Research Achievement Award
Established in 2022–23 by Dean Sarah Mustillo, the Arts & Letters Research Achievement Award is bestowed on one member of the tenured faculty in the College who has demonstrated outstanding and significant scholarly achievement.
The ideal candidate will have a strong and sustained record of scholarly accomplishment, distinguished by an exceptional publication record and corresponding evidence of disciplinary impact. This faculty member should consistently demonstrate extraordinary innovation or creativity, leadership in their field, and engagement with Notre Dame’s research and educational mission. To be eligible for nomination, the individual must have been on the faculty at Notre Dame for at least 5 consecutive years.
Inaugural Winner: E. Mark Cummings
E. Mark Cummings, the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families Professor of Psychology, has been awarded the Arts and Letters Research Achievement Award. Mark is a prolific and influential scholar working to discover the means by which family relationships and community contexts affect children’s development between early childhood and later adolescence.
Following decades of basic research, he and his students have developed and are evaluating programs designed to improve family functioning, the quality of inter-parental and parent-child relationships, and children’s well-being when exposed to adversities such as marital conflict and political violence. Supported by some $40M in grant funding over his career, his program of research has, to date, resulted in 366 publications, including 13 books, 279 journal articles, and 58 chapters in scholarly volumes that have collected 50,000 citations.
The awards ceremony will take place at the Spring Faculty Meeting on Tuesday, May 2 at 3:30 p.m. in McKenna Hall, where Professor Cummings will offer brief remarks regarding his research. A reception will follow.