Since its founding in 2009, the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) has been foundational to the University of Delaware’s environmental stewardship. The Institute supports interdisciplinary research projects and educational initiatives that address environmental issues, reaching faculty, student researchers and collaborators. DENIN empowers an ever-growing network to make advancements in sustainability, climate change mitigation and the environmental perspective across many disciplines.

DENIN has selected three UD professors — Andong Cheng, Rosie Grayburn and John Jungck — as 2025 Faculty Fellows, the Institute’s second cohort. Faculty Fellows serve two-year terms and are eligible for up to $10,000 in annual financial support for innovative environmental projects tailored to their areas of interest and expertise. In return, fellows involve themselves in DENIN’s strategic planning and activities, expanding the Institute’s role in the wider environmental community.

The 2025 cohort joins the previous 2023 cohort of Jon Cox, Kent Messer and Nina David. With Andong Cheng’s admission being the first from the Lerner College of Business and Economics, four UD colleges are now represented. This interdisciplinary model allows DENIN to forge deeper connections across campus and present more peer mentorship opportunities where faculty from different colleges and departments can share institutional, professional, and personal knowledge.

“We’re incredibly proud to welcome a new cohort of Fellows to the DENIN team,” said DENIN Director Holly Michael. “Our Faculty Fellows bring deep knowledge and talents from diverse perspectives, and I am excited to see the impacts of the initiatives that Andong, John and Rosie will pursue." 

DENIN Faculty Fellows 2025-27

Andong Cheng is an assistant marketing professor in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. Her research covers consumer psychology, specifically the impacts of personality traits and social persuasions on consumer behavior.

Cheng’s recent work seeks to answer when and why consumers generate excessive product waste. She and her team have developed the Consumer Product Waste Aversion Scale, which assesses the level of variance in consumers’ tendencies to avoid creating product waste in different stages of the consumer-product lifecycle. These findings can help identify factors that desensitize consumers to waste, and habits practiced by low-waste consumers. The scale is the first to measure waste sensitivity at the individual consumer level.

“My research on consumer waste patterns is relevant to various fields, such as psychology, economics and environmental studies, and I see significant potential for collaboration with other DENIN affiliates outside my primary field of business administration,” Cheng said.

Breakthrough findings at hand, Cheng’s fellowship will focus on research outreach. She hopes to share her work on consumer waste generation with communities and stakeholders concerned with sustainability. By engaging with external connections at consumer behavior and sustainability-focused conferences, Cheng will help build out a new discipline through which sustainability issues could be addressed at UD, with eventual working relationships maintaining themselves beyond the fellowship. 

“One of my goals is to find and collaborate with sustainability-oriented field partners to test the external validity of my lab results and to bring these cultivated partnerships back to DENIN,” Cheng said. “These relationships could mean additional sources of data for other faculty members.”

Rosie Grayburn is an affiliated associate professor of art conservation and the head of Winterthur Museum’s Scientific Research and Analysis Laboratory. 

“Art conservation inherently bridges science, culture and sustainability,” Grayburn said. 

A primary focus of her materials research concerns sustainable conservation materials, including greener solvent alternatives and low solvent treatment options. Her current projects offer art conservation students opportunities to work within their industry and other institutions.

“I see immense potential for cross-disciplinary dialogue at DENIN,” Grayburn said. “The fellowship provides an ideal platform to support student-led research and build collaborative momentum for environmentally sustainable practices in cultural heritage preservation.” 

During her fellowship, she plans to establish a “Sustainable Conservation Hub,” an online resource disseminating research on green conservation methodology, giving conservationists the tools they need to take up informed, sustainable practices. 

“This project fosters collaboration among scientists, conservators, engineers, industry leaders, and students,” Grayburn said. “It leverages chemistry, materials science and digital outreach.”

The Sustainable Conservation Hub would utilize research stemming from an ongoing agreement between UD faculty, Dow Chemical, and Sustainability in Conservation, a research non-profit based in the EU. These groups collaborate to test sustainable material candidates for their efficacy in conservation. Grayburn looks forward to platforming the findings, stating “this work not only strengthens UD’s leadership in environmental innovation, but also models how humanistic and scientific disciplines can work together to solve pressing environmental challenges.”

John Jungck is a professor of biological sciences and mathematical sciences. He aids the professional development of high school teachers through the DISCovery Project: Delaware Interdisciplinary STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) Citizen Science Project. Jungck’s workshops with Delaware teachers and UD faculty have been correlated with higher retention, greater ability to adopt, adapt and implement innovating materials, and improved self-efficacy.

During his fellowship, Jungck plans to coordinate workshops that introduce high school teachers to relevant environmental problems. 

“Six additional UD faculty will be involved with leading these workshops,” Jungck said. “This multidisciplinary team along with DENIN staff will be working towards making sustained and strong interpersonal connections with participating teachers." 

The team will explore problem-based learning scenarios that support citizen science, activities designed for public participation. Potential workshops for classroom integration include habitat fragmentation studies using Google Earth and biodiversity analyses in local parks using camera-trap biomonitoring and student exploration.

Involved teachers would implement newfound knowledge in their 2026 curriculum and report back mid-year to share the impacts of their lessons, with a second cycle planned for the second year of the fellowship. Successful workshops would lead to greater familiarity with environmental issues amongst Delaware’s youth, and, to Jungck, “talented teachers committed to addressing environmental issues and building their own interdisciplinary teamwork skills.”

Recruitment for the next cohort will begin in early 2026.