For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent presentations, awards and publications include the following:

Presentations

Abayomi Akinboye, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, presented “The Influence of Business Incubators in Achieving Economic Development in Ghana” with Daniel Gameti, a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) annual conference in January. Akinboye and Gameti explored the role of business incubators in developing entrepreneurship in developing countries.

Chase Barnes, Collin Willard, Lori Spagnolo, Matt Harris and Larry Windley from UD’s Grant Assistance Program (GAP) engaged technical assistance providers from Main Street America, Rails to Trails and the Rural Community Assistance Program at a kick-off event in Milford and Slaughter Beach, Delaware, to discuss the proposed multi-use trail connecting the two municipalities along Route 36 (Cedar Beach Road). The recreational trail project funding comes as the result of the successful U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Thriving Communities Program Grant application that was submitted by Milford and Slaughter Beach with the help of the GAP team. On Jan. 17 and 18, technical assistance providers toured both municipalities, met with staff to discuss the project, and presented to the Milford City Council. Representatives from the Delaware DOT Byways Program, DuPont Nature Center, Abbott’s Mill Nature Center, Delaware Sea Grant, Delaware Greenways, UD Coastal Resilience Design Studio, Sussex Cyclists, Southern Delaware Tourism, Dover/Kent Metropolitan Planning Organization and Bike Delaware participated in discussions about the multi-use trail. GAP will continue working with the technical assistance providers to conduct community engagement, agency coordination, and project planning activities. GAP is funded by the State of Delaware and housed in the Institute for Public Administration, a research and public service center in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration.

Trevor A. Dawes, the vice provost for libraries and museums and May Morris University Librarian, and the 63rd President of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), presided over the inaugural ARL President’s Institute in San Diego, California, on Jan. 8. The Institute, titled “Embracing Sustainability: Libraries Leading the Way,” was designed to provide an opportunity for librarians to learn more about how they can employ sustainable practices in their daily professional lives and provided participants with practical and tangible tools they could use to help their respective communities advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. 

Maisha Carey, deputy university librarian and director of organizational learning at the UD Library, Museums and Press, co-facilitated and served on the planning committee for the inaugural Association of Research Libraries President’s Institute in San Diego, California, on Jan. 8.

On Jan. 16, Margaret Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, was an invited participant in the online study group organized by the British Association of Decadence Studies and sponsored by Goldsmiths, University of London, where Oscar Wilde's play Salome and the illustrations of it by Aubrey Beardsley were the topics. (Stetz is the author of Aubrey Beardsley, 150 Years Young, the catalog of the exhibition that she curated with Mark Samuels Lasner, Senior Research Fellow, UD Library, Museums and Press, in 2022 at the Grolier Club, New York City.)

Awards 

Srikanth Pilla, engineering professor and director of the Center for Composite Materials, has been named a 2024 Fellow of the Society of Plastic Engineers (SPE). A prolific scholar and pioneer in composites and sustainability with an h-index of 44, Pilla’s research involves engineering advanced, multifunctional polymers, composites and foams embracing sustainability for various applications. In addition to his research publications that have over 7,150 citations, he has also served as the editor-in-chief for the Society of Automotive Engineers Journal of Sustainable Transportation, Energy, Environment and Policy, and owns five patents on the various materials he has invented. Pilla holds faculty appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the College of Engineering. SPE is an organization that has been connecting plastics professionals since 1942. With more than 60,000 stakeholders in more than 80 countries worldwide, SPE is committed to creating a forum for experts who can create solutions for the issues facing the plastics industry. SPE Fellows are honored for their outstanding contributions to the field of plastics engineering, science, technology or management. Pilla will receive this recognition during the Society of Plastic Engineers’ 82nd Annual Technical Conference, held in St. Louis, Missouri, from March 3 to March 7.

UD’s graduate woodwind quintet in residence has been accepted as one of only seven chamber music groups in the country to compete at the Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Wind Competition on March 16. The Easterlies, Miracle Johnson, flute; Axel Ferguson, oboe; Joe Gonzales, clarinet; Austin Perry, bassoon; and Noah Farnsworth, horn, take their name from easterly winds in weather and climate. The quintet will compete with works written by their own members and repertoire standards.

Esther Biswas-Fiss, professor and chair of the Department of Medical and Molecular Sciences in the College of Health Sciences, was recognized by the Foundation Fighting Blindness on International Day of Women and Girls in Science on Feb. 11. The annual observance, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, promotes full and equal access and participation of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Biswas-Fiss, a first-generation college student, was also the first in her family to graduate from high school. She now guides the next generation of scientists seeking to make an impact in the field. The Foundation Fighting Blindness awarded Biswas-Fiss an Individual Investigator Research Award in June 2023 to study the ABCA4 gene and its thousands of genetic variants that are the leading cause of Stargardt disease, an inherited retinal disease often resulting in blindness. 

Rachel Davidson, assistant professor of chemistry, received a $55,000 grant for research that is part of the Scialog: Negative Emissions Science initiative. The Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and ClimateWorks Foundation awarded seven cross-disciplinary teams of early career scientists as part of this initiative which is aimed at advancing the underlying science needed to make technologies to capture and utilize greenhouse gases globally scalable. Davidson has partnered with Michael Ross at UMass Lowell and Wen Song at UT Austin to use machine learning to understand the kinetics of carbon dioxide mineralization reactions to enable long term storage of the gas in volcanic rock formations.

Four UD doctoral students received Grants in Aid of Research awards to support their work from Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society. Biological sciences students Somdeepa Chakraborti and Amaili Karunathilaka and bioinformatics/data science student Suhotro Gorai were awarded their grants in October 2023, and biological sciences student Sadia Islam received a grant in March 2023. Sigma Xi’s Grants in Aid of Research are very competitive awards with only approximately ten percent of applications receiving funding.

Monica A. Coleman, professor of Africana studies, was named in the Marquis Who’s Who in America this year. Coleman’s research interests include African American religions, African traditional religions, black and womanist theologies, process theology, theories of religious pluralism, and the intersection of mental health and faith.

Publications

Suzanne L. Burton, senior associate dean for the Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences, and professor of music education, has published a chapter titled “Facilitating Songwriting with Children,” in The Oxford Handbook of Music Composition Pedagogy. The chapter, which includes contributions from Heather Wadler, a 2019 CAS alumna, presents a research-based pedagogical approach to inspire children’s musical creativity and self-expression.

Heinz-Uwe Haus, professor of theater, reviewed the recent poetry collection "Maria Eich" by Theodor Damian in the Greek literary magazine Anef.

Honors

Tara Smith, director of the strategic communication master’s program, was recently named co-chair of the Accreditation Marketing Committee for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). This national committee oversees the promotion of the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) certification to PRSA members. The APR credential showcases professional competencies and reflects progressive public relations/communications practices. Smith recently received the Great Ideas for Teaching award at the PRSA Educators Academy.

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