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

Rudi Matthee, John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History, presented “Angels Tapping at the Wine-shop’s Door: A History of Alcohol in the Islamic World,” at a colloquium, “How to Study Food in Archeology and History,” organized by the Winter School of the University of Pavia, Italy, on Dec. 4 by Zoom.

Awards

Dominic Di Toro, Edward C. Davis Professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was recently honored during a special session at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) North America 44th annual meeting, which took place from Nov. 12-16 in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Di Toro, who is also the Director for the Center for the Study of Pollutants in the Environment and holds a joint faculty appointment in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, is a pioneer in developing risk assessment frameworks and computational models that can help predict how toxic chemicals found in aquatic ecosystems impact plants and animals. Di Toro is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Research topics presented during this special session, entitled “Water Quality Criteria: Modeling Aquatic, Sediment, and Soil Toxicity based on Mechanistic Chemical Interactions. Session honoring Dr. Dominic Di Toro,” included applications of computational models to determine remediation targets, bioaccumulation of industrial chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls, and predicting the toxicity of organic chemicals in aquatic ecosystems. The session included both platform and poster presentations. 

Leonard J. Cimini, Jr., professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in UD’s College of Engineering, is the 2023 recipient of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Communications Society Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award. 

Cimini was recognized “For contributions to the theory and practice of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) for Wireless Communications.” He was instrumental in detailing the substantial benefits of OFDM — a method of encoding data in multiple frequencies — for wireless applications. The insights gained from his research in this area have influenced the work of many researchers as well as the standardization of WiFi, WiMAX, and LTE. 

This award is given to members of the IEEE Communications Society who demonstrate years of outstanding contributions in the electrical and electronic engineering fields. The award is named after Edwin Howard Armstrong, who is considered the father of the complete FM radio system and the creator of the regenerative circuit, superheterodyne circuit, and superregenerative circuit.

Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, professor in the School of Nursing in the College of Health Sciences, recently received the Nell J. Watts Lifetime Achievement in Nursing Award from the Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) Honor Society of Nursing. The award is one of the most prestigious honors bestowed by the organization’s Board of Directors and is given to a Sigma member who has demonstrated exemplary achievements in nursing throughout their lifetime. Hall-Long humbly accepted the award at Sigma’s 47th Biennial Convention in San Antonio, Texas, in November. 

“Sigma Theta Tau has been a remarkable global organization that represents the best of the nursing profession and has promoted not only my personal but our professional scholarship,” Hall-Long said. “We are extremely fortunate to have a local STTI chapter here at the University of Delaware, Beta Xi.

"I'm also fortunate to have had an incredible career in nursing and in developing forward-thinking, evidence-based health policy. I also have been blessed to serve vulnerable populations throughout Delaware both clinically and in my roles as a state representative, senator and now lieutenant governor. To be recognized by STTI is an honor that is beyond words and is something I will cherish for years."

Publications

Annie Johnson, associate university librarian for publishing, preservation, research and digital access, co-authored a chapter on "Partnering with North American University Presses to Open and Preserve Humanities and Social Sciences Scholarship" for the new book Rethinking Institutional Repositories: Innovations in Management, Collection, and Inclusion, edited by Josh Cromwell (Chicago: ACRL). 

Jennifer Trivedi, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and core faculty member of the Disaster Research Center, published a series of articles in Money Geek: “Protecting Your Home From Hurricanes,” “U.S. Hurricane Facts and Statistics,” “States With The Highest Annualized Hurricane Losses” and “Natural Disasters In The United States.”

Margaret Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, continues to enjoy a simultaneous second career as a poet. Her poem “At the Butcher Shop, Queens, NY, 1960," which originally appeared in Scars Journal, April 2023, has been reprinted in The 2024 Poetry Review Date Book, edited by Janet Kuypers, Scars Publications, 2023 and in the same publisher's Blackbirds, Lyrebirds, Weaverbirds, Vol 340, December 2023. In addition, another poem, "Links," (which also appeared in Scars Journal, April 2023) has been reprinted in On Stones and Bones, an anthology edited by Janet Kuypers, (Scars Publications, 2023, p. 79). Meanwhile, a new poem, "Barbie Power," that responds to the current cultural fascination with the subject of Barbie dolls and their effects on girls has been published in the online literary journal Sad Girl Diaries (November 2023).

To submit information for inclusion in For the Record, write to ocm@udel.edu and include “For the Record” in the subject line.