Delaware Science & Technology Council

Council Members

John Carney, Lt. Governor — Chairman

John O'Brien, Vice President of Emerging Brands, AstraZeneca — Vice-Chair

Kenneth Bell, Interim Provost & Vice President, Delaware State University

J. Michael Bowman, Director, Delaware Technology Park

Uma Chowdry, Sr. Vice President & Chief Science and Technology Officer,
DuPont

Don Cohee, Vice President of Research & Technology, ILC-Dover

Bette Coplan, Executive Vice President & Provost, Wesley College

Joseph DiPinto, Director of Economic Development, City of Wilmington

Bill Hartman, Vice President, Fraunhofer

Ben Hsu, Chief Financial Officer, Quest Parmaceutical Services

William Johnson, Associate, W. L. Gore & Associates

Matt Knight, Chief Executive Officer, Strategic Diagnostics

Brian Little, Vice President for Academic Affairs & Research, Christiana Care Health System

Judy McKinney-Cherry, Director, Delaware Economic Development Office

Fred Melchior, Vice President of Operations, Intervet

Dan Rich, Provost, University of Delaware

John Riley, Director of Public Affairs, Hercules Inc.

Michael Scuse, Secretary, Delaware Department of Agriculture

Ileana Smith, Vice President & Campus Director, Delaware Technical & Community College

David Sokola, State Senator, Delaware State Legislature

Carolyn Thoroughgood, Vice Provost for Research & Graduate Studies, University of Delaware

David Weir, Director, Delaware Biotechnology Institute, University of Delaware

Robert Woods, Chief Executive Officer, Athena Bio

Image of the Dover the capitol of Delaware

The Delaware Science and Technology Council was established in June 2006 by executive order of Governor Ruth Ann Minner.

The University of Delaware is a member of the Delaware Science and Technology Council, which was established in June 2006 by Governor Ruth Ann Minner.

The statewide organization has the following responsibilities:

Improve the competitive position of Delaware so that it is recognized broadly as a center of excellence in science and technology;
Provide advice, guidance and advocacy on issues and opportunities in research, education, business, economic development and public policy;
Develop and implement a statewide science and technology strategic plan;
Foster Delaware’s uniqueness as a dynamic place for scientific and business talent by developing an innovative, entrepreneurial and business friendly environment, facilitating incubation and commercialization and encouraging collaborations within the State and the region;
Identify and secure resources to support Council initiatives in cooperation with the Council on Competitiveness and other appropriate state and regional initiatives;
Coordinate and foster communication between different areas of science and technology to discover unique opportunities at the interfaces of different business sectors;
Identify sources of seed and venture capital;
Become recognized as a reputable resource to help understand science and technology issues and opportunities and as a source of relevant information; and
Provide oversight to the State’s NSF-EPSCoR office (National Science Foundation – Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) and execution of the EPSCoR RII (Research Infrastructure Initiative) grant, with the purpose of building research and development capacity.
The initial areas the council is addressing include human health, agriculture and natural resources, alternative energy, nanotechnology, education/ workforce development, and oversight of the state’s NSF-EPSCoR initiative.