EPSCoR/IDeA Foundation

Dr. Karl V. Steiner is the Associate Provost for Interdisciplinary Research Initiatives and has a secondary appointment as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware.

Dr. Steiner received his Engineering Doctorate from the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany, his Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Delaware and completed his undergraduate degree in Information Technologies at the University of Applied Sciences in Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, Germany.

In his current position, Dr. Steiner is working closely with faculty leaders to develop and support high-profile, interdisciplinary research initiatives, especially in the areas of health sciences, energy and the environment, as identified in the University’s “Path to Prominence” strategic plan.  He serves as R&D Task Force Chair of the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance, a broad initiative among UD, Christiana Care Health System, A.I. DuPont Children’s Hospital and Thomas Jefferson University to provide health care education, research and health services to the Delaware valley.

During the spring of 2009, Dr. Steiner co-chaired UD’s ARRA Stimulus Working Group in response to the federal funding opportunities provided under the ARRA Act.  Over 190 proposals, with a combined value of almost $300M, have been submitted by UD in response to the ARRA initiative. As of October 2009, over 50 proposals, valued at more than $50 Million, have been awarded to UD.

Dr. Steiner joined the University of Delaware in 1984 and has served in leadership roles in a large number of major multidisciplinary programs funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the State of Delaware, foundations and the private sector.  Since 1991, he has been instrumental in securing over $100 Million in externally funded programs for University and statewide initiatives.

Prior to his current position in the Research Office, he served from 2000 to 2008 as the founding Associate Director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI). As a key member of the DBI Leadership Team he oversaw the growth of the institute from a concept into a thriving, $150 Million initiative housed in a state-of-the-art laboratory that houses almost 150 researchers. Dr. Steiner also led the initiative of building a statewide network of academic and clinical institutions to develop a thriving life sciences community in the State of Delaware.

Since 2001, Dr. Steiner has been serving as the Program Coordinator of the NIH-NCRR funded IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) a statewide partnership among Delaware’s academic and medical institutions, including UD, Delaware State University, Wesley College, Delaware Technical & Community College, Christiana Care and Nemours, to develop a competitive and sustainable biomedical research capability across the state. He is also a Co-Principal Investigator for the NSF–EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Program, with a focus on building a research and education infrastructure to enhance environmental science and its application in Delaware.  Since 2006, Steiner represents Delaware on the Board of the EPSCoR/IDeA Foundation. Throughout his career, he has led and coordinated numerous major multi-disciplinary programs, among them several Centers of Excellence for the Department of Defense.

Prior to establishing DBI, Dr. Steiner served as the Executive Director of the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials, an interdisciplinary research center in the College of Engineering, and one of the foremost academic research centers in its field. At the Center for Composite Materials he led and coordinated numerous major multi-disciplinary programs, including DoD Centers of Excellence for the Army Research Office and the Office of Naval Research.

From 1996 to 1998 he served as the Founding Executive Director of the Fraunhofer USA – Resource Center Delaware, a subsidiary of the German Fraunhofer Society, one of the largest non-profit applied research organizations in the world.  This initial center has since evolved into the Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology, one of the most successful Fraunhofer centers in the US.

Dr. Steiner has over twenty years of research experience in image enhancement and visualization methodologies. Much of his earlier research was focused on nondestructive evaluation and image analysis of engineered structures, such as aircraft wings, automotive panels, bridge structures, and hip implants. His current research interests are in the area of interactive immersive visualization methodologies for the life sciences, primarily in complex multi-variant data analysis and in biomedical imaging with a focus on virtual surgery simulations. In 2003, Dr. Steiner was recognized for his groundbreaking work on visualization in the life sciences as a Computerworld Honors Laureate during a reception at San Francisco’s City Hall.
Dr. Steiner has contributed over 70 technical publications in international journals and conference proceedings related to manufacturing science, nondestructive evaluation, computer visualization, and image analysis methodologies. He has served as conference and session chair in numerous technical conferences and workshops and as reviewer for several journals focused on composite materials and nondestructive testing, and has given many research seminars and presentations at international conferences, academic institutions and industrial sites across the world.

Dr. Steiner has advised and co-advised 22 Ph.D. and master’s students, and more than 40 senior theses by undergraduate students from the U.S. and abroad. He has been instrumental in establishing several successful exchange programs with the German Carl Duisberg Society and other academic institutions that have enabled more than 30 exchange students from across Europe to conduct a part of their research education in Delaware.