UD Faculty Spotlight
Every UD professor will enrich thousands of students’ lives over the course of their career. Conducting field-defining research across the disciplines, our faculty create opportunities for students to learn alongside the world’s most distinguished thinkers.
Join us in celebrating our world-class faculty and the philanthropic support that makes their work possible!
About Dr. Jin
When it comes to issues like world hunger, environmental resilience, and disease prevention, models of soil mechanics don’t always spring to mind. But in her 30 years at UD, Dr. Yan Jin’s research in the field of Soil Science has yielded breakthrough technologies for removing viruses from drinking water, growing drought-resistant crops, and pulling carbon from our atmosphere. As the first woman to be awarded Soil Science of America’s prestigious Don and Betty Kirkham Award, Professor Jin continues to enrich our understanding of the complex world beneath our feet.
Philanthropic Impact
The Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professorship is funded by the late Edward F. Rosenberg, AS ’29, ’30M and his wife, Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg. Dr. Rosenberg was a nationally known rheumatologist, and his wife, a graduate of the Curtis Institute, was a concert pianist and harpist.
About Dr. Bellion
What can art and material culture teach us about American violence? According to Professor Bellion, quite a lot. From the toppling of King George III’s statue by New York colonists in 1776, to ongoing debates about Confederate monuments, Dr. Bellion’s work has revived national interest in our nation’s complex iconography. And as Director of UD’s Center for Material Culture Studies and Associate Dean for the Humanities, her leadership is making a difference across UD’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Philanthropic Impact
The Biggs Chair was established in 1998 by Sewell C. Biggs, with an additional gift from the Choptank Foundation. Mr. Biggs graduated from the University of Delaware in 1938 and was a philanthropist, world traveler and collector of fine and decorative art from the Delaware Valley Area. The Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover houses his collection, educating its visitors on the valuable cultural legacy of the region.
About Dr. Cai
As the purest of the “pure sciences,” mathematics is often described as a language spoken across cultures and time periods. But after nearly 30 years at UD, Professor Cai’s research has revealed just how much translation is required when mathematics education moves across national borders. After receiving $3.9 million in grant funding from the National Science Foundation to study the differences between China and the United States’ educational practices, Dr. Cai’s team spent seven years conducting the world’s first longitudinal study of cross-cultural mathematics curricula. Today, this work is considered foundational by educators and curriculum designers across the globe.
Philanthropic Impact
This professorship is generously funded by David E. and Kathleen A. Hollowell and supports a position in the Department of Mathematical Sciences that recognizes a faculty member actively involved in teaching, research and service in the area of secondary school mathematics.
About Dr. Prasad
In 2007, when UD purchased its first bus powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, the move was celebrated as a win for campus sustainability. But within a year, one of the vehicle’s critical parts—the hydrogen recirculator—had failed. Replacing the part was too expensive, so Dr. Prasad and his colleagues stepped in, devising a new method for passively recirculating hydrogen and then building a prototype. Just three years later, this invention had been granted a U.S. patent, and today, Dr. Prasad and his colleagues in UD’s Center for Fuel Cells and Batteries are the driving forces behind interdisciplinary research into clean energy technologies.
Philanthropic Impact
Established in 2007 by more than 50 UD alumni and their employers, the College of Engineering Alumni Professorship endowment assists the college in attracting and retaining the best and brightest talent in engineering education and research.
About Dr. Field
The world of corporate finance isn’t exactly the Wild West, but it’s also not too far off. As one of the country’s leading experts in initial public offerings (IPOs) and corporate governance, Professor Field’s research shines a light on practices that hurt investors and consumers while enriching corporate insiders. And in a recent article published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Dr. Fields and her co-authors have found that even when corporations appoint diverse directors to their boards, these directors are significantly less likely to serve in leadership positions, despite often having stronger qualifications.
Philanthropic Impact
The Donald J. Puglisi Professor of Finance was established as an endowed fund in December 2006 by Daniel B. ’78 and Carol A. Strickberger wishing to honor Donald J. Puglisi ’12H for his service and philanthropic commitment to the University of Delaware. Dr. Puglisi was a UD faculty member for 30 years and received several awards, including an honorary degree from UD in 2012.
Dr. Matt oliver
Patricia and Charles Robertson Distinguished Professor of Marine Science and Policy
About Dr. Oliver
Unfortunately, there are no penguins in Newark, DE. To create a comprehensive model of the Antarctic Peninsula’s food web, Professor Oliver and his students had to put boots on the ground. With a holistic, hands-on perspective on the region’s complex biogeography, his team has produced groundbreaking insights into the resilience, and the vulnerabilities, of critical ecosystems in a changing climate.
Philanthropic Impact
Funded through a generous gift from UD alumna Patricia Robertson and her husband Charles, the Robertson Distinguished Professorship in Marine Science and Policy was created to reward exceptional young faculty.
About Professor Ware
From serving on Presidential Commissions, to authoring more than 100 publications on Civil Rights law, to trying cases on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice: There are few jurists more accomplished than Professor Leland Ware. Who better, then, to carry the torch of Louis L. Redding, the first Black man admitted to the Delaware Bar, and whose litigation on behalf of Black school children became critical to the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Brown vs. BOE? Since joining UD in 2000, Professor Ware has carried on this legacy of public service, inspiring generations of Blue Hens along the way.
Philanthropic Impact
The Redding Chair honors Louis L. Redding, a Delaware civil rights pioneer committed to using the law to achieve social justice for all Americans.
About Dr. Jordan
Every Kindergartener knows that 2 + 2 = 4 … Right? Not quite. As Dr. Jordan’s research demonstrates, students with learning disabilities and children experiencing poverty often arrive at school without a basic sense of number quantities. You can’t add 2 + 2 if you don’t understand what “2” really means. To prepare these students for success, Professor Jordan and her colleagues have translated their findings into practical, evidence-based curricula grounded in the science of how children actually learn. Today, these methods are benefitting countless students and teachers across the U.S. and beyond.
Philanthropic Impact
The Dean Family Endowed Professorship for Teacher Education in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) was established through a charitable trust created for the purpose of attracting and retaining an outstanding educator and scholar.
About Dr. Edwards
Cardiovascular disease is the world’s leading cause of death. The good news is that it can also be one of the most preventable. In 2016, Professor Edwards received long-term funding from the National Institute of Health to establish UD’s Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in Cardiovascular Health. Studying the impacts of sleep, salt intake, exercise, and countless other factors on the cardiovascular system, Dr. Edwards and his colleagues in COBRE have developed evidence-based programs and recommendations that benefit both the Newark community as well as doctors and patients across the U.S.
Philanthropic Impact
The Unidel Chair in Health Sciences is named for the late Dr. Katherine L. “Kitty” Esterly, a pioneer in neonatology in Delaware and recipient of the University’s Medal of Distinction.
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