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

Recent publications and honors include the following:

Publications

Patrick Ogden, associate vice president and chief of police, is featured in the fall 2021 edition of Campus Law Enforcement Journal, published by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA). Ogden, who serves as president of IACLEA, is the author of the issue’s president’s message, which discusses the outcome of a strategic planning meeting of the association’s Board of Directors that was held in October on the UD campus. Another article in the publication also highlights the meeting at UD. In addition, Ogden is quoted in an article about National Faith and Blue Weekend and an article reflecting on how campus policing has changed in the 20 years since 9/11.

Honors

A special symposium to honor the career of Donald Sparks, Unidel S. Hallock du Pont Chair in Plant and Soil Sciences and director of the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN), was held Nov. 8-9, 2021, in Salt Lake City at the Soil Science Society of America meeting. The symposium was organized by UD alumni Scott Fendorf (Stanford), Dan Strawn (University of Idaho), Derek Peak (University of Saskatchewan, Canada), Audrey Gambell (Auburn University) and Tyler Sowers (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). Former postdoc Asher Bar-Tal (Volcani Center) attended from Israel. 

Anjana Bhat, associate professor of physical therapy, received the Chattanooga Research Award from the American Physical Therapy Association in recognition of her article determining the prevalence of motor impairment in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Chattanooga Research Award identifies an author with a published study in the Physical Therapy Journal that introduces innovative research and discussion for its overall impact on clinical practice or physical therapy research in the future. 

Ashwini Sansare, graduate student researcher in the Biomechanics and Movement Sciences Program, was the recipient of the Trainee Professional Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience. The award is granted annually to doctoral students showing excellence in neuroscience research and sponsors further research expenses. Additionally, the award provides coverage for expenses of presenting research at the annual conference and professional development training for a year. The focus of Sansare’s research is to determine how children with cerebral palsy use sensory information to control balance while walking. By utilizing virtual reality and sensory tracking technology, she aims to learn if these participants can effectively gauge movement using visual information. The goal is to determine ways to help improve rehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy. 

The MBA Roundtable, an association of graduate business schools, selected a project led by University of Delaware Professors Mark Serva, Amanda Convery and Amanda Bullough at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, as one of two 2021 Innovator Award winners. With support from Senior Associate Dean of Academic Programs Jack Baroudi, they redesigned how the Lerner College assesses graduate management students by creating an innovative motivational tiered assessment (MTA). Under MTA, students can achieve higher grades only when they exhibit higher levels of intrinsic motivation, because students choose the amount (and difficulty) of work they complete. The MBA Roundtable Innovator Award was created in 2011 to promote educational initiatives that advance innovation in graduate management education and acknowledge the institutions that drive change in the field. The Innovator Award raises awareness of ongoing curricular and co-curricular improvements and educates employers, business school leaders, and faculty about innovative practices of best-in-class MBA and Specialized Masters programs.

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