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

Recent presentations, publications, honors and certification include the following:

Presentations

On Sunday, April 2, 2023, Sean O’Neill, policy scientist at the Institute for Public Administration (IPA), Matt Harris, IPA associate policy scientist, and Bianca Mers, community investment analyst at REACH Riverside, led a mobile tour for the National Planning Conference in Philadelphia, hosted by the American Planning Association (APA). Recently elected as the president of the Delaware Chapter of APA, O’Neill guided 30 professional planners through the city of Wilmington while providing insights into three unique approaches to revitalization taking place over the course of many years at REACH Riverside, the Wilmington Riverfront, and West Side Grows. Bianca Mers joined the group as they set off from the Philadelphia Convention Center for Wilmington for the daylong mobile workshop. Along the way, the group met with community leaders, including Logan Herring, CEO, and Dave Ford, chief community investment officer, REACH Riverside; Michael Purzycki, mayor of the city of Wilmington; Megan McGlinchey, executive director of Riverfront Development Corporation; Sarah Lester, president and CEO of Cornerstone West Community Development Corporation; Elder Emanuel DeShields, president of Be Ready CDC and Wilmington native who has been involved in the West Side Neighborhood improvement efforts. Harris used his 12 years of experience as a community planner for the city of Wilmington to provide additional context on the tour. The attendees included professional planners from across the nation, including the Florida Panhandle, Georgia, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, California, Oregon and New Jersey. The tour showed how revitalization efforts can help cities improve blighted and depressed neighborhoods for the benefit of its residents. Wilmington is showing that it takes a variety of approaches to address the challenges many cities face. The Institute for Public Administration is a research and public service center in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration. 

Publications

Rudi Matthee, John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History, published Angels Tapping at the Wine-shop’s Door: A History of Alcohol in the Islamic World (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2023). Islam is the only major world religion that resists the juggernaut of alcohol consumption. In many Islamic countries, alcohol is banned; in others, it plays little role in social life. Yet, Muslims throughout history did drink, often to excess ― whether sultans and shahs in their palaces or commoners in taverns run by Jews or Christians. This evocative study delves into drinking’s many historic, literary and social manifestations in Islam, going beyond references to ‘hypocrisy’ or the temptations of ‘forbidden fruit.’ This book argues that alcohol, through its ‘absence’ as much as its presence, takes us to the heart of Islam. Exploring the long history of this faith ― from the eight-century Umayyad dynasty to Erdoğan’s Turkey, and from Islamic Spain to modern Pakistan ― Matthee unearths a tradition of diversity and multiplicity in which Muslims drank and found myriad excuses to do so. They celebrated wine and used it as a poetic metaphor, even viewing alcohol as a gift from God ― the key to unlocking eternal truth. Drawing on a plethora of sources in multiple languages, this study presents Islam not as an austere and uncompromising faith, but as a set of beliefs and practices that embrace ambivalence, allowing for ambiguity and even contradiction.

Leslie F. Goldstein, Judge Hugh M. Morris Professor Emerita of Political Science, has published a new book chapter, "Racism in the Constitution," in The U.S. Constitution in Five Minutes, ed. Joseph L.Smith and David E. Klein. Equinox Pub., 2023.

Honors

Norman J. Wagner, the Unidel Robert L. Pigford Chair in the College of Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ph.D. alumna Julie Hipp, now at Proctor & Gamble, and Jeffrey J. Richards of Northwestern University have received the Journal of Rheology 2023 best paper award for their article “Direct measurements of the microstructural origin of shear-thinning in carbon black suspensions.”  This recognition was awarded by the Society of Rheology, a professional organization of physicists, chemists, biologists, engineers and mathematicians who are interested in advancing and applying rheology, the science of deformation and flow of matter. The researchers will be honored at a banquet held during the XIXth International Congress on Rheology (ICR2023), which will take place in Athens, Greece, from July 29-Aug. 4, 2023.

Kayla Seymore, a fourth-year doctoral student in biomechanics and movement science, has received a prestigious F31 Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. Seymore was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Fellowships to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research. Seymore’s research focuses on Achilles tendon injuries in adolescents. “There’s not a lot of acknowledgement of people from underrepresented or minority backgrounds succeeding in STEM,” Seymore said. “This award means a lot to me, and I’m proud to represent the University of Delaware and underrepresented populations as we work to advance the science around the treatment and prevention of tendon injuries.” Seymore is working closely with Karin Grävare Silbernagel, professor in the Department of  Physical Therapy in the College of Health Sciences, who’s received international recognition for her research into tendon injuries. “It has been amazing to see Kayla grow as a scientist since she came to UD,” Silbernagel said. “She is a very deserving recipient of this highly competitive fellowship.”

Jennifer McConnell, Bentley Systems Early Career Professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is the recipient of the 2023 T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award. Presented by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), the T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award recognizes an outstanding lecturer and author whose technical paper(s) are considered an outstanding contribution to the engineering literature on fabricated structural steel. McConnell was the final keynote speaker at The Steel Conference, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she presented "Steel Structures to Withstand the Elements: What Structural Engineers Need to Know About Corrosion” on April 14, 2023. Her talk addressed the wide gap between the impact of corrosion and the comparative lack in design processes for corrosion resistance.

Certification

Chase E. Barnes, assistant policy scientist at the Institute for Public Administration (IPA), Matt Harris, IPA associate policy scientist, and Jenna Mayhew, master of public policy student, completed Temple University's Grant Writing Certificate Program, recognized by Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) International on Jan. 27, 2023. Through this certificate program, Barnes, Harris and Mayhew gained skills in grant writing, budgeting and evaluation plans. As members of the University of Delaware Grant Assistance Program (GAP), Barnes, Harris and Mayhew will use their knowledge to help municipalities throughout Delaware to apply for federal and state grants. The Institute for Public Administration is a research and public service center in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration.

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