Upcoming Events

Artwork of a lightbulb with a tree growing inside

February 23 –
March 15

Spring Lecture Series:
Cross-Boundary Approaches in Innovating Energy & Environmental Solutions

April 8-10

Environmental Film Festival & Student Video Competition

April 20

Symposium in Honor of Franklin Medal Winner Brian Atwater:

Rising Seas and Extreme Events on Vulnerable Coasts

The DENIN Discoverer

Winter 2016

The Delaware Environmental Institute continues to move forward as an interdisciplinary incubator of research, knowledge, and solutions dedicated to safeguarding the environment and addressing environmental issues in the state of Delaware and beyond.

Since 2009 we have provided academic, government, and industrial partners with broad access to experts form multiple disciplines in a collaborative effort to advance environmental science, promote environmental education, develop the next generation of environmental leaders, and devise innovative strategies for environmental preservation and remediation. Our research assists decision makers by providing the knowledge that forms the basis of sound public policies.

We are especially proud of the DENIN Environmental Fellows program, highlighted in this issue. Thanks to strong support from Delaware's NSF EPSCoR program, individual donors, and the Unidel Foundation, we will be able to support our third cohort of outstanding doctoral students — the application process for these coveted fellowships has just opened again this spring.

We took stock of the DENIN Fellows program and other accomplishments of our first five years in a report published last year and available in an electronic version by clicking on the image below. The report also looks forward, presenting an outline of our strategic plan for the future. Please enjoy the report and the following articles about some of our recent activities and join us, if you can, for the upcoming events listed to the left.

— Donald L. Sparks, DENIN Director

Cover image of the DENIN five-year report

2015 Environmental Fellows Announced

DENIN announced its second cohort of Environmental Fellows in September 2015. The Fellows are graduate students whose doctoral research shows strong potential to bridge science and society, benefitting the environment in Delaware and beyond and addressing linked social issues.

Tobias Ackerman, Corie Charpentier, Zhixuan Qin, and Jason Fischel will spend two years carrying out their individual research projects and will also collaborate to lead DENIN events and outreach to the broader community.

Be sure to check out the videos our first cohort of fellows created to explain their research on YouTube.

Pitch:90 Competition Elevates
the Scientific Elevator Pitch

DENIN held its second annual Pitch:90 elevator pitch competition for student researchers in environmental science and engineering on November 12, with winning results for Hadi Al-Khateeb, a doctoral student in civil engineering at the University of Delaware, who scored highest among the 38 contestants vying for the top prizes. Pitch:90 is a fast-paced contest in which contestants showcase their research in 90 seconds or less — no props, no slides, only words. Watch the winning pitch below or visit our playlist on YouTube to see all the winners or the entire competition.

Fabio Feldmann Discusses Global Sustainability, Action Steps Toward Change

In the weeks leading up to COP21, DENIN welcomed Brazilian environmental lawyer, activist, and statesman Fabio Feldmann to campus as the 2015 DENIN Dialogue speaker on October 30.

Feldmann, one of the organizers of the first global climate summit in Rio de Janiero in 1992, engaged students in a lively and optimistic discussion about the future of the global environment.

He was interviewed by University of Delaware alumnus and member of the DENIN external advisory board Dan Parke, director general of Agência Estado, Latin America’s largest real-time news agency, and an environmental activist himself. You can watch their full conversation and interactions with the audience on YouTube.

Celebrating the International Year of Soils

On December 7, in the midst of stressful final exams week, the DENIN Ambassadors hosted an event to celebrate the International Year of Soils with ice cream (the DENIN Dirt flavor was specially created for the occasion by the UDairy Creamery), plants and education about soil. The Ambassadors are a select group of undergraduate students who work to fulfill and advance the mission of DENIN.

The United Nations declared 2015 the International Year of Soils to draw attention to the resource we take for granted so often. In a tribute to the small layer of Earth with a huge importance to life, DENIN sought to educate UD students about the many ways soil benefits each of us. Leading up to this event, the DENIN Ambassadors also organized a well-attended screening of Dirt! The Movie, to show the impacts of soil destruction worldwide.

“We couldn’t let the International Year of Soils go by without some kind of celebration to mark the occasion,” said Don Sparks, DENIN director and a leading soil scientist himself. “And we also wanted to call attention to the fact that we have an outstanding cadre of soil scientists here at the University of Delaware who are working hard to understand this complex, living resource.”

Students line up to plant succulents at IYS Event

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