For the Record, June 26, 2026

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

Recent honors, presentations and publications include the following:

Honors

A paper by Bert Tanner, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Center for Autonomous and Robotic Systems, and doctoral candidate Chanaka Thushitha Bandara was named a finalist for the Best Paper Award at the 15th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence, held June 8-10, 2026, in Darmstadt, Germany. The team developed a navigation system that allows autonomous boats to maintain formation while safely avoiding obstacles and adapting to currents. The system performed robustly in simulations and real-world tests.

At the May 2026 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annual meeting in Denver, Colorado, Salil Lachke, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences, was recently recognized as a Silver Fellow (FARVO). ARVO is the largest eye and vision research organization in the world, with more than 11,000 members. It is dedicated to understanding the visual system and preventing, treating and curing its disorders. The FARVO designation recognizes select scientists for their individual accomplishments, leadership and dedicated contributions to international eye and vision research.

Presentations

Kristen Chandler and Katie Pollock, master teachers at the College of Education and Human Development's Lab School, presented "I Student Taught in a Nature Preschool. Now What?" at the Natural Start Alliance Conference in June 2026. Chandler and Pollock shared their experiences supporting and mentoring student teachers in nature-based settings, both during their placements and postgraduation. With Lab School co-teacher Amanda Lala, Pollock also presented "Taking Flight: Building Ecoliteracy With a Year-Long Study of Birds" at the conference. Pollock and Lala shared how they engaged nature preschool children at the Lab School in a yearlong study of birds, as well as strategies for incorporating birding into pre-service teacher education.

Rena Hallam, CEHD dean and professor in its Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, led a professional development session titled "Mentoring Session for Emerging Scholars in Home-Based Child Care" with Juliet Bromer and Marisa Schlieber of the Erikson Institute at the Administration for Children and Families National Research Conference on Early Childhood in June 2026. Her scholarship focuses on strategies for supporting the early childhood workforce and improving the quality of early care and education environments.

Jin Yao Kwan, assistant professor in CEHD's Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, presented "Project STREAM: Strategic and Community-Engaged Teaching, Research and Education across Multimodal Podcast Use" at the 2026 Teaching Family Science Conference in June 2026. Kwan's research focuses on the development of adolescents, youth and young adults in underserved communities.

Publications

John G. McNutt, professor emeritus in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, is the author of a chapter in the book Enhancing Community Empowerment Through Digital Transformation in Local Governance, published by IGI Global Scientific Publishing. Entitled "The Movement Toward Community-Based Progressive Technology: A Review and Proposed Framework," the chapter identifies and discusses the major varieties of progressive technology, proposes a framework and finally covers the prospects for the field going forward.

Jarett D. Haley, assistant professor in the College of Education and Human Development's (CEHD) School of Education, published "Racially Minoritized Graduate Students Navigating the Impacts of State Anti-DEI Laws on Their Experiences in Racial/Ethnic Graduate Student Organizations" in AERA Open with coauthor A.N. Williams and Ph.D. in Education students Sadé S. Williams and Abby Quick. Haley's research centers on understanding undergraduate and graduate students' experiences in student affairs and other co-curricular higher education contexts.

Robert Hampel, professor emeritus in CEHD's School of Education, published "Returning to the Mall: A 40 Year Retrospective" in The High School Journal; "The Better Angels of our Nature: Five Recollections of Theodore Sizer" in Schools; and "Clawing and Scratching: Tennessee Williams' Finances from 1939 through 1944" in The Tennessee Williams Annual Review. Hampel is an historian of education who also studies contemporary educational policy.

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