Featured Post from University of Rochester

Covering the Conclave? Our Expert Can Help.

Jack Downey is the John Henry Newman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the University of Rochester.

May 8, 2025

1 min

Jack Downey


CaptionResizeWrap TextRemove


The world is watching the Vatican as cardinals from across the globe gather for the papal conclave.


The monumental event, which involves cardinals closing themselves off in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope, is steeped in history, mystery, and speculation. The new pontiff will be expected to make difficult decisions about the future direction of the Catholic church, which has almost 1.4 billion followers worldwide, and address the Vatican's strained finances and its sexual abuse scandals.


CaptionResizeWrap TextRemove


If you're a reporter looking for an expert who can provide valuable insight, perspective and opinion on any angle of the events unfolding in Vatican City, consider reaching out to Jack Downey, the John Henry Newman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the University of Rochester. 


Downey and his scholarship have been featured in media outlets such as The Washington Post, National Public Radio, and Time Magazine.


Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.




Connect with:
Jack Downey

Jack Downey

John Henry Newman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies, Professor of Religion and Classics

Downey studies self-immolation as reistance, forms of protest, Roman Catholicism

Civil DisobedienceSocial JusticeChristianityRoman Catholicismself-immolation

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from University of Rochester

1 min

Hidden History of Bermuda is Reshaping the Way We Think About Colonial America

Early colonialism in the Americas tends to conjure images of Jamestown and Plymouth Colony. But long before settlers there acclimated to the New World’s growing conditions and overcame starvation conditions, an English settlement established in Bermuda in 1612 was wealthy and prosperous. University of Rochester historian and archaeologist Michael Jarvis has been uncovering the hidden history of Smith’s Island in Bermuda and its pivotal role in reshaping the understanding of colonial America. Nicknamed “Chainsaw Mike” by his students, he has spent 14 years excavating Smith’s Island and one of the first English settlements in the New World. Jarvis argues that Bermuda’s role in supplying Jamestown with food and influencing early colonists make it a cornerstone of America’s origin story rather than the historical footnote to which it has largely been relegated. His research on Smith’s Island was recently the cover story of Smithsonian magazine and was featured on the History Unplugged podcast. Jarvis is an expert on colonial America, the international and intercolonial networks of trade at the time, and settlement patterns in eastern North America, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the communities surrounding European gold- and slave-trade forts in West Africa. He can be reached at 585-275-4558 and michael.jarvis@rochester.edu.

1 min

Research Matters: Targeting ‘jumping genes’ holds promise for treating age-related diseases

A growing number of clinical trials gauging the effects of inhibiting transposons, so-called “jumping genes,” have yielded encouraging results for treating Alzheimer’s and a wide range of other conditions. Vera Gorbunova, a molecular biologist at the University of Rochester whose research on the causes of aging and cancer is widely regarded as pioneering, says researchers tackling aging “need something new, and inhibiting transposons shows great promise.” Gorbunova’s comments were recently featured in Science magazine, a leading news outlet for cutting-edge research in all areas of science. Researchers say clinical trials of transposon inhibitors are important not just to identify potential treatments, but also to test whether jumping genes do, in fact, drive human diseases, as many suspect. Transposon genes are found in a diverse variety of organisms, from miniscule bacteria to humans, and they are known in biological terms as “transposable elements” because they literally jump around the genome. Their vagrancy has been implicated in illnesses such as lupus, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and aging. Gorbunova is a recognized expert in aging and cancer whose research has been featured in high-profile publications ranging from Nature to The New York Times. Reach out to Gorbunova by clicking on her profile.

1 min

Research Matters: Physics Magic with a Twist

University of Rochester scientists have discovered that twisting together two atom-thin flakes of molybdenum diselenide at high angles produces artificial atoms that can act as quantum information bits, or qubits. The discovery was made in the laboratory of Nickolas Vamivakas, the Marie C. Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Optical Physics, who says he hopes the artificial atoms can be used like memory or nodes in a quantum network. “These could be the backbone for devices like the next generation of lasers or even tools to stimulate quantum physics,” Vamivakas says. The revelations built on experiments that found twisting a pair of one-atom-thick layers of graphene at the “magic” angle of 1.1 degrees created a superconductive material. Molybdenum diselenide, like graphene, is a 2D material. When monolayers of it are twisted at angles up to 40 degrees, they produce excitons, or artificial atoms, that retain information when activated by light. The discovery was recently published in Nano Letters. To learn more about Vamivakas’s research, read about it at the University of Rochester News Center and contact him at nick.vamivakas@rochester.edu.

View all posts
Powered by