Winter 2008 — Vol. 61, No. 1

Clemson research tops $141 million!

External funding of University research projects for 2006-07 totaled $141.4 million, the highest in Clemson’s history and moving closer to the goal of $150 million by 2008.

“This total reflects outstanding achievement by faculty and staff across the University,” says Chris Przirembel, vice president for Research and Economic Development.

Clemson is focusing its research efforts in eight critical emphasis areas that match the University’s strengths and South Carolina’s economic activity.

• Automotive and Transportation Technology
• Advanced Materials
  
• Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences
• Family and Community Living
• General Education
• Information and Communication Technology
• Leadership and Entrepreneurship
• Sustainable Environment

NIH recognizes Clemson nanotechnology for molecule tracking

The National Institutes of Health has awarded two Clemson chemistry faculty members nearly $1 million to detect, track and image the interior of cells. Jason McNeill and Ken Christensen will receive the $960,000 grant to develop polymer dot nanoparticles for tracking single molecules in live cells.

Scientists could use this technology to determine the body’s defenses against invading viruses and bacteria or how proteins operate within the cell. The technology also could help doctors pinpoint the exact location of cancer cells in order to better focus treatment and minimize damage to healthy tissue. Other possible targets of investigation include plaques and fibrils in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease and mad cow disease.

The NIH-funded research is based on the McNeill lab’s recent development of novel, highly fluorescent nanoparticles called “polymer dots” that can be attached to individual proteins, DNA or invading microbes. These particles are hundreds or thousands of times brighter than conventional fluorescent dyes.

Breast cancer research and tissue fabrication get NSF boost

The National Science Foundation has awarded $2 million to the Institute for Biological Interfaces of Engineering at Clemson for the development of engineered tissues that will be used to study the causes, progression and treatment of breast cancer.

Multiple biofabrication technologies, pioneered at the University, will allow the creation and assessment of identical tissue samples that can be used to build cause-and-effect models.

“Our research team includes breast cancer surgeons, engineers and scientists — the breadth of expertise is tremendous and absolutely crucial for this very complex problem,” says center director Karen Burg, who will lead the multidisciplinary research team.

For more information, go to www.ces.clemson.edu/bio/research/cbioe/cbioe_index.html.

Clemson awarded $2 million to study radiation-induced bone loss

The University’s bioengineering department has received $2 million in grants to study radiation-induced bone loss. The National Institutes of Health and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute are primary contributors of funds to the study as a result of its two-dimensional application.

The study addresses bone loss that occurs as the result of radiation therapy for cancer treatment and from solar and cosmic radiation during space exploration.

Ted Bateman, professor and director of the Osteoporosis Biomechanics Laboratory (www.batemanlab.com), is conducting the research to understand the molecular and cellular basis for bone loss caused by radiation. The knowledge that his lab develops will assist in the development of countermeasures applicable to both cancer treatment and spaceflight.

Clemson researcher studies carbon fibers for nuclear reactor safety

Carbon fibers that are only one-tenth the size of a human hair but three times stronger than steel may hold up to the intense heat and radiation of next-generation nuclear power generators, providing a safety mechanism.

The Department of Energy has awarded Clemson chemical engineering professor Amod Ogale, deputy director of the Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films, a $450,000 grant to research carbon fibers embedded into a carbon matrix that do not melt in extreme temperatures for potential use in “Gen IV” power generators.

Irradiation experiments will be conducted in collaboration with researchers at Oak Ridge National Labs. S.C. State University researchers also will participate in the study.

Cooler, faster, cheaper … silicon chips

The next generation of laptops, desk computers, cell phones and other semiconductor devices may get faster and more cost-effective with Clemson research.

Clemson researchers have developed a new process and equipment that will lead to a significant reduction in heat generated by silicon chips or microprocessors while speeding up the rate at which information is sent.

“Based on our work, microprocessors can operate faster and cooler,” says Rajendra Singh, D. Houser Banks Professor and director for the Center for Silicon Nanoelectronics at Clemson. “In the future it will be possible to use a smaller number of microprocessors in a single chip since we’ve increased the speed of the individual microprocessors. At the same time, we’ve reduced gate leakage power loss six-fold to a level never seen before.”

Clemson breaks ground for Harris A. Smith Building for packaging science and graphics

Clemson is planning a new 28,000-square-foot building to house components of the packaging science and graphic communications departments in what will be the future home of the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics.

The building will be named for major Clemson donor Harris A. Smith, former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Smith Container Corp. Smith sold his family-owned rigid packaging company, headquartered in Atlanta, to a global packaging company a few years ago. He decided to invest in higher education to support the packaging industry his family helped define.

“Packaging is a $200 billion-plus business in the United States, and Clemson knows this business well,” says Clemson Provost Dori Helms. “We are one of a handful of institutions that focus on packaging, and we are perhaps the only one that approaches it from many different directions, ranging from advanced materials to marketing and digital printing.”

For more information, go to www.clemson.edu/sonoco_institute.

Center to attract national researchers in health design

South Carolina could become the destination for researchers seeking to learn more about how architecture, industrial design and engineering can impact health care and healing — with state funding for a Center of Economic Excellence in Health Facilities Design and Testing.

The center is a collaboration among Clemson, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the University of South Carolina, with Spartanburg Regional Health System and Health Sciences South Carolina contributing as major nonstate matching partners.

The plan includes two endowed chairs, one at Clemson and one at MUSC; associated prototyping design, fabrication and testing facilities; and ultimately the creation of two prototyping labs, one on Spartanburg Regional Health System’s Pelham campus and one in Charleston at MUSC.

“As our nation’s aging hospitals are replaced, it’s crucial that we incorporate the best information that we have into the design of new health-care environments,” says David J. Allison, Clemson architecture professor and director of the project.

For more on Clemson’s Architecture and Health Studio, go to www.clemson.edu/caah/a+h.

Great returns

Clemson is getting great returns on its newly renovated trading room in the College of Business and Behavioral Science. Both undergraduate and graduate level portfolio management students use the Clemson University Trading Room for projects ranging from corporate finance to portfolio management. They can access financial data through both Bloomberg and Reuters, and much of the data is real time.

Currently, the student investment fund is approximately $300,000, primarily a small-cap growth fund. It started four years ago with $98,000 and has been run under the direction of finance professor John Alexander, Breazeale Professor of Investments and chief investment officer for the Clemson University Foundation.

For more information, go to business.clemson.edu/departments/finance/finance_links.htm.

Clemson architecture in top 10

Architect magazine rates Clemson University’s graduate program in architecture among the best.

The November issue of Architect finds Clemson in a three-way tie with Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin for 10th in the nation for 2008.

Architect and the annual report by Design Intelligence cite Clemson’s Fluid Campus concept in which architecture students spend at least one semester learning with resident faculty in one of its centers in Charleston; Genoa, Italy; or Barcelona, Spain; not only to see great architecture, but to live and feel the culture that supports it.

For more on Clemson’s School of Architecture, go to www.clemson.edu/caah/architecture.

Scholarship funding for math and science teachers

The National Science Foundation Robert Noyce Scholarship program awarded Clemson’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in middle school education $460,000 to produce science and math teachers for South Carolina.

Forty Noyce Scholars will receive $10,000 each to help with expenses related to obtaining master’s degrees and teaching credentials. These recipients will then teach for two years at a high-need middle school in Greenville, Anderson or Oconee counties.

To be eligible, recipients must be accepted into Clemson’s MAT program and must enter with an undergraduate degree in a science, technology, engineering or math major. Nursing and health science majors may be considered if a transcript evaluation determines eligibility.

Clemson’s MAT program — a 16-month, 36-hour master’s program based at the Greenville University Center — is primarily for career changers who decide to go into education. For more information, contact Lienne Medford at (864) 250-8891 or lienne@clemson.edu.

Fighting obesity in children

As the obesity epidemic in S.C. children increases at an alarming rate, a Clemson professor is working to solve the problem.

The program — “Lucy’s Tasty Treasures” — was developed by Katherine Cason, professor and state program leader for Food Safety and Nutrition. It takes a “farm to table” approach to promote healthy eating and physical activity for children and is offered to elementary schools through video streaming, podcasts and DVDs.

The DVD is already being used in 30 percent of S.C. schools, and, so far, Cason has received orders from teachers in 15 states. Fourteen schools that are part of the Zest Quest® Program, a nonprofit children’s health initiative in the Upstate, are using the program as well as Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program educators in more than 260 schools throughout the state.

For more information, go to www.clemson.edu/lucystastytreasures or contact Cason at (864) 656-0539 or kcason@clemson.edu.

All things literary

The Clemson Literary Festival will offer a rich mix of literary events — from a book fair to top authors, to a 40th-anniversary celebration, to open mic readings — March 6-8. Award-winning, best-selling novelist Dave Eggers, distinguished poet Laurence Lieberman, and poet and children’s author Richard Michelson are featured. For more information, go to www.clemson.edu/caah/cedp/writers_nook.htm or call (864) 656-3151.

 

MBA program among nation’s best

According to U.S.News & World Report’s “2008 Best Graduate Schools,” Clemson’s master of business administration program is among the top 20 percent of all accredited MBA programs in the United States.

Clemson’s program also appears among the best in the country in Princeton Review’s “Best 290 Business Schools.”

The Princeton Review editors state: “Palmetto State residents can earn a highly regarded business degree for a small fraction of what their peers elsewhere in the country spend.”

For more on Clemson’s MBA program, go to www.clemson.edu/mba.

Hey, kids — Camp Odyssey!

An exciting summer adventure — Camp Odyssey at Clemson University’s Outdoor Lab — is a one-week residential camp for children from age 6 to 12. This year’s camp will take place July 6-12, 2008. For more information and application materials, go to www.clemson.edu/outdoorlab/ody.htm or contact camp directors at (864) 646-7502 or cuolcamps-L@clemson.edu.

 

Pres. Barker receives SACS meritorious service award

In December, Clemson President Jim Barker received a James T. Rogers Meritorious Service Award from the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the required accrediting body for more than 780 colleges and universities in the 11 Southeastern states.

Just days earlier, he was named Business Person of the Year by Greenville Magazine.

He has also been honored with the Buck Mickel Award for Business and Community Leadership, the Anderson Independent-Mail’s Pointing the Way Leadership Award and the Order of the Palmetto and induction into the Boys and Girls Clubs’ Hall of Fame.

Barker, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, is a recipient of the National Distinguished Professor Award of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

Clemson named All-American Sportsmanship School

The Institute for International Sport has named Clemson an All-American Sportsmanship School for 2007-2008.

Selection was based on strong commitment to a culture of sportsmanship demonstrated in the Solid Orange: It’s About Pride initiative.
As an All-American Sportsmanship School, Clemson will play a role in the 2008 National Sportsmanship Day March 4. Activities include visits by high school and college student athletes and coaches to local elementary schools to talk about the importance of sportsmanship.

For more on the Institute for International Sport, go to www.internationalsport.com.

Calling friends of art

The Friends of the Center for Visual Arts will host a celebration in support of Clemson’s Center for Visual Arts project on April 5 in the WestZone. Last year’s event raised $106,000 through silent and live auctions and other support. For tickets or more information, call the Lee Gallery at (864) 656-3883 or email gallery director Denise Woodward-Detrich at woodwaw@clemson.edu.