From the Chair

Colleagues, Alumni and Friends,

Sometimes plans change.

After stepping down as MIP graduate program director at the end of 2020, I was looking forward to spending some time focusing on my research laboratory, my ongoing educational and research work in the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, and maybe a little more time to spend with family and on the soccer field. As most of you know, in August of 2021 our recently appointed chair, Dr. Santiago Schnell was recruited to become the Dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame. Someone must have put my name forward, and within a few short weeks on September 1st, I became the department’s interim chair.

As a new chair, I feel very fortunate to work with dedicated staff, ambitious (and forgiving) colleagues, and wonderful postdocs and students that continue to make the department an awesome place to do science, a supportive place to learn and launch a career, and overall, a warm and friendly community that makes MIP a rewarding place to work. Fortunately, Santiago led the department through a very challenging time during the pandemic and left the department in great shape for the next interim chair. As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, our research is ramping up, our science is making an impact, and it has been wonderful to begin to meet back in person to share our discoveries, participate in classroom discussions, and see each other’s faces without masks.

In this year’s Physiology Matters, our editorial team of students and postdoctoral fellows have crafted some wonderful stories highlighting the people, research, events, and activities within our department over the last year. We hope these stories will help remind you of your experiences in MIP and how our scientific and educational efforts in the department often intersect with our lives and community beyond the walls of our research buildings. Our research is impacting health and disease, our students and postdocs are acquiring training to go out and become the next generation of leaders, and our service to the community continues to foster the next generation of scientists to be more diverse and inclusive than ever. One of the most exciting roles as a chair is to help lead the recruitment of new individuals to the department and welcome new members to our MIP community. Recruiting through our undergraduate programs, our student and postdoc programs and now recruiting faculty members brings me great joy to be able to open our doors to all MIP has to offer.

Having seen in more detail the generous contributions of time and resources that so many of you have given to help build the departments research and programs into what they are now, I really need to say on behalf of all the past and present MIP family, thank you! If you are looking for an opportunity to contribute to the ongoing research and programs in our department, please see the last page for a list of some of our philanthropic funds that our supporting programs in MIP. I particularly want to highlight and seek your consideration of a gift to our MS program fund. The MS program is an important steppingstone for many students to launch a career in medicine or research, and we are working very hard to try to make the program more accessible to students with financial need.

Sometimes plans do change. Sometimes unexpected changes end up being more delightful than what you were expecting. I am delighted to have the opportunity serve as interim chair and look forward to what the next years will bring for MIP.

Daniel Michele