Dear alumni, parents and friends
Welcome to the Spring 2009 edition of the UD Messenger. As always, the magazine features a number of compelling articles about the University’s innovative programs and partnerships, as well as the work and research of its students, faculty and alumni.
One of this issue’s more extensive articles is a feature on the University’s graduate programs. Building UD’s reputation as a premier graduate and research university is a key milestone in our Path to Prominence™. We believe we have an opportunity and an obligation to develop intellectual leaders and marshal their knowledge to address the challenges of today and tomorrow. The graduate students you’ll read about in these pages—students conducting leading-edge research in energy, psychology, education, agriculture, biology, biomechanics and geology—are surely living this mission. We are fortunate to have 3,500 more graduate students doing the same, in classrooms and laboratories, theatres and studios, forests and jungles, and major cities and remote villages around the world.
This issue of the Messenger also includes a special section outlining UD’s enormous contribution to Delaware’s thriving knowledge economy. The University is a prime economic engine in Delaware; every dollar invested in UD returns $7. Among the University’s key strategic priorities is to stimulate further economic growth by fostering innovation and entrepreneurship campus-wide and by brokering new partnerships that connect UD’s formidable knowledge and resources with external R&D, licensing, production and marketing opportunities. In these challenging times, we will help secure Delaware’s regional and national economic competitiveness.
I thank you for staying connected with the University of Delaware through the UD Messenger, and I hope you’ll strengthen that connection by joining us for the University’s first-ever Reunion Weekend, June 5–7. The Weekend will feature lectures and seminars, parties, concerts and a host of family-friendly events. Truly, there will be something for everyone—so I hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Patrick T. Harker
President, University of Delaware
