The summer after I graduated from high school, my parents and I joined my older sister in Sweden where she had been studying abroad. All my grandparents were from Sweden, and we spent a week driving to all the old homesteads. That was a lot of time in the car, and my companion was a book by psychologist Julian Jaynes entitled The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. As you can see from the picture above, the cover was solid white with big black letters and no other color or embellishment. Yes, it was as nerdy as it sounds.

And I loved it. My dad kept urging me to look out the window at the passing scenery, but I was more fascinated by Jaynes’ questions about language and perception and concepts and cognition.

I didn’t realize that I could spend a career in research studying such questions until I took Professor Carol Fowler’s class in cognitive psychology in college. I remember it so clearly. She was talking about how children acquire an understanding of the rules that govern the past tense of verbs (e.g., walk + ed = walked). I raised my hand to ask about words that didn’t fit that rule, such as “run.” She put up the next transparency (yes, it was that long ago) on irregular verbs. The rest of the class passed in that back-and-forth fashion. By the end of the class, I was hooked on research. That was also the moment that I realized that her job was the job that I wanted — designing experiments to answer questions and then telling people what I had discovered.

To this day, my favorite academic activity (well, second to conducting research myself) is talking to a scientist or scholar or artist about their work. I am so grateful to be at UD where we are pursuing so many interesting and important questions and providing the answers to a world in need and where there are scores of professional staff who support this research.

And so, thank you for your commitment to this noble work. Please reach out to me if you are willing to let me visit your lab or studio or office and talk to you and your students about the work that you are pursuing.

And please, let me ask questions!

Here's the latest from around the Beat:

What does UD mean to you? Please take a minute to share a video or photo that reflects what UD means to you. This could be a short 10- to 15-second video of you talking about why UD is special to you, or a video or an image of an activity, place or action that captures your favorite part of UD. The plan is to assemble as many of these submissions as possible into a montage that will collectively capture "OurUD." The deadline for submissions is Oct. 31, 2025.

Shout out to our colleagues in Development and Alumni Relations in partnership with the Graduate College for initiating a philanthropic campaign for bridge funding to support graduate students who are affected negatively by grant delays and terminations.

The Research Office in collaboration with Information Technology has developed a new system to support secure research computing and communications called UDSecCom that will enable our researchers to work with controlled data sets and projects regarding national security.

Mark your calendar for a “Know Your Rights” panel to be held at 5 p.m. Nov. 12 in Mitchell Hall, featuring Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, state Rep. Mara Gorman of Newark, UD Vice Provost for Global Engagement Ravi Ammigan and the UD Office of General Counsel.

Our readership has expanded! By popular demand, we are now sending Prez Beat out to our students. Catch up on past issues of Prez Beat on the president's page.

Yours in UD,