Spring 2009 — Vol. 62, No. 2
Clemson helps boost state’s economy
Clemson and other S.C. research universities are key to the state’s financial growth through the Centers of Economic Excellence (CoEE) Program created by the S.C. Legislature. 
In just six years, the CoEE Program has generated more than 2,000 S.C. jobs and boosted the state’s economy by nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in nonstate investment or pledges to the program.
The S.C. Legislature created the CoEE Program in 2002 to stimulate research and development at the state’s three senior research universities (Clemson, University of South Carolina and Medical University of South Carolina) to enhance economic opportunities and increase the number of well-paying jobs in the state. State funds appropriated from S.C. Education Lottery proceeds are awarded to the universities on a competitive basis.
Universities must raise nonstate, dollar-for-dollar matching funds prior to accessing state funds. Both the state and nonstate funds are used to establish research centers in knowledge-intensive areas such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and automotive engineering. The universities then recruit top scientists and engineers to lead the centers.
For more on the Centers of Economic Excellence, go to www.sccoee.org.
Detoxing water from drilling
Clemson scientists Jim Castle and John Rodgers have been awarded more than $800,000 to find economical and environmentally sensible ways to treat the billions of gallons of contaminated water that come out of the ground during oil and natural gas production.
Their work may help the nation achieve energy self-sufficiency and environmental sustainability.
Castle, environmental engineering and earth sciences professor, and Rodgers, forestry and natural resources professor, are developing constructed wetland systems to treat the contaminated water for reuse. The research funding includes $689,500 from the U.S. Department of Energy and $120,000 from Chevron of Houston, Texas.
Department of Energy experts say that co-produced water “comprises 98 percent of all waste generated by U.S. oil and natural gas operations. Handling and disposal of this water is the single greatest environmental impediment to natural gas and oil exploration and production.”
Model UN team — outstanding!
Clemson students Adedoyin Salami and Natasha Korba received the Outstanding Delegation award to the Food and Agriculture Committee at the fifth annual Stockholm Model United Nations Conference in Sweden.
The Clemson team also included students Michelle Gottfried, Chris Godbey, Sarah Layton, Rosalyn Morrison, Emnet Sebhatu and Lad Williamson and political science professor and faculty adviser Michael Morris.
During the conference, Clemson students competed with more than 150 students from around the world representing 40 countries and engaged in debates in the Security Council, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.
ATW joins CU-ICAR
Chicago-based American Titanium Works LLC will locate its applications development and engineering technical center at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) campus, in connection with a $422 million titanium mini-mill facility the company plans to locate in Laurens County.
The ATW Tech Center at CU-ICAR will create 40 applied engineering jobs that will specialize in prototype development and fabrication techniques for multiple industry sectors. The manufacturing facility will employ 320 people.
Repairing “early” hearing loss
Clemson scientist Susan Chapman has received a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the development of the middle ear. The research seeks to help scientists and medical experts identify genetic problems and repair hearing defects while a child is still in the womb.
Chapman, a neuroscientist and developmental biologist, seeks to unlock a puzzle: How do cells in an embryo develop into the elaborate structure of the ear? By studying chicken embryos (which share similar development of ear structures to the human embryo), Chapman is researching the cells that help create the middle ear and the genetic signals the cells receive to build the structures.
About three in 1,000 babies are born with hearing impairment. Chapman is optimistic that the research will provide a way to deal with some of those hearing losses.
‘Best Architecture and Design Schools 2009’
Clemson’s architecture and landscape architecture programs have been recog-nized as some of the best in the country by the Design Futures Council publication DesignIntelligence.
Clemson’s graduate program in architecture is ranked 11th nationally, and the planning and landscape architecture program is 12th among undergraduate programs. DesignIntelligence also ranked Clemson a “World Class School of Architecture with High Distinction.”
Pershing Rifles RULE!
Clemson Pershing Rifles Company C-4 has won the national championship for the sixth straight year, its eighth top title in 10 years.
Members won the 2009 national varsity championship of the Joseph Memorial Drill Competition, hosted this year at Clemson.
The Pershing Rifles competed against 14 other top teams from around the country. Click here for more on Clemson’s famed precision drill team.
Web Extra: C-4 Platoon Exhibition
Ethics Bowl team among top
Clemson’s Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl team earned its second trophy in as many years at the national Ethics Bowl Championships in Cincinnati, Ohio. The “Orange Wave” outperformed more than 100 other teams and earned the second-place spot as they defended their national championship from last year.
Clemson is the only university in the nation with teams that have reached the quarterfinal rounds at each national competition in the past seven years.
The team is sponsored by Clemson’s Robert J. Rutland Institute for Ethics and philosophy and religion department and is coached by Kelly Smith and Charles Starkey, professors and Fellows of the Rutland Institute. Students are Brad Saad, Kelsey Sontag, Rahul Loungani, Michael DeWitt, Nikesh Patel and assistants Margaret Nicholson, Neil Barrett, Caroline Rash, Ashley Rube and Ian Wood.
The Rutland Institute provides a forum for exploration of ethical issues on and off campus. Its programs include leadership and training in Clemson’s Ethics Across the Curriculum program. For more on the Rutland Institute, go to www.clemson.edu/ethics.
Safe food for day care
Clemson researcher Angela Fraser is fighting an invisible enemy in child care centers — bacteria and other food-borne microbes that cause illnesses.
Fraser, a food science and human nutrition professor, has received a $577,000 federal grant for improving the food handling, hygiene and sanitation in child care settings in North and South Carolina.
Findings from Fraser and other food-safety experts will be used to develop training for educators who provide food-safety training to child care workers. Information and materials will be available through the FightBAC! Web site — fightbac.org — created by the Partnership for Food Safety Education.
Web Extra: What Parents Can Do
Master of Real Estate Development — among top in nation
Clemson’s Master of Real Estate Development program was featured in the Journal of Real Estate Literature as one of the top new programs in the nation.
Clemson’s program is a joint project between the College of Business and Behavioral Science and the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities, making it Clemson’s only graduate program connecting development design and business. Students take courses in law, finance, management, architecture, construction science, and city and regional planning.
Web Extra: Real Estate Development — Clemson Graduate School
2009 TIGER FOOTBALL
Sept. 5 — Middle Tennessee State (Hall of Fame Day, Youth Day)
Sept. 10 — at Georgia Tech
Sept. 19 — Boston College (Family Weekend)
Sept. 26 — Texas Christian (Football Reunion Weekend)
Oct. 3 — at Maryland
Oct. 17 — Wake Forest (IPTAY Day)
Oct. 24 — at Miami (Fla.)
Oct. 31 — Coastal Carolina (Homecoming)
Nov. 7 — Florida State (Solid Orange Day)
Nov. 14 — at North Carolina State
Nov. 21 — Virginia (Military Appreciation Day)
Nov. 28 — at South Carolina
Fan Appreciation Day is Sunday, Aug. 23, at 3 p.m.
Follow the TIGERS!
For 2009 Clemson football away games, be sure to plan your trips with the Alumni Association’s Clemson Sports Travel Program. Call (864) 656-2345 for the latest information on away-game headquarters and pregame tailgate gatherings or visit the Web at cualumni.clemson.edu/travel.
Students score slam-dunk
Leave it to engineers to wonder how much force is generated when a 240-pound forward slam-dunks a basketball. And leave it to Clemson engineers to figure it out.
Civil engineering professor Scott Schiff and his students have created a first-of-its-kind system that not only measures the intensity of the dunks, but also displays that information on the video board for fans almost immediately.
The device uses a combination of two accelerometers, which measure acceleration, and the principles of basic physics to allow students to calculate within 15 seconds of the dunk how much energy was imparted to the basketball goal.
The rating system is a joint venture between the Clemson Student Chapter of the Structural Engineers Association and the Clemson Athletic Department.
Web Extra: Slam Dunk Rating System
‘Cradle to grave’
Clemson environmental engineer Shelie Miller has received a prestigious CAREER Award and grant of $400,000 for her life-cycle assessment research.
She identifies the life-cycle steps, ranging from raw materials through disposing or recycling. She then evaluates a product’s cumulative impact on the environment. Life-cycle assessments provide industry and public leaders with “cradle to grave” analyses of how products and processes affect the environment.
Miller is currently analyzing switchgrass, a hardy perennial grass that shows a lot of promise as a biofuel. Researchers at the Clemson Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence and on campus are finding ways to unlock the energy stored in plant materials. Miller’s role is to figure out if switchgrass as a fuel produces a net benefit to the environment after all its costs are identified and evaluated.
Web Extra: Shelie Miller: Biofuel Research
2009 MLK travelers
Clemson students traveled to Memphis, Tenn., for the 2009 Martin Luther King Commemorative Trip as part of the University’s annual MLK Celebration.
They visited the National Civil Rights Museum, W.C. Handy House Museum, Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum, STAX Museum of American Soul Music and Alex Haley House Museum.
The annual trip is sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Enhancement Committee coordinated through the Gantt Intercultural Center.
International teaching excellence
Clemson professor Hala Nassar has received the Award of Recognition for Excellence in Research, Teaching and Service to the Profession from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.
The award applauded her research and teaching efforts in establishing an international cross-cultural partnership between landscape architecture students at Clemson and architecture students at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt.
Since 2006, students and faculty from both schools have worked on Creative Inquiry projects to provide design solutions for urban sprawl at some of the world’s greatest sites of antiquities, including the urban edge of the Giza plateau near the Great Pyramids and along the Avenue of the Sphinxes in Luxor, Egypt.
For more on the Luxor project, go to “Challenge of the Sphinxes”
Web Extra: Students from Egypt teamed up with landscape architecture students from Clemson
Enterprising alumni
The Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership held its fourth annual Celebration of Clemson Alumni Entrepreneurs, recognizing two distinguished business leaders with the Clemson Alumni Entrepreneur Award.
Gary Parsons ’72, computer and electrical engineering graduate, is chairman of Sirius XM Radio Inc. Parsons founded XM Satellite Radio in the mid-1990s and served as chairman there until the merger of Sirius and XM Radio last year. He holds many patents in the telecommunications industry. He’s also chairman of SkyTerra GP, a board member of Canadian Satellite Radio and Devas Multimedia, and vice chairman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Doug Haugh ’94, chemical engineering graduate, is executive vice president and CIO of Mansfield Oil Co., a nationwide provider of fuel supply, distribution logistics and delivery services. Haugh also co-founded FuelQuest Inc., founded three companies in industries including real estate development and media software, and serves on the board of BioBlend Renewable Resources. In 2006, he received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year™ award in the energy technology category for the Houston and Gulf Coast region.
Clemson’s Spiro Institute supports programs that promote entrepreneurial activity and economic development.
Alumni support No. 4 in nation
Clemson alumni support, as measured by alumni giving, is among the top in public universities in the nation according to U.S.News & World Report.
Last year’s alumni participation rose from 27 percent to 28.5 percent, a huge increase considering the fact that the University adds more than 3,800 new alumni to the list each year. Alumni giving is considered a measure of how satisfied graduates are with their college experience and with the value of the education they received.
Cyber steps to combat dropout crisis
Picture this: It’s an in-service day in a typical S.C. elementary school. The staff is in the school library learning about bullying prevention with international expert Susan Limber.
But Limber — a professor with Clemson’s Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life — isn’t there. In fact, she’s busy elsewhere with research. How does she do this?
Limber, the National Dropout Prevention Center (NDPC) at Clemson and Clemson Radio Productions have found a way to reach those in need of research-based solutions, deliver the information and provide the resources — all at no cost to the consumer.
Last year, Limber presented a live radio webcast and provided resources for her audience to use during the broadcast. The resources were kept on the NDPC Web site, and the audio program was recorded and archived by Clemson Radio Productions, downloadable from the Web site and available on iTunes.
In response to the growing need for solutions to the dropout crisis amid budget woes, the National Dropout Prevention Center began to produce a monthly live radio webcast last year — Solutions to the Dropout Crisis. Now, with the archived versions available, even more school and community leaders are tuning in to find out how to make specific improvements in their schools.
For more information, go to www.dropoutprevention.org/webcast.
Web Extra: Sue Limber: Bullying Prevention
Robotics rock!
The FIRST Robotics Competition Palmetto Regional at Littlejohn Coliseum in March attracted 1,000 high school students — from the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, West Virginia, Alabama, New Jersey, Missouri and an international squad from Brazil. The teams competed for top honors in what’s described as a rock concert and sporting event rolled into one.
Clemson’s College of Engineering and Science hosted the event. Click here for more informationon the FIRST Robitcs Competition.
Web Extra: More than 1,000 high school students brought their robots to Clemson
Packaging design and graphics institute
In March, Clemson dedicated the Harris A. Smith Building, home to the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics, where students and researchers will study not only how packaging is designed and manufactured but also how products will be perceived, marketed and consumed in the future.
It’s the only university program in the country that will bring together packaging science, graphic communication, materials, environmental science, manufacturing, marketing and psychology disciplines to study packaging methods, says Chip Tonkin, the institute’s director.
The 28,000-square-foot building is named for Harris A. Smith of Atlanta, Ga., former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Smith Container Corp., founded by the Smith family in 1907. He sold the company a few years ago and saw an opportunity to create a global center for packaging innovation by investing in Clemson.
Tiger tennis star
Student athlete Ani Mijacika, a language and international trade major, is ranked No. 1 in the nation in women’s tennis singles (Campbell/ITA Tennis poll) at press time.
CU-ICAR students designed a suspension system for the ultra- fast DiMora Motorcar sport sedan.
Automotive engineering graduate students at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) collaborated with the unique vehicle development company to design a suspension system that can handle speeds in excess of 240 mph.
Because CU-ICAR fills the gap between basic research and commercial application of automotive technologies, DiMora Motorcar challenged it to assess suspension-technology options for the Natalia SLS 2 sport luxury sedan. A team of students, under faculty supervision, accepted that challenge last semester.
“The designs they produced are excellent,” says DiMora Motorcar Founder Alfred DiMora. “We were already impressed by CU-ICAR’s facilities, equipment and staff. Now we know that the graduate students working here are outstanding as well.”
Two-sport SPEED
Sociology major and Tiger wide receiver Jacoby Ford recently earned a track national championship when he won the 60-meter dash at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Design-Build students No. 2 in nation
Clemson’s award-winning Design-Build student team earned the praise of a panel of national construction professionals as among the most skilled future construction managers and builders in the country.
The team, which traveled to the San Diego-based national convention of the Associated General Contractors of America for the event, won second place in the National Student Championship Design Build Division.
‘International Leaders in Education’ 
Clemson is hosting 14 teachers from around the world as part of the International Leaders in Education Program, a professional and academic exchange program funded by a U.S. Department of State grant. The visiting secondary education teachers, from 11 countries, are taking classes on campus and will complete an internship with a partner teacher at nearby Daniel High School.
Clemson was one of only five schools chosen to participate in the competitive academic exchange program.
The grant is administered through the International Research and Exchange Board, a nonprofit organization that promotes global education and training.
Getting the big picture in geology
Environmental engineering and earth sciences professor John Wagner has found a way to give his students the big picture of geology.
He arranges air field trips for his classes in geomorphology — the study of surface features of the earth — on the University plane. University pilot Heyward Douglass navigates students over the Appalachian Mountains while Wagner points out from midair examples of surface features studied in the classroom and laboratory.
Students actually view four landform regions: the Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Valley and Ridge, and Cumberland Plateau, while noting mining activity and other surface features as they analyze the terrain for evidence of geologic, climatic and tectonic effects.
“We don’t know of any other university that does this with a comparable undergraduate class,” says Wagner. “It’s another way we’re working to provide unique opportunities for Clemson students with administration support and University resources.”
Carnegie Foundation recognition
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has recognized Clemson with a community engagement classification in the areas of curricular engagement and outreach and partnerships.
Curricular engagement focuses on service-learning and community-based research in addressing community needs as part of the learning experience. The focus of outreach and partnerships is on sharing knowledge and resources and collaborating locally, nationally and globally to improve quality of life and advance economic development.
Prince Scholars
Recipients of scholarships sponsored by or named for Clemson President Emeritus Phil Prince gathered with him at the President’s Box in Memorial Stadium.
Emcees for the event were Kate Parks and Kyle Roedersheimer, beneficiaries of the Prince Alumni Presidential Scholarship, provided by the Clemson Alumni Association.
Prince was introduced to the students by psychology professor Robin Kowalski, 2008 winner of the Prince Award for Innovation in Teaching, which recognizes outstanding teachers who demonstrate creative and novel teaching methods in the classroom.
‘Tanner’s Totes’
Pre-business student athlete Tanner Smith made news this spring for his contributions on the basketball court and his accomplishments in the classroom (Academic All-ACC team for men’s basketball).
All the while, another facet of his life — Tanner’s Totes — has gained national attention. Tanner’s Totes — a nonprofit he started while in grade school with help from his parents — continues to cheer up preteens and teens who are undergoing treatment for cancer or other long-term illnesses with bags of gifts, craft materials and other fun items.
Smith and his organization have been featured by ESPN, HGTV and others.
Click here for more on Tanner’s Totes or on the Smith family.
Quiet Reflections
A 128-page, full-color book by nature photographer Tommy Wyche and naturalist John Garton captures the beauty of the Clemson Experimental Forest in all four seasons.
The coffee-table book showcases the natural and cultural history of the University’s 17,500-acre forest. The Clemson Forest is an outstanding example of conservation that’s home to more than 195 species of birds and 900 species of plants, including some of the largest trees of their kind in the state, as well as several rare or endangered species.
For more on the book, go to www.clemson.edu/psapublishing or call (888) 772-2665. Proceeds go to the Clemson Forest operating fund to support research and education programs.