February 25, 2026 

The Just Transformations to Sustainability (JTS) Initiative team is excited to share the schedule for the remaining talks for our Seminars on Sustainability lecture series. Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series is a signature lecture series that brings global sustainability leaders and world-class scholars to campus for knowledge sharing and engagement with the Notre Dame community.

Taming the land for the benefit of climate

February 27th, 2026

11:00am-12:00pm

136 DeBartolo Hall

Professor Ankur Desai, Distinguished Achievement Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will join the Notre Dame community as part of the Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability lecture series. Desai will discuss the outsized impact land has on local and global climate, although it covers less than a third of the globe. We have a relatively good understanding of human and natural changes to land surface radiation, albedo, and momentum budgets, hydrologic routing, and carbon, water, and nutrient cycle, but do we have a good enough understanding to harness those for mitigation and adaptation to climate change via direct intervention on land-atmosphere interactions?

Desai will discuss this and some of the observational and modeling advances and limitations as we move forward towards building resilient communities. This is an in-person, free, and non-ticketed event.

The Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability lecture series has exciting lineup for the Spring 2026 semester. Read more about the upcoming speakers below.

March 20th

David Sedlak, Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley on “Water for All: Solutions for a Just Transformation”

When and Where: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm, 138 DeBartolo Hall

March 27th

Sera Young, Professor of Anthropology and the Morton O. Schapiro Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University on “Making water insecurity visible: The Water Insecurity Experiences Scales”

When and Where: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm, 138 DeBartolo Hall

April 10th

Kathleen Segerson, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut on “Designing Effective Environmental and Conservation Policies”

When and Where: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm, 136 DeBartolo Hall

April 17th

Jianguo "Jack" Liu, the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University on "New Interdisciplinary Frontier:  Metacoupling Framework for Addressing Global Sustainability Challenges"

When and Where: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm, 136 DeBartolo Hall

April 24th

Katharine Suding, Distinguished Professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder on "Hope lives here: global science, local action in our path to a sustainable future"

When and Where: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm, 136 DeBartolo Hall

The JTS Initiative is building its inaugural cohort of Sustainability in Action Fellows for the Summer of 2026.This fellowship aims to cultivate and support a growing network of Notre Dame students dedicated to building a more just and sustainable world both during their time at Notre Dame and through their future careers.

Fellows will receive up to $5,000 to support their planned summer activities. Beyond the funding, they will benefit from structured mentorship, networking, and a platform to showcase their work at the inaugural JTS Fall Symposium (date TBD).

Eligibility & Key Details:

• Who: Open to all ND undergraduate students (no restrictions on majors) returning for the Fall 2026 semester who plan to engage in sustainability-focused research, service, or a professional internship during Summer 2026.
• Requirements: You must have already applied for or been accepted to a formal summer program or internship. For those who have applied but have not yet been accepted, acceptance into the Sustainability in Action Fellowship program will be contingent upon being accepted into the formal summer program, experience, or internship by March 17, 2026
• Deadline: Applications are due by 11:59 PM on Tuesday, March 17, 2026.

Click here to apply!

JTS has partnered with the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good for its Research Innovation Collaboratives Program. This program is open to applications for 4 different collaboration categories, including the sustainability collaborative, co-sponsored by JTS. All teams will be led by two principal investigators and will include 3 extra collaborators that may include faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, staff, or external partners. Each collaboration will receive a $25,000 research grant per year, for two consecutive years, along with one course release. Projects may take the form of public events, performances, exhibitions, scholarly publications, digital resources, and new courses.

Proposals will be evaluated by an interdisciplinary faculty committee based on interdisciplinarity, collaboration, scholarly excellence, and impact, with special review committees convened for arts, global Catholic, and sustainability projects. 

Applications for the program are due April 1, 2026 through the Franco Institute’s submission portal. 

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Just Transformation to Sustainability Initiative

jts@nd.edu | Notre Dame, IN 46556