Dawn O Braithwaite, Willa Cather Professor and chair of communication studies, will receive the James Ferris Award for Contributions to Communication and Disability Studies from the National Communication Association Disability Issues Caucus. Dawn and co-honoree Teresa Thompson (University of Dayton) are among the earliest disability communication researchers in the communication discipline and published the "Handbook of Communication and People with Disabilities: Research and Application" (2000, Erlbaum). The award will be presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association in Las Vegas in November.
Ethiyal Raj Wilson, a physics and electrical engineering major, won third place in the NDConnect Undergraduate Research Competition for his presentation “Boron Carbide for Neutron Voltaics in Deep Space Missions and Other Applications.” The event was part of the Notre Dame Competition in Nanoscience and Nanoengineering. Fourteen finalists were invited to present their research at the Notre Dame Center for Nano Science and Technology on Oct. 23. Wilson took home $1,000 for placing in the competition.
Elizabeth Straley, doctoral candidate in sociology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study the relationship between experiencing discrimination and mental and physical health of non-heterosexual students. The connection between health, stigma, and brain processing has not been examined, so this research could help scientists understand how the brain regulates health in conjunction with social experiences. She will use the Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior to measure brain activity.
