The Power of Connection
President's Report 2025
A MESSAGE FROM UD PRESIDENT DENNIS ASSANIS
“We are committed to ensuring our future remains a human-centered one, built around the connections we forge with one another.”
At the UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE, we are inspired and driven by our dynamic culture of connection.
Our students connect their knowledge and skills with their aspirations to create a better world. Our faculty link their scholarship and service in interdisciplinary ways and integrate their discoveries and innovations with the needs of the community. And through respect and civility, we unite people around shared goals for the benefit of all.
This year’s President’s Report demonstrates the myriad ways the UD community creates and collaborates to achieve the truly extraordinary. Around the globe, UD is generating opportunity by bringing together eager learners, bold thinkers and the resources they need to solve the most complex challenges. We are strengthening our community by applying our expertise and support where there is need. We are collaborating for growth by working across disciplines and bridging cultural divides to advance our understanding of each other and the world. Blue Hens are envisioning tomorrow, driving pioneering research, stunning creativity and groundbreaking discoveries. And, always, we are investing for the future through our greatest asset: our people.
As we reflect on the University of Delaware’s exceptional accomplishments, we are committed to ensuring our future remains a human-centered one, built around the connections that we forge with one another.
Dennis Assanis
President, University of Delaware
Undergraduate applications for fall 2025, a record and a 49% increase from fall 2019.
Sponsored research expenditures in FY2024, a 57% increase over the past 5 years.
Ranking among nearly 21,000 institutions based on educational quality, employability, faculty quality and research.
Generating
Opportunity
The University of Delaware is committed to providing a rewarding educational experience that prepares students to be collaborative, competitive and always curious.
How does the brain handle interruptions?
That was the question that sparked the research interests of Tiffany Lynch-Faulkner (Psychology), who is working to develop treatments for children who suffer from speech-motivated anxiety. To find the answer, Lynch-Faulkner learned to conduct brain scans and read the response data in UD’s Interpersonal Neurophysiology Lab.
Watch: Speech-related Social Anxiety: youtube.com/watch?v=pxFG1WIKdDk
From community college to an advanced degree
First-generation college student Jake Peluso-Vargas (Medical & Molecular Sciences) combined his love of science, his associate’s degree and UD’s Connected Degree program to earn both his bachelor’s and his master’s degree in biotechnology. “When people are given an opportunity, that’s all they need,” said Peluso-Vargas, who is pursuing gene therapy work in the biotech industry.
Returning bobwhite quail to their native habitat
Master’s students Kai Victor and Grace Muench (Entomology & Wildlife Ecology) helped reintroduce the bobwhite quail to its native Pennsylvania, where it had disappeared due to changes in land use patterns. They will now monitor the birds’ movement, survival and reproduction, as well as the impact of a restored habitat on other birds.
Strengthening
Our Community
Reflecting the world’s rich variety of perspectives, identities, backgrounds and beliefs, the University of Delaware promotes and celebrates inclusion for all.
Passion for Mexican folk music drives research
For UD senior Alondra Gonzalez (Honors Music Education), Mexican folk music is more than a research topic, it’s her passion and an integral part of her childhood. The connection fueled her interest in studying the rich vocal techniques in mariachi music. “As I have worked on this project, I find myself feeling so passionate about my culture,” she said.
Watch: The Joy of Mexican Folk Music: youtube.com/watch?v=Wi8wCvK52Os
Virtual tour highlights Black history at UD
UD students scoured old newspapers, archives and oral histories to gather often-overlooked stories to create the Black Histories at UD StoryMap, a virtual tour that connects the lives of Black students, faculty, community members and social activists to sites on campus and in the greater Newark area. While the history is both troubling and inspiring, the project is enlightening, and the students plan to continue adding to the project.
Voting initiative inspires dialogue beyond partisanship
Voting is the bedrock of a healthy democracy, and that starts with registering and becoming informed about the issues facing our society. An annual campus event, “DEvote to Vote” engages UD students in exercising their voting rights and promoting civil discourse, especially across political and ideological divides.
Collaborating
For Growth
At the University of Delaware, the world's most complex challenges are tackled with an ambitious cross-disciplinary and cross-border mindset.
Building a better space suit
UD researchers in Fashion & Apparel Studies and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, along with the alumni-founded STF Technologies, have developed a new space suit fabric that protects lunar astronauts from fine, sharp particles that threaten their safety. The fabric, which incorporates the shear thickening fluid invented at UD, is flame-retardant and prevents dust and contaminants from infiltrating suits, making it useful in firefighting and for other protective gear.
World Scholars: A decade of global immersion
Since its launch 10 years ago, UD’s unique World Scholars program has enrolled nearly 1,000 students, many of whom have received prestigious Fulbright and Critical Language Scholarships. In 2026, the program will expand to engineering students and offer Newcastle University in England as a freshman location, joining sites in Rome, Madrid, Athens and Auckland, New Zealand.
Exploring the world through archeology
For five weeks, Marcus Beardsley (History and Ancient Greek & Roman Studies) worked at the Santa Susana Archeological Project in Portugal to excavate the site of an ancient Roman villa. The previous summer, Beardsley studied Roman bronze coins in Turkey. “It reminds me to never become complacent, but to always strive for growth,” he said.
Watch: Digging into archaeology in Portugal: youtube.com/watch?v=_Xunmvqj0ao
Envisioning
Tomorrow
Innovations in every area of human endeavor — and the entrepreneurial skills to bring them to life — are hallmarks of the University of Delaware.
Revolutionizing Prosthetics
Innovative fabric-based sensors developed at UD monitor weight load for individuals with limb loss, potentially revolutionizing prosthetics and significantly improving the lives of people who use them. Among them is alumnus John Horne, president of Independence Prosthetics-Orthotics located on the UD campus, who is working with researchers to test the technology. “A device like this gives us hardcore data so clinicians can directly understand [what patients are feeling] and make changes,” he said.
Watch: Wearable tech assesses performance of prosthetic leg usage: youtube.com/watch?v=ECG8K5AFyQ8
Creating a smart baby monitor to detect delays earlier
Only a small fraction of babies with developmental delays are diagnosed early enough to receive life-changing interventions. So, professor Michele Lobo (Physical Therapy) is working with a social innovation company to harness computer vision and natural language processing to create a surveillance device to detect delays earlier. “The earlier we identify delays and provide intervention, the better for the child," she said.
Creating sustainable and inclusive fashion
A fashion history class fueled Casey Tyler’s (Fashion Design & Product Innovation) passion for fashion and interest in pursuing design as a career. Recently, the student’s hand-made pieces created with pre-sold materials were featured in the Next Up Designer Showcase at Philly Fashion Week. “I had a great time and made excellent connections for the future,” Tyler said.
Investing for
the Future
Talented, ambitious, accomplished, generous: Our people form the heart of the University of Delaware’s vibrant community and inspire our vision for the path ahead.
Largest gift in UD history fuels business research
Alumni Robert J. and Kathleen Marie Siegfried committed a record $71.5 million to support UD’s Lerner College of Business and Economics. The gift will fund a future academic facility and the new Siegfried Institute for Leadership and Free Enterprise, an “idea lab” centered on economic policy. “My time at UD made me who I am today,” said Rob Siegfried, who founded one of the nation’s top accounting firms.
Entrepreneur fulfills glaring need for women’s fightwear
Alumna Maya Nazareth (2020) united her passion for jiu-jitsu with her entrepreneurial spirit to found Alchemize Fightware. The company, which has doubled in size in under four years, sells gear designed specifically for women. “I would not be where I am today without Horn [UD’s entrepreneurship program] and these mentors who believed in me,” Nazareth said.
Advancing and sharing knowledge of the cosmos
A pioneering theoretical physicist and director of Delaware Space Grant, professor Bill Matthaeus (Physics) has helped advance scientific knowledge about the heliosphere and solar wind through his research at UD and as co-investigator on multiple NASA research missions. He is equally dedicated to mentoring his students and colleagues and supporting their aspirations. That combination earned him the 2024 Francis Alison Award, the University’s top recognition for those who exemplify excellence in scholarship, mentorship and teaching.
New interdisciplinary science center opens in 2025
The latest jewel on the UD campus is 130,000 square feet of interdisciplinary classrooms and laboratories that seamlessly blend teaching and research to accelerate discovery in brain science, human biology and disease, and quantum physics. Dubbed “Building X” for now to highlight its limitless possibilities, the center will serve more than 1,000 students a year.
EXTERNAL SOURCES:
(1) Center for World University Rankings, 2024; (2) The Princeton Review Entrepreneurship Rankings, 2025; (3) Clarivate
Internal sources of information include the University of Delaware’s colleges, Admissions Office, Athletics, Budget Office, Center for Global Programs and Services, Division of Student Life, Institutional Research and Effectiveness, Research Office and other units.