David Hernandez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics and Concurrent Assistant Professor in Anthropology. He received his Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Cincinnati and is currently the Project Director for Excavations and Principal Investigator at The Butrint Archaeological Research Project in Albania. The site is home to one of the best-preserved Roman forums outside of Italy. While Butrint is an area of the ancient world that has been relatively understudied, the site served as a civic, religious, and administrative space beginning in the 7th century BC. Prof. Hernandez has been digging at Butrint for nine years and began taking Notre Dame undergraduates with him three years ago. His student assistants come from a variety of departments, including Classics, Anthropology, and the Reilly Center’s Dual-Degree Arts & Letters/Engineering Program. Preliminary findings from the dig can be found in Hernandez’s 2008 article “The Roman Forum at Butrint (Epirus) and its Development from Hellenistic to Mediaeval Times” (with Dh. Çondi) in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.
For more information about Professor Hernandez’s project and his mentorship of Notre Dame undergraduates, click here or here.
Nick Laneman is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and the Founding Director of the Wireless Institute in the College of Engineering. He earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from M.I.T. and has been a faculty member at Notre Dame since 2002, where he has published foundational research on wireless communication systems. Prof. Laneman has received multiple national research and teaching awards, including a 2006 Presidential Early-Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a 2006 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, a 2003 Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, and the 2001 MIT EECS Harold L. Hazen Graduate Teaching Award.
The author of over 100 publications, Laneman is also the co-inventor on 5 U.S. patents and has several patents pending. He has been a consultatnt for L-3 Communications, Global Security and Engineering Solutions (Rome, NY), NuCrypt, Inc. (Evanston, IL), the Institute for Defense Analyses (Alexandria, VA), Caveo Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA), and TechOnLine, Inc. (Bedford, MA).
Jessica Payne is Assistant Professor and Nancy O'Neill Collegiate Chair in Psychology. Her research focuses on how sleep and stress influence human memory and psychological function. Prof. Payne is also the Director of ND’s Sleep, Stress and Memory (SAM) Laboratory as well as H. Smith Richardson Jr. Fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, NC. After earning her Ph.D. in Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Arizona, Prof. Payne was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and a Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Scientist at Harvard Medical School.
Prof. Payne has published over two-dozen journal articles, and media outlets including Scientific American, National Geographic, Reuters, Popular Science, and The New York Daily News have either interviewed her or reported on her findings.
To see an interview with Prof. Payne, click here.
Carter Snead is a Professor of Law and, beginning in July 2012, the H.P. and W.B. White Director of the University of Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. His principal area of research is public bioethics and he has also explored issues relating to neuroethics, enhancement, stem cell research, abortion, and end-of-life decision-making. Prof. Snead received his J.D. from Georgetown University and has served on numerous international committees and national boards for bioethics policy and research, including the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (IBC), the Council of Europe Steering Committee on Bioethics (CDBI), UNESCO’s Global Ethics Observatory Legal Peer Review Working Group, and The Witherspoon Council on Ethics and Integrity of Science. From 2002-2005, Snead was General Council for The President’s Council on Bioethics and the principal drafter of the April 2004 Council Report “Reproduction and Responsibility: The Regulation of New Biotechnologies.”
Snead is currently the co-principal investigator (along with Reilly Fellow Phillip Sloan) on the University of Notre Dame Adult Stem Cell Initiative, which studies the theological, scientific, philosophical, ethical, and legal aspects of alternative stem cell research.