First Lecture Series
The First Lecture Series, a partnership between the Office of Undergraduate Education and colleges and schools at Notre Dame, invites first-year students to engage with the scholarly life of our distinct university community, integrating intellectual passion and a keenly developed moral responsibility.
Each Welcome Weekend, Notre Dame faculty join you in your first moments on campus. While offering a glimpse into their own personal and academic journeys, these expert scholars will challenge you to begin to form your unique response to the lectures' animating questions:
What matters?
What should we do about it?
This Welcome Weekend, witness a model of scholarship driven by passion and a desire to serve the Common Good. In turn, ignite your engagement with the Notre Dame scholarly community, imagine your distinct academic journey, and look forward to your entire undergraduate educational experience.
Watch the First Lecture Series Video Overview
Registration will open July 22, 2026
Beginning July 22, you can browse the Fall 2026 First Lecture Series and register for one First Lecture. All lectures take place simultaneously and each lecture is limited according to space capacities. Since registration is on a first-come basis, we encourage you to explore options and register as soon as possible. Registration will close on August 4, 2026.
You will be automatically assigned a First Lecture if you did not register for a First Lecture.
Register for your First Lecture.
Explore all Lectures
All students can register for any lecture across any college or school. We encourage you to embrace your sense of curiosity and discovery as you step into this new community of scholars. What sparks your interest? What have you never heard of before? How will you best utilize this chance to explore?
Connect with Others
Since the First Lecture Series invites you to register for a preferred lecture based on your curiosity, this registration process is an opportunity for you to connect with classmates of similar academic and intellectual interests. Here, we hope to help you initiate formative relationships with not only Notre Dame faculty, but with each other.
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Accounting for "Success"
This First Lecture will discuss adjustments to college life at Notre Dame, and how you define "success" at Notre Dame and in your business career.
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Be Good and Do Good: The Role of Marketing in Making a Difference
Join Susan Kleiser, Teaching Professor of Marketing, to discuss making a positive impact on the Notre Dame community, the field of marketing, and beyond.
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Brain Surgery, Quantum Mechanics, and Rocket Science: All in a Day's Work as an ND Engineer
This lecture will share how undergraduate students I work with are advancing science and technology to address meaningful challenges in biomedical imaging, photonics, and satellite technology.
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Chemical Engineering Past and Future
Humankind has reached the point of changing our environment on a global scale. How did we get here? How will we (you!) address the consequences?
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Data, Decisions and Doubts: Living in a 3D World
In this lecture, we’ll look at how to question the quality of the data we rely on, how to remain open to changing our minds, and why a healthy dose of doubt is essential in a data-driven world.
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Digital Technologies and Architectural Heritage
This lecture explores the intersection of digital technologies and classical architecture through the reconstruction of a lost monument of French architectural heritage: the church of Sainte-Anne-la-Royale.
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Faith that Seeks Understanding: How Theology Can Illumine and Integrate Your Notre Dame Studies, Experience, and Goals
Join Fr. Kevin Grove, C.S.C., to think "theologically" about your time at Notre Dame and to consider how seeking wisdom draws together all that one does as a student.
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Fixed Borders to Fluid Futures: The Philosophical Paradoxes of Global Affairs
This talk examines the tension between the idea of narrowly self-interested nation states and the universal rights of all people.
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From the Grotto to Governance: A Return to Notre Dame, a Calling to AI Ethics
In this talk, I’ll share how my time at Notre Dame shaped the questions I now ask about power, responsibility, and ethics in AI.
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Galactic Archaeology: The Joy of Original Research
I will take you on a journey of galactic archaeology. We will find out what clues galaxies have left us about their ancient past. More importantly, we will understand the joy of finding out things no other human yet knows.
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How Your College Years Shape Future Breakthroughs
One of the most liberating truths about college is that your path doesn't have to be set in stone on day one; in fact, it will likely change as you discover new passions.
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In the Beginning: The Awesome Power of Words and Other Creative Actions
In this lecture, the framework of “performance” will help us understand the world-shaping power of literature, art, music, and our own most impractical-seeming passions.
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Making a Difference through Social Entrepreneurship
This session will introduce social entrepreneurship as a means for producing innovative solutions to big challenges such as poverty, human trafficking, literacy gaps, or environmental degradation.
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March on to Victory: How Planning for your Career after Graduation Now will Set You Up for Success Here at Notre Dame
Matthew Morrison will share insights into setting and achieving career goals, how understanding that process will position you for a successful Notre Dame experience, and some cool stories from working with NASA astronauts.
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More Than the Right Answer: What Mathematical Puzzles Teach Us About Curiosity and Doubt
In this talk, we will explore several convincing visual arguments that lead to impossible conclusions.
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On Flourishing
This lecture will discuss what it means, and who has a right, to flourish in the context of contemporary global ethics.
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Powerful Means - Finding and living your purpose through academic engagemen
We will explore what it means to serve as a Powerful Means, by identifying ways you can live your values and purpose through intentional academic engagement.
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Prices, Panics, and Purpose
Economics matters because people matter. Studying recessions, inflation, central banks, policy, and growth is a way of asking how we can help people and places flourish.
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Riding the Robotics Wave and Putting it to Good Use
In this lecture, I'll recount my personal journey through robotics, including my work on four-legged quadruped robots, and my more recent efforts to develop intelligent lower-limb assistive devices.
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Study War, Make Peace
In this lecture we'll explore why studying international relations matters and how it provides us with the tools to build a more pacific future for all mankind.
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The Chemistry of Cancer: Small pH Changes with Big Consequences
This talk explores how work at Notre Dame to understand cancer's hidden chemistry could lead to new ways to detect, prevent, and treat metastatic disease.
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The Role of Engineers in the Development of Future Cities
In this session, students will dive into four of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ visionary future city archetypes: mega, floating, ice, and off-world cities.
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What does Mendoza offer to Undergraduates Interested in Finance?
What does finance have to do with "growing the good?"
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What rights do immigrants have under the U.S. Constitution and International Human Rights Law?
Professor Corcoran, a human rights lawyer, will discuss what rights immigrants have both under the U.S. Constitution and international human rights law.
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Why Constraints Make You More Creative
In this lecture, we’ll explore how collaborative, cross-disciplinary design can spur sustainable and innovative solutions for a world in need.