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Fifteen-year-old Kimmie Meissner of the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club is bright, energetic, enthusiastic and one of the hottest young skaters in the world. Meissner is on a terrific run, most recently winning the bronze medal at the 2005 State Farm U.S. National Championships at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Ore., and making history in the process.

In skating to third place, behind champion Michelle Kwan and silver medalist Sasha Cohen, Meissner became just the second American woman in history and the first in more than a decade to complete the triple axel. Tonya Harding, who trained in Portland, accomplished the triple axel during the 1991 national championships in Minneapolis.

Of Meissner’s performance in the championship free skate, the Portland Oregonian raved, “The women’s triple axel jump came back to Portland. The city that celebrated the first U.S. woman to master the most difficult of figure skating’s triple jumps 14 years ago cheered as 15-year-old Kimmie Meissner spun through the air Saturday night at the State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships and landed in history.”

Under the headline “Flash of the future,” the postchampionship Sports Illustrated wrote, “Michelle Kwan made history with her ninth win at the U.S. championships, but daring 15-year-old Kimmie Meissner almost stole the show.” Meissner, who has now positioned herself as a serious contender to make the U.S. Olympic team for the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, also won the Professional Skaters Association’s EDI Award for the best performance in the ladies championship division.

The EDI Award symbolizes “education and dedication international” and is a tribute to former world and Olympic coach Edi Scholdan, the first president of the Professional Skaters Association. It was voted on by a special committee of the association that observed the skaters during the national championships, and was based on total performance with an eye to costuming, presentation, music selection, choreography, style and technique.

Because she is too young by rule, Meissner will be unable to compete for the U.S. senior team in the world championships. However, she was named to the junior world championship team.

Her bronze medal performance followed a strong showing in the Campbell’s International Figure Skating Class held in October 2004 in St. Paul, Minn., and at the International Skating Union junior grand prix finals held in December 2004 in Helsinki, Finland.

A motivated competitor who is also exceptionally athletic, Meissner has mastered the triple lutz and now the triple axel, and is looking ahead to the day when she can add a quadruple toe-loop to her repertoire. In short, her future is very bright. Meissner said she took up figure skating because she valued her front teeth. As a young child, she spent much of her time at an ice rink near Baltimore where her father and older brothers enjoyed playing hockey.

“When I was about 6 years old, I decided I didn’t want to sit and watch them anymore,” Meissner said. “There were two rinks, one for ice hockey and one for figure skating. I didn’t want to lose my teeth, so I thought figure skating would be better for me than hockey.”

Besides, she said, the young people who were figure skating “looked like they were having fun, and I wanted to have fun, too.” Furthermore, she said, “It’s a pretty sport, and I wanted to wear the dresses with sparkles and the make-up.”

Meissner started taking lessons, first in groups and then individually. At first, she thought the people who were complimenting her skating ability were simply trying to be nice but at about 8 years old she “realized I could do something with it.”

That is when she began making the commute from Maryland, where she is a sophomore at Fallston High School, to the University of Delaware, which offers a world-class figure skating training program.

“I really enjoy training at the University of Delaware,” Meissner said. “I like the coaches, the trainers and the workout room. I also like the skaters I am with. The skaters here push me and help me progress.”

Meissner said the family car can now find its own way from Fallston to Newark. Her day is full, with five periods of high school classes in the morning and homework completed on the ride to and from the UD rink. Sometimes she has to bring books to the rink to study during breaks, and sometimes there is still homework left for her to do when she finally gets home. Her favorite subject is biology.

It is a demanding schedule that would wear on most people, but not Meissner. “I love it,” she said of her daily routine. “It’s fun.” If she finds the daily training routine fun, she finds competition invigorating. “I consider myself a competitor,” Meissner said. “I skate well when I am under pressure. Leading up to competitions, I find that I start jumping better. And, once I am on the ice, I just go out there and skate my best. I like to have fun and entertain the audience.”

Meissner said highlights of her young career have included the world junior championships in the Netherlands and the Campbell’s competition, where she took the ice for the first time with Michelle Kwan and other internationally recognized stars. “It was really exhilarating, especially practicing on the same ice with them,” she said. “Finishing fifth was kind of shocking, and I was happy to get it. It was funny to see my name with the top people in the world at the senior level. It was cool.”

Meissner, who is coached by Pamela Gregory, the 2004 national Developmental Coach of the Year, said she continues to work on her triple axel and to improve her presentation, her spins and her spirals. Preparation will now be geared for the 2006 U.S. Figure Skating Championships that will be held Jan. 7-15 in St. Louis and will determine who makes the Olympic team and earns a trip to Turin.

Since locating on the campus in 1987, the University of Delaware Ice Skating Science Development Center’s competitive figure skating program has provided international-level training to some of the world’s elite athletes.

National champions skating under the prestigious University of Delaware Figure Skating Club banner have included pairs Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn, who won in 2003, and Calla Urbanski and Rocky Marvel, who won in both 1992 and 1993, as well as dance teams April Sargent and Russ Witherby, who won in 1992, and Suzanne Semanick and Scott Gregory, who won in both 1987 and 1988.

Skaters who developed their talents at UD and then moved on to future success have included 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski, 2002 Olympic champion Sarah Hughes and 2004 and 2005 national champion Johnny Weir.

Those who have selected UD as a training base have included skaters from around the globe, among them Oksana Baiul, the 1994 Olympic champion who mounted a comeback here in 1998, and fellow Russians Oksana Gritschuk and Evgeni Platov, who won Olympic gold in dance in 1994.

The UD program continues to demonstrate its strength and had a stellar showing during the 2005 State Farm U.S. National Championships in Portland, Ore., where 15-year-old Kimmie Meissner finished third in the senior ladies competition and made history by becoming just the second American woman to complete the triple axel.

While Meissner had the most impressive showing, the national championships also saw several teammates in the UD Figure Skating Club take the spotlight, including powerful 19-year-old Shaun Rogers, who finished sixth in the senior men’s singles. Veteran pairs skaters Scott and Dulebohn finished fourth in the senior event and Christine Zukowski won the silver medal in the junior ladies competition.

The UD Ice Skating Science Development Center is directed by Ron Ludington, a 1960 Olympic bronze medalist and a Hall of Fame coach who believed the establishment of such a facility on a university campus could have tremendous value both for the skaters and for the institution.

Ludington was named the Coach of the Year in 1990 by the Professional Skaters Association, which cited him for his record of coaching more than 30 world and Olympic champions. Ludington was elected to the U.S. Figure Skating Association’s Hall of Fame in 1993, won the Professional Skaters Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995 and was elected to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1999.

The UD Ice Skating Science Development Center features the Fred Rust Arena with an Olympic-sized ice surface and seating for 2,600 spectators, and the adjacent Gold Arena. It is the home of the University’s Biomechanics Laboratory and, offering the most complete training environment in the nation, is equipped with modern weight training equipment, aerobic training rooms and a dance studio.

As one of the only competitive ice skating training facilities in the world to be located in an educational center, the UD training program benefits both the skaters and also the research and teaching programs in sports science and human physiology and performance.

Coaching is available from the most recognized national and international coaches in the sport of figure skating. Their concentrations include figures, freestyle, pairs, dance and stroking.

The UD faculty works closely with world and Olympic coaches to advance the body of knowledge in figure skating, and specialize in sports medicine, exercise physiology, biomechanics and sports psychology. Through cooperative efforts, they provide students with the most up-to-date training program available.

Through that interaction have come innovations that could well revolutionize the sport, such as a new hinged boot system for ice skates developed by Jim Richards, Distinguished Professor of Health, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences, that is now being manufactured by the Canadian ice skate company Jackson Ultima.

The goal of the new boot is to reduce injuries among skaters. “With the hinged design, you can land with your heel relatively high in the air, increasing the landing time and resulting in a lot less stress on the knees, hips and spine,” Richards says. “The current boot is so rigid that it’s like putting your ankle in a cast. It forces skaters to land flat-footed, which leads to the injuries you see so often—sometimes to the foot itself but primarily to the joints.”

Richards, who directs the Biomechanics Laboratory, also has developed a computerized system to track skaters’ movements so that they can work on a jump and later check the screen to study their mechanics.

Ludington has used the program’s visibility to advocate for changes in practice procedures that can enhance safety, including the use of helmets. He has lobbied the International Skating Union to make the use of helmets mandatory following an injury to rising pair skater Paul Binnebose.

The presence of the Ice Skating Science Development Center also has led UD to become involved in modern educational initiatives in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Association. Recently, UD unveiled the first of a new series of online training courses for figure skating judges.

Through the course, judges from all over the country can sit down at a computer, go to the UD WebCT page and log in for training as their schedules permit. The course includes step-by-step instruction on various pair skating movements and lifts, complete with streaming video, audio and feedback provided through built-in tests.

Three years ago, if anyone had told him he’d be a national recording star, junior Tim Yancy would have laughed. Intrigued by the idea of singing in a gospel choir, the marketing major from Laverock, Pa., joined the Gospel Choir at the University, partly for fun and partly out of curiosity.

Now serving as the choir’s programming committee chair and chief organizer of an upcoming recording session, Yancy says he has high hopes that the resulting CD, We Will Serve the Lord, will make enough waves on local radio stations to get national airplay and distribution.

Slated to be recorded live at the choir’s spring concert, the CD will include the 15 original gospel compositions that will be showcased by the 60-member group on March 12.

“Our hope with the concert and the CD is to motivate people and spread the message of the gospel,” Yancy says. Once the CD is finished, he says, the group will pursue distribution prospects through local church fundraisers and promotions on local radio stations, including UD’s station, 91.3 WVUD-FM.

“I think gospel music appeals to a large audience because people like its sound and feel and message,” Yancy says. The multicultural choir, which includes both UD students and alumni, has a backup ensemble with drums, keyboard, electric bass and trumpet. All compositions, which Yancy describes as a mix of “upbeat, contemporary gospel and traditional gospel music,” were written by various members of the choir.

For information about tickets to the concert at 5 p.m., Saturday, March 12, in Mitchell Hall, call UD1-HENS.

The University of Delaware is among the best places in the nation to conduct research in the life sciences, according to an international survey of full-time researchers conducted by the magazine The Scientist.

UD ranked sixth among the top 10 “Best Places to Work in Academia” in the United States, according to the results of the annual survey, released in the Nov. 8 issue of the magazine.

“This high ranking by The Scientist is confirmation of the correctness of the University’s strategies whereby our faculty are provided with access to very good students, supportive staff, competitive compensation, excellent facilities, modern equipment, and distinguished library and computing support,” President David P. Roselle says.

“These same strategies have resulted in success in recruiting and retaining superb faculty and their availability as collaborators will cause still additional success in attracting both students and faculty. Simply said, the University of Delaware is being positioned among the nation’s most distinguished institutions of higher education,” Roselle says.

The California Institute of Technology was rated the top American academic institution for which to work.

Other institutions that received high grades were, in order, Purdue University, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Washington, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Cornell University, UD, the University of Michigan, the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Pennsylvania, the Wadworth Center in New York and Indiana University.

Traditionally, survey respondents have cited collegiality and core facilities, including libraries, equipment and up-to-date buildings that enable them to pursue leading-edge research, as keys to their ratings of research institutions.

This year, many respondents from the campuses that were recognized noted support for interdisciplinary research as being among the strengths of their respective institutions.

UD has developed a strong reputation for interdisciplinary research, has a long tradition of collegiality among faculty members and provides top-flight facilities, including the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

Researchers from academia, private companies and government laboratories were invited to participate in the survey, which featured a web-based questionnaire. From more than 35,000 invitations, the magazine received about 1,456 responses from scientists in the United States, Canada and western Europe.

Elkton Road Parking Garage opens

The new parking garage on Elkton Road, located near the new Center for the Arts under construction, opened Monday, Jan. 24. The $12 million structure, accessible from Elkton Road and Amstel Avenue, replaces the former Orchard Road parking lot, just south of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building.

The 717-space garage is a multi-use facility, with pay-to-park spaces, as well as employee and resident student gated parking areas.
The facility is accessible 24 hours a day for gate controlled and cash users. An attendant will be present from 6:30 a.m.-1:30 a.m., seven days a week, during the academic year. A self-service machine, which accepts only cash, is available for use when the attendant is not present.

The former Orchard Road gated lot is now closed, and its former patrons have been transferred to the new parking facility. Parking costs are 55 cents per half hour or less, with no maximum fee, from 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Mondays-Fridays; and 30 cents per half hour or less, with a maximum fee of $3, from 6 p.m.-6:30 a.m., Mondays-Fridays and all day on Saturdays and Sundays.

The five-level, 220,000-gross square feet, pre-cast concrete structure includes two elevators that service all levels. The new parking garage also contains a stormwater management system that incorporates underground chambers to collect surface stormwater from the site and the garage. The underground chambers, located adjacent to the garage, will serve to reduce erosion and prevent flooding.

Construction continues on the adjacent $47 million Center for the Arts, which began in June and is scheduled for completion in 2006. The new center, located off Orchard Road, will provide performance spaces for music and theatre, plus an indoor practice venue for the UD Marching Band and smaller practice rooms for music students. The 92,000-gross-square-foot performing arts facility also will include a 200-seat recital hall, a proscenium theatre that will seat 450 persons and a variety of other practice and performance spaces. Architect for the Center for the Arts is Ayers Saint Gross of Baltimore.

A large concert hall also has been designed as a future addition to project. In 2004, the University launched its first-ever campus-wide Employee Challenge campaign, where gifts made by employees and retirees in support of any University program or department are matched on a one-to-one basis. Employee gifts in support of the Center for the Arts are matched two-to-one, with matches to benefit the center—the University’s current highest priority project.

There are no limits on the dollar amount that will be matched. The matching funds, including donor-directed funds, come from those already earmarked for the Center for the Arts. The match covers both one-time gifts and those made through the campus payroll deduction program.

Taste of Newark delights many palates

The weather was perfect; the event was sold out; the food was fabulous, the wine flowed; and the music was magic at the first annual Taste of Newark, held Sunday, Sept. 26, on the lawn of UD’s Old College.

The festivities, organized by Newark Mayor Vance Funk, BE ’65, the University of Delaware and its Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management (HRIM) and the Downtown Newark Partnership, was so successful that a date is already set for 2005: Oct. 2.

Ceremony marks opening of Early Learning Center

A morning ceremony on Oct. 19 marked the official dedication of UD’s new Early Learning Center (ELC), the state-of-the-art educational facility that opened its doors June to young learners aged 6 weeks-12 years.

The event, which packed the facility’s gymnasium, drew approximately 300 members of the University and greater Delaware communities, and included remarks from legislators who helped secure federal and state funding: U.S. Rep. Michael N. Castle, U.S. Sen. Thomas R. Carper and state Rep. Joseph G. DiPinto.

ELC’s mission is to provide high-quality, year-round care for more than 200 children including infants, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners and up to 15 school-age children. Forty percent of the center’s diverse population will be children living in poverty, 20 percent will be children with diagnosed disabilities and 10 percent will be children who live, or have lived, in foster care.

In addition to its service and educational functions, the Center is a focal point for interdisciplinary research on early learning and development, prevention, intervention and education by undergraduate and graduate students. An on-site pediatric rehabilitation clinic will offer physical, occupational and speech/ language therapy to children enrolled in the child care programs. The “Ask a Nurse” program will allow graduate and undergraduate nursing students and faculty to provide referrals and programs to ELC’s parents, children and families three days a week. The programs include asthma education, nutrition, exercise, immunizations and illness and injury prevention. President David Roselle said that he envisions the center becoming a “best practices” facility and a prototype on which other states could model similar centers.

Provost Dan Rich said, “The Early Learning Center is an example of the University’s commitment to what we call discovery learning—the integration of instruction, research and service.

It plays an important role in the education of students from many disciplines and provides both our graduate and undergraduate students with opportunities to work directly with children and families.”

In the fall semester, Rich said, more than 100 UD students worked and trained at the ELC, and 20 different academic departments used the center as a hands-on classroom for research, internship requirements or projects related to coursework.

Talks offer prescriptions for global challenges

Rx for the President—Policy Medicine for Global Challenges,” a lecture series sponsored by the University’s America and Global Community Initiative, is presenting a range of speakers from ambassadors to an undersecretary of state during the spring semester.

Moderated by Ralph Begleiter, Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Communication and Distinguished Journalist in Residence, the lectures offer some “prescriptions” for President George W. Bush to help steer the U.S. through foreign affairs problems. The free public lectures are being held on select Wednesdays, beginning at 7:30 pm. in Mitchell Hall.

The series opened Feb. 23 with a talk on “Making Sense of the Middle East” by Rami Khouri, executive editor of the Daily Star in Beirut, Lebanon. Upcoming speakers and their topics include:
March 9—Wolfgang Ischinger, Germany’s ambassador to the United States, “Oceans Apart: Europe and the U.S.”;
March 23—Zainab Salbi, the Iraqi American founder and president of Women for Women International, “Secret Potion: Worldwide Women”;
April 6—John Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, “Sleeping Giant:
Nuclear Threats”;
April 20—Retired Col. Robert Killebrew, former special assistant to the U.S. Army chief of staff, and William Martel, professor of national security affairs and chair of space technology and policy studies at the U.S. Naval War College, “Tomorrow’s Enemy: al-Qaeda and Beyond”; and
May 4—Ambassador Wendy Sherman, former adviser to President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright, “Asia Enigma: China and North Korea.”

An additional speaker for May 18 will be announced. For information, visit [www.udel.edu/global].

Historical markers installed

Permanent markers giving a brief history of major buildings and the achievements and contributions of the persons for whom they are named, are being installed. The brass plaques mounted on brick columns were designed by Thomas Taylor, UD landscape engineer and are being installed first near buildings on The Green.