Endowed Lectureships
The Nieuwland Lectureships
The Nieuwland Lectureships were established in 1943 by Rev. J. Hugh O'Donnell, C.S.C., then President of the University of Notre Dame, as a permanent memorial to the late Rev. Julius A. Nieuwland, C.S.C. Rev. Nieuwland was born in Hansbeke, Belgium in 1878. He earned an A.B. at the University of Notre Dame in 1899 and a Ph.D. in chemistry at Catholic University, Washington, D.C. in 1904. He joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame in 1904, and he was Professor of Organic Chemistry from 1918 until his death in 1936.
Nieuwland's career as a chemist was devoted largely to the study of acetylene and its reactions. He developed the basic chemistry which led to the synthesis of neoprene, the first practically useful synthetic chemistry elastomer, and he discovered and explored a variety of catalytic processes in acetylene chemistry. Rev. Nieuwland was awarded the Nichols Medal of the New York Section of the American Chemical Society in 1935. He also received many other honors and distinctions.
Recent Nieuwland Lecturers
| Year | Lecturer | Affiliation | Year | Lecturer | Affiliation |
| 2019 | Matthew Francis | University of California-Berkeley | 2009 | Jeffrey W. Kelly | The Scripps Research Institute |
| 2018 | Ronald Breaker | Yale University | 2007 | A. Paul Alivisatos | University of California-Berkeley |
| 2016 | Clark R. Landis | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 2007 | Dale L. Boger | The Scripps Research Institute |
| 2015 | Mark A. Johnson | Yale University | 2006 | Jean-Marie Lehn | ISIS, Universite Loius Pasteur Strasbourg |
| 2015 | Gunda I. Georg | University of Minnesota | 2006 | Christopher T. Walsh | Harvard Medical School |
| 2013 | Joe W. Gray | Oregon Health & Science University | 2004 | Sunny Xie | Harvard University |
| 2013 | David Milstein | The Weizmann Institute of Science | 2002 | Fraser Stoddart | University of California-Los Angeles |
| 2012 | Peidong Yang | University of California-Berkeley | 2001 | John E. Bercaw | California Institute of Technology |
| 2010 | Chi-Huey Wong | National Taiwan University | 2000 | Peter B. Moore | Yale University |
| 2010 | Michael A. Marletta | University of California-Berkeley | 1999 | Mostafa El-Sayed | Georgia Institute of Technology |
The Reilly Lectureships
In 1945, Peter C. Reilly endowed the Peter C. Reilly Science Fund at the University of Notre Dame. This funds the Reilly Lectureships in both Chemistry and Biochemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering as well as fellowships for students in both departments. Over 300 distinguished scientists from the United States and abroad have occupied the Peter C. Reilly lectureship in chemistry since 1948.
Peter C. Reilly was born in Providence, RI in 1869, the son of Irish immigrants. He attended LaSalle Academy in Providence and entered the coal-tar business in 1886. In 1900, he organized his own coal-tar distilling company in Indianapolis, IN, where he had moved in 1895. This company became known as the Reilly Tar and Chemical Corporation. Mr. Reilly was a director or trustee of numerous commercial, educational, and charitable organizations. He was a member of the State Advisory Council of the Indiana University Medical Center and a Lay Trustee of the University of Notre Dame, which conferred the honorary LL.D. degree on him in 1939. Mr. Reilly died in Indianapolis in 1952.
Recent Reilly Lecturers
| Year | Lecturer | Affiliation | Year | Lecturer | Affiliation |
| 2019 | Kyoko Nazaki | University of Tokyo | 2015 | Karen Wooley | Texas A&M University |
| 2019 | Timothy Harris | Howard Hughes Medical Institute | 2015 | Sharon Hammes-Schiffer | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| 2019 | Lorena Beese | Duke University | 2015 | Mina Bissell | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 2018 | Francois Gabbai | Texas A&M University | 2015 | Peter Wolczanski | Cornell University |
| 2017 | Seth Herzon | Yale University | 2014 | Larry Overman | University of California-Irvine |
| 2017 | Daniel Crawford | Virginia Tech | 2014 | T. Don Dilley | University of California-Berkeley |
| 2017 | R. Graham Cooks | Purdue University | 2013 | David Walt | Tufts University |
| 2016 | Helen Blackwell | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 2013 | Gregory Fu | California Institute of Technology |
| 2016 | David Agard | University of California-San Francisco | 2013 | Naomi Halas | Rice University |
| 2016 | Clifford Kubiak | Yale University | 2012 | Jennifer Doudna | University of California-Berkeley |
The Freeman Lectureships
Freeman's research interests were centered in the area of organic nitrogen compounds, particularly those containing nitrogen in intermediate oxidation states, such as nitrones nitrimines, and nitroso compounds. He was elected secretary of Organic Synthesis Inc. in 1979 and served in that capacity until 2004, during which time he edited four of the publications five-year collective volumes and assembled a cumulative index of the first eight volumes.The Freeman Lecture is sponsored by the Jeremiah P. Freeman Organic Synthesis Lectureship Endowment with support from Notre Dames Nieuwland Lectures, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the College of Science. Freeman received his bachelor's degree in 1950 from the University of Notre Dame and earned masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois in 1951 and 1953 respectively. He began his career with the chemistry group of the Redstone Arsenal Research Division of the Rohm and Hass Company, before returning to Notre Dame in 1964 to join the organic chemistry faculty. While at Notre Dame, Freeman served as assistant chair and chairman of the department from 1965 to 1979 and as associate dean of the College of Science from 1988 to 1991. He also was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow from 1966 to 1968 and served as secretary-treasurer, and later chairman, of the Organic Division of the American Chemical Society from 1969 to 1975.
Recent Freeman Lecturers
| Year | Lecturer | Affiliation | Year | Lecturer | Affiliation |
| 2018 | Vy Dong | University of California-Irvine | 2008 | Jan Backvall | Stockholm University |
| 2016 | Anna Mapp | University of Michigan | 2006 | Samuel Danishefsky | Sloan Kettering Institute |
| 2015 | Rick Danheiser | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2006 | K. Barry Sharpless | The Scripps Research Institute |
| 2014 | Marvin Miller | University of Notre Dame | 2004 | Per-Ola Norrby | University of Gothenburg |
| 2013 | Andrew Holmes | University of Melbourne | |||
| 2011 | Erick Carreira | ETH Zurich | |||
| 2011 | Karl Scheidt | Northwestern University | |||
| 2010 | John Macor | Bristol Myers Squibb | |||
| 2009 | Kendall Houck | University of California-Los Angeles |