ISSN 2150-5128

University of Delaware Research Online Magazine

ONLINE MAGAZINE VOL 8 • NO 1

University of Delaware Research Online Magazine

ONLINE MAGAZINE

Disruptors

by Beth Miller, Karen Roberts and Tracey Bryant

How UD is sparking new ideas to solve today’s problems

Many trace the demise of the buggy-whip industry to Henry Ford & Company’s mass production of automobiles early in the 20th century—and that is certainly part of the story. But the seeds of that disruption were likely sown more than a century earlier when French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first self-propelled, steam-powered automobile, serving notice that the carriage need no longer depend on a horse for power.

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot’s first steam-powered car, 1769. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot’s first steam-powered car, 1769.

No need to urge that horse along. Just keep the engine stoked with fuel—as Cugnot demonstrated could be done—and a disruptive sort of horse-power would emerge.

Look through the pages of time and it’s an individual or a small group that creates the kind of disruption that moves the rest of us forward in striking ways. Unencumbered by stock prices, conventional wisdom or the variable political winds that often steer decisions in large organizations and industry, these thinkers pursue untested ideas and push past familiar boundary lines. That is where discovery lies.

Top-tier research universities such as the University of Delaware have a multitude of such thinkers in their midst. This issue of UD Research points to just one example from seven of UD’s colleges—disruptors who pursue knowledge and confront intractable problems in our world from uncommon angles, producing new insights and possibilities that would not have come to light without their push.

Disruptors

How UD is sparking new ideas to solve today’s problems

Many trace the demise of the buggy-whip industry to Henry Ford & Company’s mass production of automobiles early in the 20th century—and that is certainly part of the story. But the seeds of that disruption were likely sown more than a century earlier when French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first self-propelled, steam-powered automobile, serving notice that the carriage need no longer depend on a horse for power.

No need to urge that horse along. Just keep the engine stoked with fuel—as Cugnot demonstrated could be done—and a disruptive sort of horse-power would emerge.

Look through the pages of time and it’s an individual or a small group that creates the kind of disruption that moves the rest of us forward in striking ways. Unencumbered by stock prices, conventional wisdom or the variable political winds that often steer decisions in large organizations and industry, these thinkers pursue untested ideas and push past familiar boundary lines. That is where discovery lies.

Top-tier research universities such as the University of Delaware have a multitude of such thinkers in their midst. This issue of UD Research points to just one example from seven of UD’s colleges—disruptors who pursue knowledge and confront intractable problems in our world from uncommon angles, producing new insights and possibilities that would not have come to light without their push.

See what drives them — and where they hope to go next!

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Test Your Knowledge: Innovation

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Art In Science

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The Baltimore Collection

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Something truly special emerged from a box that no one expected until Julie McGee, associate professor of Africana Studies and Art History, and her University of Delaware students got their hands on the 53 photographs inside.

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Disruptors: Cracking a Cell’s Secret Code

Disruptors: Cracking a Cell’s Secret Code

Jason Gleghorn has held a variety of jobs since college—teacher, firefighter, medic, engineer. Today, he’s an interpreter of sorts, too, deciphering the language that cells use to communicate in hopes of advancing new treatments for congenital birth defects, pediatric diseases and more.

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Disruptors: Making Our Way

Disruptors: Making Our Way

Professor of Africana studies at UD and an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Monica A. Coleman focuses on the role of faith in addressing critical social and philosophical issues.

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Disruptors: Expanding Our World View

Disruptors: Expanding Our World View

These co-founders of the Robotic Discovery Laboratories in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment manage a growing robotics fleet for use on land, in air and under the sea. They explore questions along the coast, at the poles and in deep regions of the ocean.

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Disruptors: Harnessing Beneficial Microbes

Disruptors: Harnessing Beneficial Microbes

So, what do a virologist, botanist and soil physicist have in common? This team from UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources is leveraging their collective expertise to ensure that our food supply is safe and abundant, now and in the future.

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Honors

Honors

UD researchers have been recognized recently by the National Institutes of Health, American Political Science Association, TED Fellows program, National Science Foundation, National Academy of Inventors and the Gates Cambridge Scholarship program.

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News Briefs

News Briefs

Check out some recent developments, from the launching of major research programs to address environmental and health issues in the First State, to the preservation of a pair of 1909 mittens with a hallowed history.

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CONTACT

Tracey Bryant
Senior Director, Research Communications
Email: tbryant@UDel.Edu

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