excellence” program designed to bring established faculty to the institution. Throughout his administrative tenure, sponsored research at the university increased by more than 50%.
The 1929 college football season saw a number of unbeaten and untied teams. Purdue, Tulane, Notre Dame, and Pittsburgh all finished the regular season with wins over all their opponents. Notre Dame was recognized as national champion by two of three contemporary major selectors, while the third (Houlgate) named USC (10–2). Eight of nine retrospective selectors later also named Notre Dame and USC as No. 1 teams.
The 1921 NCAA Track and Field Championships was the first NCAA track and field championship. The event was held at Stagg Field in Chicago, Illinois in June 1921. The University of Illinois won the team title.
M. Brian Blake is an American computer scientist/software engineer and the eighth president of Georgia State University. He was previously the executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at George Washington University; executive vice president of academic affairs and the Nina Henderson Provost at Drexel University; the dean of the graduate school and vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Miami; an associate dean for research and professor at the College of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame; and department chair and professor of computer science at Georgetown University.
The University of Notre Dame's annual commencement exercises are held each May, currently in the Notre Dame Stadium. The exercises award undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Katherine Bennett Ensor is an American statistician specializing in numerous methods in computational and statistical analysis of time series data, stochastic process modeling, and estimation to forecast issues in public health, community informatics, computational finance, and environmental statistics.
Joan Huber is an American sociologist and professor emeritus of sociology at Ohio State University. Huber served as the 79th president of the American Sociological Association in 1989. Huber taught at the University of Notre Dame from 1967 to 1971, eventually moving to Illinois, where she taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. While instructing numerous sociology courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Huber served as the director of Women's Studies Program for two years (1978–1980), and then became the head of the Department of Sociology in 1979 until 1983. In 1984, Huber left Illinois for an opportunity at the Ohio State University, where she became the dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, coordinating dean of the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, and senior vice president for academic affairs and university provost. During her time, Huber was president of Sociologists for Women in Society from 1972 to 1974, the Midwest Sociological Society from 1979 to 1980, and the American Sociological Association from 1988 to 1989. Being highly recognized for her excellence, in 1985 Huber was given the Jessie Bernard Award by the American Sociological Association. Not only was Huber an instructor of sociology at multiple institutions or president of different organization, she also served different editorial review boards, research committees, and counseled and directed many institutions on their sociology departments.
Joan F. Brennecke is an American chemical engineer who is the Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Brennecke develops supercritical fluids, ionic liquids and novel spectroscopic methods.
Sonajharia Minz is an academician, trained in mathematics and computer science, actively engages with issues of the marginalized, women, and adivasi Dalits. The former vice-chancellor of Sido Kanhu Murmu University (SKMU) is the second tribeswoman, but first from the state of Jharkhand to be appointed as vice chancellor of SKMU, Dumka, Jharkhand. After successful completion of her term of three years as vice chancellor, she returned to her parent institute, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Jada Benn Torres is an American genetic anthropologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University. She serves as Director of the Laboratory of Genetic Anthropology and Biocultural Studies. Her research considers the genetic ancestry of African and Indigenous people
Jennifer L. Tank is an American ecologist who is the Galla Professor of Ecology of Streams and Rivers at the University of Notre Dame. Her research considers the biogeochemistry of streams, the influence of agriculture on land conservation, stream restoration and stream transport. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020.
Marian Cecelia Johnson-Thompson is an American virologist who was a professor at the University of the District of Columbia. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Rebecca Walo Omana is a Congolese mathematician, professor, and reverend sister. Omana became the first female mathematics professor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1982. She is the director of the mathematics and informatics doctoral program at the University of Kinshasa and is a vice-president of the African Women in Mathematics Association. Her mathematical interests lie in differential equations, nonlinear analysis, and modeling.
Fang Liu is a Chinese-American statistician and data scientist whose research topics include differential privacy, statistical learning theory, Bayesian statistics, regularization, missing data, and applications in biostatistics. She is a professor in the Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Notre Dame.
Melissa Lynn Gilliam is an American pediatric and adolescent gynecologist. She is the first black woman to serve as provost of Ohio State University, having previously served as a Professor of Health Justice at the University of Chicago. On the 4th of October 2023, she was announced as the incoming president of Boston University.
Patricia Louise Clark is an American biophysicist. She is the Rev. John Cardinal O’Hara, C.S.C., Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, associate vice president for research, and director of the Biophysics Instrumentation Core Facility at the University of Notre Dame.
Karen J. Colley is an American glycobiologist and academic administrator serving as the provost of the University of Illinois Chicago since 2023. She is a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics and the editor-in-chief of Glycobiology.
