A recently released report showed that Delaware is top-ranked in publishing research nationwide.
According to academic publisher Elsevier and the Council for State Governments, Delaware had the second highest production rate of peer-reviewed publications, from 2004 to 2013. That rate was 11.4 publications per million dollars in research and development expenditure, twice the national average.
The only state that beat Delaware was Massachusetts, who produced 12.7 publications per million dollars in research and development. Delaware also was ranked in the top ten, ahead of New York, for number of publications produced per capita in the year 2013.
Charlie Riordan, deputy provost for scholarship and research at UD, says the findings in the report are a reflection of UD’s high-caliber faculty and facilities like the STAR campus that provide a productive environment for their researchers.
“Companies come here also because they know they can attract excellent students to participate in internships, to do work within their companies and ultimately become workers of the future when they do graduate. They’ll take on jobs and hopefully stay in the area to contribute to the local economy," said Riordan.
Riordan added that UD is particularly focused on expanding research in the areas of energy and environment, life and health sciences, and cybersecurity.
Delaware State University is another academic institution that places tremendous emphasis on the sciences. Noureddine Melikechi, DSU’s vice president of research, innovation and economic development, noted that the current leadership at the university have placed a high priority on advancing areas, such as agriculture, neuroscience and data mining.
“The provost and the board of trustees approved a strategic plan where research and scholarship plays an important role. The university is clearly still in transition, but compared to 20, 10 years ago we are on an ascending slope," said Melikechi.
DSU also has been actively updating its research facilities. The new Optical Science Center building has just completed construction and will house some of NASA’s ongoing efforts to find potential signs of life on Mars. The building will officially open in June.
