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

Recent presentations, honors, public service and appointments include the following:

Presentations

Sharon P. Pitt, vice president for information technologies and chief information officer, was an invited speaker at the Amazon Web Services ImagineEdu conference on Sept. 27, 2021. She participated in a panel entitled “From the Office of the CIO: Transformation that Meets the Moment,” which explored how CIOs across education aligned with institutional leadership to rapidly invest in technology and transform institutions by providing accessible and secure learning environments. Joining Pitt were Keith W. McIntosh, vice president and chief information officer at the University of Richmond, and moderator Raechelle Clemmons, senior manager for higher education for Amazon Web Services.

Maria Aristigueta, dean of the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, presented to the South African Association of Public Administration and Management (SAAPAM) on Sept. 28, 2021. Her talk, "Establishing a School of Excellence in Public Affairs During COVID-19 and Over the Years: the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration and lessons for South Africa," was the 2021 SAAPAM Vil-Nkomo Lecture. The lecture was named for Biden School alumnus and world-renowned public servant and scholar Sibusiso Vil-Nkomo, who worked alongside Nelson Mandela as public service commissioner to establish integrated civil service in South Africa and was the first Black dean of the University of Pretoria.  

Honors

Joseph M. Fox, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has received a 2022 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, supported by the Arthur C. Cope Fund, from the American Chemical Society. The prestigious award, which was established to recognize and encourage excellence in organic chemistry, consists of $5,000, a certificate and a $40,000 unrestricted research grant. Fox’s research focuses on the development of new types of chemical reactions, the application of these reactions to the synthesis of naturally occurring and designed molecules with biological function, and the use of design concepts in organic synthesis for applications in materials science.

Denva Gallant, assistant professor of art history, has been invited to give the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies’ 31st Richard and Mary Rouse History of the Book Lecture in April. The annual lecture series, established in 1993, features internationally recognized authorities on medieval and Renaissance books, who share their expertise at the University of California Los Angeles. Gallant is a specialist in European medieval art and architecture, with an emphasis on manuscript illumination and the figural arts of the Trecento (the 14th century in Italian cultural history).

Public service

Anne M. Boylan, professor emerita of history, was part of a team that worked with the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites and the National Votes for Women Trail to secure eight "Votes for Women" historic markers for Delaware. The markers are sponsored and funded by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation. Four of Delaware's markers were dedicated in Wilmington on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. The event was captured on video by WITN, Channel 22.

Appointments

Thomas Busciglio-Ritter, a doctoral candidate in art history, has been named the new Richard and Mary Holland Assistant Curator of American Western Art at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, beginning in January. As part of the Joslyn's curatorial team, he will help spearhead the museum's upcoming expansion and collections reinstallation project, with completion scheduled for 2024. He will also help lead the museum's Margre H. Durham Center for Western Studies.

To submit information for inclusion in For the Record, write to ocm@udel.edu and include “For the Record” in the subject line.