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

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

Honors

Rudi Matthee, John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History, was an “Ehrengast,” guest of honor, at the 33. Deutscher Orientalistentag, the 33^rd German Orientalist Conference, held at the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena on Sept. 18-22. The keynote speech he delivered at the meeting was titled “The West and Iran: Coming to Terms with a Land of Ideas." In addition, Matthee has assumed the presidency of the Persian Heritage Foundation. The Persian Heritage Foundation (PHF) is a U.S.-registered, nonpolitical, nongovernmental organization that aims to support and promote research on all aspects of the Persianate world in the pre-Islamic as well as the Islamic period — a world that is not confined to the present boundaries of Iran, but that extends to Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Indian Subcontinent and, more recently, the wider Iranian diaspora, involving a multitude of languages, religions and cultures. PHF has its headquarters in New York and annually gives out more than $500,000 in grants for research, lectureships and book projects.

Publications

Rudi Matthee, John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History, published “Alcohol and Politics in Muslim Culture: Pre-Text Text and Context.” The article can be found on the website of the British Intoxicants Project.

Presentations

Leo De La Rosa and Sean Kilgallon, two doctoral students in the Lerner College’s Financial Services Analytics (FSAN) Ph.D. program, presented their research entitled “Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Dynamic Malware Analysis with Machine Learning” at the 10^th anniversary of IEEE Resilience Week: International Symposium on Resilient Cyber Systems, held Sept. 18-22. The purpose of their research was to determine how long malicious files could be analyzed to determine if they are malware. Today, most malwares are analyzed for a fixed amount of time (for example, five minutes). However, given the ever-increasing stream of malware that is being generated every day (sources have estimated that over 1 million new malware are released to the public each day), a most efficient approach needs to be considered to handle this gigantic load of files. As a result, they reduced the amount of time required to study and examine malware from 5 minutes to over 20 seconds. In addition, they identified the families that the malware belonged to so that defenses could be improved in case a similar malicious file tried to infiltrate and corrupt the network.

Promotions

Six University of Delaware Police Department employees were promoted at the department’s 2017 Fall Recognition Ceremony held this earlier this month in the auditorium at the Bob Carpenter Center. Promoted to sergeant were Joelle Ryan, a nine-year veteran of the department and UD alumna who is currently pursuing a master of public administration degree at UD and who has been awarded a lifesaving award and three department commendations; and Adrienne Thomas, a nine-year department veteran, UD alumna, graduate of the Delaware State Police Leadership Development Program and recipient of a letter of appreciation for her role in the department’s CALEA re-accreditation in 2016. Promoted to master corporal were Michael Baez, an eight-year member of the department who is a certified instructor of Bicycle, Firearms, ALERRT (Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response) and ALERRT Active Shooter Civilian training and who has been awarded three letters of appreciation; and Patrick McCloskey, a nine-year veteran and UD alumnus who has been assigned to the K-9 unit for the past seven years and who has been recognized with three department commendations, five consecutive Impaired Driving Awards and the 2016 Chief’s Award.  Promoted to 911 dispatch supervisor were Daniel Cutro, a 13-year veteran of the department, UD alumnus and a certified APCO Communications Training Officer and a graduate of the Delaware State Police Civilian Leadership Development Program who has been awarded a lifesaving award and a department commendation; and Joseph Gilliland, a nine-year department veteran, UD alumnus and a certified APCO Communications Training Officer and graduate of the Delaware State Police Civilian Leadership Development Program who received his second lifesaving award at this year’s ceremony.