Fall 2005 -- Vol. 58, No. 4

Healthier babies

Clemson and Greenwood Genetic Center (GGC) have become partners in an effort to find causes and cures for birth disorders and susceptibility to premature birth, hypertension, obesity and diabetes.

The partners have formed a collaborative to increase research and doctoral education in human genetics. They plan to invest more than $10 million in the initiative, including construction of a graduate education center on the Greenwood campus.

The plan seeks to move South Carolina to the forefront in identifying the genetic causes of diseases and developing new treatments. The initiative answers a call to action. South Carolina’s level of birth disorders, which include mental retardation and autism as well as physical disfigurements, is above the national average.

“For 12 years, GGC scientists have served as adjunct faculty to offer graduate courses in human genetics,” says Clemson Provost Doris Helms. “Currently, five doctoral students are in the program; we want to see the number increase substantially.”

The new 20,000-square-foot facility will provide laboratories, classrooms and office space on the Greenwood campus and will serve as a focal point for graduate research and distance-education programs. Clemson has applied for funding from the Life Sciences Act for the $5 million construction cost. The Genetic Center plans to match that amount with an in-kind donation of land for the building and access to GGC research laboratories and treatment clinics.

This initiative will strengthen the appeal of Upstate South Carolina for genetics-related companies. SC Bio, the state’s biotechnology incubator at GGC, will support commercialization of new technologies that result from the collaborative research. The incubator offers laboratory and office space to startup companies, with an adjacent biotechnology park under development.

Alternative fuel

Three Clemson chemists are part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiative to make hydrogen fuel-cell cars and refueling stations available, practical and affordable by 2020. 

Steve Creager, Dennis Smith and Darryl DesMarteau have received a $750,000 DOE grant to develop a fuel-cell membrane that helps convert hydrogen into electricity for cars. The fuel cells will be like batteries in that they convert chemical energy into electrical energy. Unlike batteries, however, fuel cells won’t have to be recharged. Instead, they will be fed hydrogen fuel, much the same as current car engines are fed gasoline.

“The initiative builds upon 23 years of expertise, starting with professor DesMarteau at Clemson,” says team leader and electrochemist Creager. “There are few groups in the nation who are positioned to do work on new fluoropolymer materials. Clemson is one of the few academic labs in the country making new materials of this type.”

Restoration in Charleston

Clemson is working to restore the Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley and develop a 65-acre research campus in North Charleston that could employ thousands. The city council donated 80 acres of land, valued at $14.5 million, on the former Charleston Navy Base for that purpose. 

The property includes the Warren E. Lasch Conservation Center, where the Hunley is being conserved. The Hunley Commission has endorsed the transfer of the Lasch Center to Clemson.

The University will use the site to establish research space for the Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI) and expand Hunley work to include Clemson faculty and student research in historic preservation, advanced building materials and assembly, urban ecology and healthy communities.

In September, Clemson was granted $10.3 million in matching state funds that will enhance the University’s commitment. The S.C. Bond Act Review Committee awarded the match — through the state’s Research Universities Infrastructure Act.

Clemson will use the matching funds to upgrade the Lasch Center, improve infrastructure and landscaping at the site, and build the first facility on the North Charleston campus to support research conducted through CURI.

CURI is the first formal academic organization focused on the restoration economy, created to bring together experts and researchers and to drive economic growth through restoration industries and technology. It will have design and planning studios in the Clemson Architecture Center in historic downtown Charleston and will locate its research and development laboratories and facilities at the North Charleston campus.

“This is a great opportunity for Clemson to show how science and business can work together to expand our economy and provide new jobs in our state,” says S.C. House Speaker Robert Harrell.

Duke for diversity

Duke Energy Foundation has awarded a $90,000 annual gift to three outstanding Clemson programs promoting diversity in engineering and science.

Part of the award supports the PEER (Programs for Educational Enrichment and Retention) Math Excellence workshop, a summer school session of precalculus and calculus designed to prepare students for technical majors, such as computer science and engineering.

The award also goes to Project WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), which offers a summer camp for rising eighth-grade girls. The campers (pictured here) design Web pages, crack secret codes, perform bovine heart bypass surgery, and make their own shampoo and make-up — all in an effort to examine opportunities in engineering and science.

In addition, the gift goes to support programming for Clemson’s award-winning student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.

Clemson at the Great Wall

Graduate and undergraduate students, faculty and staff are pictured at the Great Wall during a recent trip to China. They traveled to the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Nanjing, where they visited businesses and toured scenic and historical sites. The undergraduate students spent an additional five weeks in China studying at Dalian University of Technology.

S.C. health boost

EPSCoR sounds like the name of a new health supplement. In fact, it’s a partnership in South Carolina called the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research that just may improve the health of S.C. citizens.

Through it, Clemson, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), the University of South Carolina (USC), South Carolina State University (SCSU) and Claflin University will share a $9 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that will boost collaborative research to improve the quality of life for S.C. citizens. The award will be matched with $4.5 million in nonfederal funding, for a total of $13.5 million.

The award will build biological engineering and biotechnology communications at USC and Claflin, and utilize Clemson’s strength in engineering, plant genetics, business entrepreneurship and ethics to develop excellence in plant gene discovery and bioengineered products.

It will also allow MUSC to establish a center for state-of-the-art investigations of brain and neural function. SCSU and Claflin will be able to attract new faculty and equipment to expand their primary mission of undergraduate education and to provide research access to underrepresented groups.

The S.C. General Assembly has recognized the S.C. EPSCoR Program as a model federal-state-university partnership and will provide a portion of the funding required to meet the $4.5 million cost-share commitment to NSF.

A Civil Action

Clemson’s 2005 summer reading program featured Jonathan Harr’s book A Civil Action — an account of the legal teams, families and corporations involved in a lawsuit alleging a connection between leukemia and the water supply in Woburn, Mass.

Jan Schlichtmann, the lawyer who represented the families of Woburn, spoke to Clemson students, faculty and staff at the beginning of the academic year.

The summer reading program, which culminates with a national speaker connected to the selection, helps new students become accustomed to the University’s intellectual community.

Record applications

A record number of college-bound students applied to Clemson for the 2005-06 academic year — nearly 12,500 applications were received — a 17 percent increase over last year.

The new freshman class has 2,904 students, with 65 percent from South Carolina, and 45 percent in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class. The class has an average SAT score of 1225, compared to last year’s average of 1204.

Total student enrollment at Clemson is holding steady at 17,000.

Building dreams

One out of every 32 adults nationwide is under some form of legal supervision — house arrest, probation or imprisonment — because of a criminal conviction. Even more unsettling is the number of children affected by incarceration.

Clemson is working to lessen the negative impact on families through Building Dreams, a mentoring program for children who have an incarcerated parent. Mentoring improves a young person’s commitment to school and self-esteem and decreases the likelihood of drug or alcohol use.

Funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Building Dreams aims to develop close, supportive relationships between volunteer mentors and children of prisoners. Building Dreams is a collaboration of the University’s Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, the Youth Learning Institute, Clemson Extension, Angel Tree Ministries and community partners in Clarendon, Darlington, Pickens, Greenville and Sumter counties.

Mentors, 18 years or older, become positive adult role models who provide young people with safe and trusting relationships. For more information on the program or how you can help, email buildingdreams-l@clemson.edu or visit the Web at www.clemson.edu/ifnl.

Construction extraordinaire

Construction science and management has taken professor Roger Liska from Chicago to China, Alabama to Australia, Detroit to D.C., and ultimately to Clemson.

In the process, he’s accumulated many honors and awards. His latest shows what an impact his long career has had. This fall he received the Darline H. Johnson Volunteer Achievement Award from the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Education Foundation.

Liska, director of the National Institute for the Improvement of Construction Management and Processes at Clemson, has been in the Clemson classroom for more than 20 years.

In addition, he’s been key in the development of the Construction Industry Technician program and certification exams. He’s served as the American Council for Construction Education’s national president, chaired all of its main committees and is currently a trustee. His experience with the accrediting organization has translated into valuable expertise that he has used to help the NAWIC Education Foundation accomplish its ultimate goal to get all its programs accredited.

Clemson’s nationally recognized construction science and management program in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities continues to enjoy a 100 percent success rate in placing its graduates seeking employment or graduate school. For more information, visit the Web at www.clemson.edu/caah/csm.

C-CATS

Top high school students from three states are getting an early introduction to Clemson through a new program at the University’s Youth Learning Institute in Pickens.

Last year more than 2,000 academically talented ninth- and 10th-graders were recommended by high school guidance counselors in the Carolinas and Georgia. Of those, 160 were selected for the program that began this spring.
Called C-CATS (Clemson’s Challenge for Academically Talented Students), the program identifies the region’s brightest students and challenges them to consider Clemson for their university studies.

C-CATS weekends include both academic and recreational activities, and admissions officers talk with the students about what it takes to get into selective universities such as Clemson.

For more information, contact Brad Cuttino of the Youth Learning Institute at bcuttin@clemson.edu or visit the Web at www.c-cats.org.

$26.6 million from S.C. Research University Infrastructure Bond Act

Four Clemson projects received a total of $24.6 million in S.C. Research University Infrastructure Bond Act funding in September from the S.C. Research Centers of Economic Excellence Review Board. Clemson also received an additional $2 million toward construction of a Medical University of South Carolina bioengineering center in Charleston where Clemson will conduct research, bringing the total to $26.6 million.

“The four Clemson projects include economic development initiatives that are physically located in North Charleston, Anderson County and Greenville, but their impact will be felt by residents of every community in South Carolina,” says Chris Przirembel, Clemson vice president for research and economic development.

The projects are:

Clemson Restoration Research Campus ($10.3 million). The review board awarded Clemson $10.3 million in matching state funds to enhance the University’s commitment to a new North Charleston research campus.

Greenville Hospital System (GHS) Innovative Biomedicine and Bioengineering Research and Training Program ($7 million). The funding paves the way for Clemson faculty and students to work directly with GHS clinicians to improve patient care and boost economic development. The $7 million in matching state funds will be used to upfit and equip the facilities that will house the Innovative Biomedicine and Bioengineering Research and Training Program on the campus of the GHS University Medical Center.

Clemson Research Park Innovation Center ($5 million). This funding will meet the majority of the construction costs of a $6 million, 40,000-square-foot Innovation Center, adjacent to the University’s Advanced Materials Research Laboratory in the Clemson Research Park. These two facilities, plus a new building the S.C. Research Authority plans to construct simultaneously, will create a powerful complex to spur high-tech economic development for Anderson County.

CU-ICAR Campbell Graduate Engineering Center Equipment ($2.3 million). The approved funds will be used to create test cells. The equipment will allow the researchers to conduct tests on vehicles that are crucial to assessing full-scale vehicle performance and in developing new vehicle technology, both essential features of the graduate program.

Clemson’s additional request for $2 million for the Medical University of South Carolina is in support of a new medical research facility for collaborative research and training in bioengineering by researchers from Clemson and the state’s other two research universities.