Genomics, Disease Ecology, and Global Health
About
The University of Notre Dame's Eck Institute for Global Health is a university-wide enterprise that recognizes health as a fundamental human right and endeavors to promote research, training, and service to advance health standards for all people, especially people in low-and middle-income countries, who are disproportionately impacted by preventable diseases.
The Eck Institute for Global Health was established in 2009 and is funded through a generous endowment from the Frank Eck Family. The Institute is an administrative structure that brings together a diverse group of faculty, staff, and students from several different Colleges and Departments whose research and teaching address questions that are relevant to global health. Notre Dame has a long tradition of excellence in research and training in the area of tropical infectious diseases and the biology of their arthropod vectors. The Eck Institute for Global Health seeks to both build on the University’s strengths in infectious diseases research and training, as well as foster the interdisciplinary research and training that is demanded to holistically address health disparities around the world.
The many exceptional intellectual and academic resources on the Notre Dame campus position the Eck Institute for Global Health to make significant contributions towards the goal that all people enjoy the highest attainable standard of health. In addition to strong programs in infectious diseases research and training, the Biology Department has respected research and training programs in ecology, evolution, cell biology and physiology; all disciplines with important contributions to make in the global health field. Other key intellectual and academic resources at Notre Dame that contribute to this multidisciplinary approach include:
- Center for Aquatic Conservation is wide-ranging, from risk assessment of aquatic invasive species to effect of global warming on coupled terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
- Center for Civil and Human Rights in the Notre Dame Law School focuses both on civil rights and international human rights.
- Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases focuses on human disease pathologies of neglected diseases in the U.S. and worldwide.
- Center for Social Concerns is the service and community-based learning center of the University.
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies, which fosters interdisciplinary research on contemporary political, economic, social and religious issues in the context of comparative international studies.
- Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, one of the world’s principal centers for the study of the causes of violent conflict and strategies for sustainable peace.
- Reilly Center for Science Technology and Values endeavors to make a distinctive contribution to the humanistic understanding of science and technology.
- Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend has partnered closely with Notre Dame and specifically with the Eck Institute for Global Health. Pooled resources, shared research facilities and joint faculty appointments provide new opportunities and collaboration in biomedical research for Notre Dame students and faculty.
- Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity supports research, teaching, and direct engagement with communities to understand the conditions that affect human welfare, including the dynamics of extreme poverty, economic growth and development, the political and social determinants of the distribution of wealth and opportunity, politics and public policy, population and individual health, human rights, and human dignity.
- International research sites where Eck Institute for Global Health members are currently engaged include: Benin, Burkino Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Haiti, Kenya, Mali, Tanzania, Trinidad, Uganda, and Zambia.
For more specific information on research activities please see information on the research interests of each of the Institute’s faculty members and publications. Faculty in the Institute receive support from major federal funding agencies such as the NIH, NSF, DOD, and USDA, from private foundations like John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ellison Medical Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, from international funding bodies like the World Health Organization, from pharmaceutical industries, from the State of Indiana, from the University of Notre Dame, and from private benefactors.
While still in its formative stages, the Institute has launched several programs:
- International Global Health Travel Grant Program for Notre Dame undergraduate and graduate students
- Global Health Graduate Student Fellowships
- Global Health Colloquium for graduate students and faculty
