Academic Symposium

Five of the University of Delaware’s world-class faculty members will share research and insights behind ideas that are changing the world at an academic symposium open to the public. The event is part of the inaugural activities welcoming the 28th President of the University, Dr. Dennis Assanis, and will showcase some of the dynamic work of UD professors and students that is touching the lives of people around the world.

Provost Domenico Grasso will introduce the featured speakers, which will include the following:

Board of Trustees meeting, December 9th 2014 with speaker presentations by President Pat Harker, Provost Dominico Grasso, Dr. Charlie Riordan and Roberta Golinkoff speaking about infant language.

Lessons from the Crib: How Do Babies Learn Language?

The achievements of chess grand masters, musical virtuosos and Olympic athletes hardly match what children can accomplish by the age of 3. So says Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Unidel H. Rodney Sharp Chair in the School of Education. UD’s Child’s Play, Learning and Development Lab, which Golinkoff directs, has been exploring children’s marvelous minds. How do babies know the meaning of words? How can parents help their children develop language? Golinkoff, who is frequently quoted in the national media, will share her discoveries.
The 2015 Inspiring Women in STEM Conference held at the DuPont Country Club in October, 2015 and featuring UD's acting president Nancy Targett as the keynote speaker. In addition to acting president Targett, Debbie Hess Norris, Chair of the Art Conservation Department and Professor of Photograph Conservation, and UD alumna Alexandra Zafiroglu, Experience Architect and Anthropologist with Intel, also spoke. - (Evan Krape / University of Delaware)

Here, There and Everywhere: The Preservation of Our Global Photographic Heritage

Since the first picture was taken with a camera in 1826 to today’s selfies, the world has relied on photography to preserve the memory of cherished family and friends, life-changing events, the things that matter to us. Debra Hess Norris, the Unidel Henry Francis du Pont Chair in Fine Arts and chair of the Department of Art Conservation, will provide a lens into the nature of photographs and her work preserving our global photographic heritage, from training collection caretakers around the world, to saving photographs damaged in natural disasters or threatened by armed conflict.
Cole Galloway demonstrates a children's harness in the GoBabyGo mobility lab at STAR Campus

GoBabyGo!: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Independence

Cole Galloway, physical therapy professor and founder of the GoBabyGo! program, is bringing survivors of brain injury inventive solutions for gaining mobility. Galloway and his team are motivated not only by science and research, but also by a passionate focus on protecting the human right of all individuals to be independently mobile. With 60 chapters across the U.S. and abroad, GoBabyGo provides technology and training through a unique mix of community-based research, build-it- yourself workshops and strategic partnerships with corporations, federal agencies and media outlets.
Dr. Gabrielle Foreman and some students discussing her project: colored conventions.

Demands for Justice: Colored Conventions and the Power of Commitment

Through prize-winning work in the digital humanities, P. Gabrielle Foreman, the Ned B. Allen Professor of English, and her team are bringing to light decades of political meetings organized by early Black Civil Rights pioneers. More than 70 years of 19th-century Colored Conventions set the stage for groups like the NAACP. Through UD’s Colored Conventions Project, thousands of college students and community scholars worldwide are helping to develop public online resources at ColoredConventions.org. The project has received prestigious awards and grants from such places as the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Norm Wagner, the Robert L. Pigford chaired professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, photographed outside Dupont Hall for a postcard announcing his election to the National Academy of Engineering. - (Evan Krape / University of Delaware)

Solving Engineering’s Grand Challenges with Neutrons

Knowing exactly where atoms are and what they’re doing—that’s what the über-cool technique called neutron scattering allows scientists to do. Norman Wagner, the Unidel Robert L. Pigford Chaired Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, will showcase how the Center for Neutron Science, which he directs, is illuminating some of science’s deepest mysteries. Wagner also will share how explorations at the subatomic level are powering exciting new materials for precision medicine and even furthering humankind’s exploration of space.

 

Date: 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7.

Location: Thompson Theatre in the Roselle Center for the Arts, 110 Orchard Road, Newark. Overflow seating will be available in Gore Recital Hall next to Thompson Theatre.