On Wednesday, Daniel O’Sullivan, the former ambassador of the European Union (EU) to the United States, will speak about the relationship between the United States and Europe as part of the 2019 Nanovic Forum, the University announced in a Monday press release. The lecture will take place Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Jenkins-Nanovic Hall.
According to the release, O’Sullivan has had a long career in both European and international diplomacy. His 2014-2019 tenure as EU ambassador to the United States came after he served as the president of the European Commission from 2000-2005. He is an alumnus of Trinity College Dublin, and he holds an honorary doctorate from both that institution and the Dublin Institute of Technology. He is a 2014 recipient of the EU Transatlantic Business Award, presented by the American Chamber of Commerce.
Professor William Collins Donahue, the director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, said he is excited that O’Sullivan will be able to visit Notre Dame and share his insights about current happenings in international politics.
“Having hosted ambassador O’Sullivan in Washington, D.C., last year, I am delighted he is now able to come to Notre Dame to share his perspectives with faculty and students,” Donahue said in the release. “He brings singular clarity and eloquence to a complex set of issues.”
According to the release, the Nanovic Forum was first held in 2011 and was created “through the support of Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic.” Its primary purpose, the release said, is to bring leading European figures across a variety of fields to the University in order to deepen the conversation about contemporary European issues.
In the release, Donahue said the Nanovic Forum is meant to give students and other community members a sense of current issues facing Europe. He also said, in addition to the lecture, O’Sullivan will engage with members of the University community in other, more informal settings.
“The Nanovic Forum, thanks to the ongoing generosity of Bob and Liz Nanovic, offers a valuable opportunity for the institute to connect with Europe and to reflect on the complexities of contemporary issues,” Donahue said in the release. “Ambassador O’Sullivan will also engage with students and faculty in various smaller settings — over meals and coffee and in several classes. The real genius of the Nanovic Forum is its ability to ignite conversations in multiple places all over campus.”
In previous years, Nanovic Forum speakers have included former president of Germany Horst Koehler, former Polish prime minister Hanna Suchocka, University of Oxford chancellor Lord Patton of Barnes, former European Organization for Nuclear Research director general Rolf-Dieter Heuer and filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta.
