The College of Science was established in 1865 by Rev. John Zahm, C.S.C., and in 1884 the first Science Hall is built (now LaFortune Student Center).
In April 1899 Professor Jerome Green his assistants set out to replicate the wireless experiments conducted by Guglielmo Marconi. First they sent messages between different rooms of Science Hall (now LaFortune Hall), then they tried between Science Hall and Sorin Hall, and finally they successfully transmitted messages from the spire of the Sacred Heart Church to Saint Mary's College, several miles away. He then went on to replicate these experiments the following month in Chicago.[2][3][4] Although these experiments were merely duplication of those of Marconi, they were the first radio transmissions in America.[4]
Rev. Julius Nieuwland, C.S.C., a Notre Dame chemist and botanist, establishes 1909 The American Midland Naturalist, a Midwestern plant life quarterly that today is an international journal of ecology, evolution, and the environment. His research leads to the development in 1930 at DuPont industries of Neoprene, the first synthetic rubber. Because of his contribution, in 1952 DuPont paid in part the construction of Nieuwland Science Hall, that to this day hosts research in physics and chemistry.
The Laboratories of Bacteriology at the University of Notre Dame (LOBUND) is established in 1935 after the germ-free research of Prof. James Reyniers. The LOBUND attracts top scientists and became the world's leader institution in germ-free research.
Prof. George B. Craig Jr. becomes the director of the Vector Biology Laboratory in 1957 and, for the next two decades, performs important research into the genetics of Aedes aegypti. The New York Times called Craig "one of the world's foremost experts on mosquitoes".[5] and the National Academies Press called him "an internationally recognized expert on the biology and control of mosquitoes" and that his "contributions made ... to medical entomology are almost incalculable".[6]
The Jordan Hall of Science opens in 2006, after an investment of more than $70 million donated by Chicago business man Jay Jordan. The Hall includes a Digital Visualization Theater, 40 teaching labs, two lecture halls, an observatory, a greenhouse, and a space exhibiting the extensive plant collection of Rev. Nieuwland. In 2005 Notre Dame is part of a consortium that sponsored the Large Binocular Telescope. In 1989 Dr. Malcolm Fraser discovered and developed the PiggyBac transposon system.[7][8]
Departments, Majors, and Minors
Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics
The College of Science has facilities in Jordan Hall, Galvin Hall, Stepan Chemistry Hall, Nieuwland Hall, McCourtney, and other locations on campus. UNDERC is a center for environmental studies located on the Wisconsin-Michigan border.
Jordan Hall, home of the College of Science. It houses 40 laboratories, an observatory, two lecture halls, several classrooms, a small café, quiet study areas on each floor, and a greenhouse.
McCourtney Hall, which was built in 2016 and is a research center for Biochemistry and Bioengineering.
Nieuwland Hall, home to the Department of Physics and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Nieuwland is also home to a brand new low-energy nuclear accelerator.
Hayes-Healy Hall, the home of the department of Mathematics and the O’Meara Mathematics Library.
Stepan Chemistry Hall, which houses chemistry faculty offices and laboratories.