Summer 2006 -- Vol. 59, No. 3

Quantum leap

Clemson researchers, led by chemistry professor Ya-Ping Sun, are using carbon — one of the most abundant elements on Earth — to create glowing, nanosized dots that have a wide range of uses. These carbon dots show promise in such areas as sensors, medical imaging and light sources that are more efficient while generating less heat.

Their findings were published in Journal of the American Chemical Society (June 7). Applications are numerous. For example, the dots help scientists look at different parts of cells and tissue, lighting up cancerous areas. It may be particularly effective in breast cancer research.

To bring this technology to the marketplace, Clemson University Research Foundation officer Matthew Gevaert says Clemson has signed an option with an Upstate S.C. nanotechnology startup company formed for the purpose of commercializing carbon dot and nanotube technology.

Nobel Peace Prize

Clemson professor Jim Navratil is part of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to prevent nuclear materials from being used for weapons and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used safely.

Navratil worked the past two summers with the IAEA’s Safeguards Analytical Laboratory at Seibors-dorf, near Vienna, Austria. The laboratory is an arm of the United Nations that helps monitor nuclear activity in 145 nations. Two thousand samples of nuclear materials a year are analyzed there.

He also received the 2006 Lifetime Faculty Achievement Award from the Waste management, Education and Research Consortium.

National champs again!

The Clemson Pershing Rifles, the University’s famed precision drill team, again took the title at the Pershing Rifles National Competition in Washington, D.C., earlier this year. This is their fourth national title in a row and their fifth in the last seven years.

During a visit to Arlington Cemetery, the Pershing Rifles laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier while soldiers from Walter Reed Hospital who were recovering from recent injuries looked on. They also performed a 21-gun salute at Gen. John J. Pershing’s grave and visited the grave of Clemson alumnus Army Capt. Mark Stubenhofer ’96.

Top EM lab

Thanks to a partnership with Hitachi High Technologies America Inc. and the S.C. Legislature, Clemson now has one of the best university electron microscopy (EM) laboratories in the United States, giving researchers the capability to view molecules and atoms at several million times their actual size.

Hitachi High Technologies America Inc. has provided money that, when matched with a grant from the S.C. Research University Infrastructure Act, resulted in $3.3 million worth of new and updated electron microscopes for Clemson. The equipment, housed in the new Advanced Materials Research Laboratory, uses a beam of electrons to produce an enlarged image of a minute object. Clemson has partnered with Hitachi for the last five years in electron microscopy.

Clean, clear water

Two Clemson students have developed a cost-effective, energy-efficient method to remove arsenic from drinking water in rural, isolated communities. Their research recently won the Oak Ridge Associated Universities 2006 Environmental Improvement Realization Award for Achievement and Technical Communication, one of the two top awards at the WERC (Waste management, Education and Research Consortium) International Environmental Design Contest.

Brian Pool, a graduate student in environmental engineering and science, and Will Vining, a senior chemical engineering major, developed and demonstrated the award-winning method. Environmental engineering professor and team adviser Jim Navratil says the system is designed to be implemented into a new system or added into existing New Mexico rural water treatment systems.

Deluxe designers

A team of Clemson students in architecture and construction science and management finished in the top three in the national AGC/ASC (Associated General Contractors of America and Associated Schools of Construction) Design-Build Student Competition. They represented the Southeastern region.

The team had 24 hours to submit a written proposal followed by an oral presentation for a
$7 million municipal office building located in Loveland, Colo. The proposal included a conceptual building design, estimate, schedule, site logistics and construction sequence, project controls, safety plan, quality control plan, LEED Silver certification plan and project organization and management. 

The winning Clemson team members are, from left, Colin Baker, Tristan Cunio, Jessica Latour, construction science and management professor Shima Clarke, Frank Cardella and Cody Albergotti. Clarke also received the W.A. Klinger Construction Education Award. The national award honors a construction educator/academician, distinguished in teaching, research and service in the advancement of the construction profession.

Knock on wood

A tree best known for use in fine furniture holds promise as medicine. Clemson food chemist Feng Chen’s preliminary research shows that some limonoids and polyphenolics in methanolic extract from African mahogany slow the growth of colon and breast cancer cells in laboratory experiments.

Chen is part of a team studying novel drugs derived from plants. The National Institutes of Health has awarded a multidisciplinary research project between Clemson and the University of South Carolina. The funding will be used to explore novel pharmaceuticals from traditional medicinal plants to treat colon cancer. Chen is a co-principal investigator, working on the biochemistry of potential medicinal plants.

Traffic Bowl champs

Members of the Clemson University student chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), with professor and faculty adviser Wayne Sarasua, are 2006 Traffic Bowl winners. Clemson’s civil engineering students represented South Carolina and competed against teams from nine states at the Southern District ITE Conference. ITE is a professional society of transportation engineers, planners and other professionals in more than 70 countries.

Students Ryan Fries, Hiren Shah and Carol Hamlin won the 2006 William H. Temple Scholarship Challenge, a Jeopardy-style team competition with an audience of more than 200 transportation professionals. Clemson also walked away with the Outstanding Student Chapter Award for activities during the past year. Recent graduate Jae Mattox won the Outstanding Student Paper Award.

What a season!

Tyler Colvin’s walk-off grand slam gave the Tigers an 11-8 victory over Oral Roberts in game one of the Super Regional. It was a dramatic victory for the Tigers in ESPN’s first ever broadcast of a baseball game from Clemson. The next day Jack Leggett’s team clinched a berth in the College World Series. The Tigers finished the season as ACC champions and fifth in the nation.

Cheaper, more fuel-efficient cars

Chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Amod Ogale has received research funding from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop cost-competitive carbon fibers that are one-tenth the size of a human hair, but stronger than steel. Such carbon fibers are intended for use in automobile manufacturing to make cars lighter and, therefore, more fuel-efficient.

If the price is right, carbon fibers can be used in making light-weight primary and secondary structures for automobiles that can double the fuel-efficiency. High-end cars such as Mercedes, Corvettes and even race cars already use carbon fibers in their construction, but Clemson researchers hope to make carbon fibers more affordable for mainstream vehicles.

Michelin Endowed Chair

Clemson has named Todd H. Hubing to fill the Michelin Endowed Chair in Vehicular Electronic Systems Integration at CU-ICAR (Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research) in Greenville. His appointment is the second of four endowed chairs planned for the program, and his faculty appointment is in Clemson’s electrical and computer engineering department.

Hubing will focus his research and teaching efforts on automotive engineering, specifically the integration of vehicle electronic systems.

“Today’s cars and trucks rely heavily on electronic systems to enhance performance, safety, reliability and fuel economy,” says Hubing. “Michelin and Clemson recognize the importance of vehicular electronics research and are committed to being leaders in this field. I am very excited about having an opportunity to help build a world-premier automotive electronics research facility literally from the ground up.”

Great ‘Year of the Tiger’!

Clemson had one of its most successful all-around athletics years ever.

Clemson’s Terry Don Phillips was named NACDA’s (National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics) 2005-06 GeneralSports Turf Systems Athletic Director-of-the-Year for the Southeast Region of Division I-A.

The program boasts six top-25 programs this year, including top-10 final rankings in men’s soccer, golf and baseball. This year marked the first time since 1979 that Clemson reached the Final Four in soccer and the College World Series in baseball in the same year. Clemson also had top-25 finishes in football, men’s tennis and women’s tennis. Clemson was the only school in the country this year to win a postseason football game, a postseason basketball game and a College World Series game.

Significant improvements have also been made in facilities, highlighted by the completion of the first component of the WestZone project at Clemson Memorial Stadium this summer. See the Webcam here.

Growing Up Cartoonist

Growing Up Cartoonist in the Baby Boom South: A Memoir and Cartoon Retrospective by author and artist Kate Salley Palmer is the newest publication for Clemson University Digital Press in Clemson’s Center for Electronic and Digital Publishing.

The book is a jaunt through the artist’s life as a child growing up in Orangeburg, student, wife, mother, teacher, political cartoonist and children’s picture book author/illustrator. Laced with wily wit and devotion to detail, the book doubles as her first political cartoon collection.

Palmer, whose husband is longtime Clemson agronomist Jim Palmer ’64, PhD ’69, is known more recently for her lively children’s books and her collaboration with son James ’93 on “Swamp Fox” Francis Marion literature. But her new Growing Up Cartoonist has been a lifetime in the making.

For more on the book, call (864) 656-5399 or visit the Web site for the Clemson University Digital Press.

Stopping aneurysms

Clemson researchers are working on a new way to stop deadly aneurysms.

An aneurysm is an abnormal widening of an artery that usually occurs in the abdominal or thoracic aorta or in brain arteries. Because there are no warning signs, the ballooning artery can burst, causing instant death. This condition kills 15,000 people in the United States annually.

While graft surgery is the traditional form of treatment, Clemson bioengineering professors Naren Vyavahare and Dan Simionescu, along with doctoral student Jason Isenburg, have developed a pharmaceutical application that requires a simple procedure.

The compound derived from phenolic tannin, a naturally derived substance similar to a compound found in tea and red wine, is applied close to the widened artery. It binds to elastin, a protein in arteries that keeps blood vessels flexible, to decrease elastin degradation, a major cause of ballooning of arteries. The researchers have received a two-year, $396,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to support their study.

Bird flu and biosecurity

If or when Avian Influenza shows up in poultry flocks in South Carolina, Clemson plans to be prepared. Fortunately, no case of the H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza, which has caused high poultry death rates in Asia, has been seen in North America, says Tony Caver, head of Clemson’s livestock and poultry health programs.

His agency is taking the lead in preparing a plan to respond to AI in the state, should it show up, either accidentally or intentionally through agroterrorism.

Clemson Extention has trained personnel for strike teams that will be able to respond rapidly to any highly contagious disease of livestock or poultry such as AI or foot and mouth disease. They’ve also undergone biosecurity training. For more information, visit the Clemson Livestock and Poultry Health Programs Web site at www.clemson.edu/lph.

Concrete, steel and balsawood

Clemson civil engineering students continue their championship run. They took third place in the 2006 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) National Concrete Canoe Competition in Stillwater, Okla. Clemson canoes have seven top-three finishes in the race since 1998, with three national first-place titles and two second-place ones.

Earlier this year, Clemson’s ASCE student chapter was named overall winner of the Carolinas Conference for 2006 in civil engineering competitions. Clemson students paddled to first place in concrete canoe regional competition. They placed second in the steel bridge and third in the balsawood bridge competitions.

Life at the Water’s Edge

Life at the Water’s Edge, a guidebook for landscaping practices for homeowners that will protect the lakes and streams, recently received a Notable State Document Award. It also received a national award from the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation and recommendation by the North American Lakes Management Society.

The colorful book explores South Carolina’s shoreline natural history, explains the advantages of natural buffer vegetation in protecting water quality and features practical solutions to shoreline landscaping problems.

Written and edited by Lin Roth, a forest ecologist at Clemson’s Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science in Georgetown, the book includes contributions from Barbara Speziale, aquatic biologist; Patrick McMillan, botanist and curator of the University’s herbarium; Bill Stringer, agronomist and native grass specialist; and Bob Polomski, Clemson Extension horticulturist.

For more information, go to dprod4.clemson.edu/olos/asp/searchmain.asp or call (864) 656-0109.

Calling all Tiger staffers

In January, The Tiger, Clemson’s award-winning student newspaper, will celebrate 100 years of news for, by and about members of the University community. The newspaper staff is planning a variety of events to mark this milestone and seeking all members of “The Tiger family.” If you’re a former staff member and would like to be a part of this historic occasion, please send your name, address and suggestions to The Tiger, Attn: Patrick Neal, 315 Hendrix Student Center, Clemson, SC 29634.

Endowed chair proposals approved

Clemson has received approval for two endowed chairs from the S.C. Research Centers of Economic Excellence Review Board —
$4 million for an endowed chair in advanced fiber-based materials and $2 million for one in nutrigenomics. To demonstrate the economic significance of the projects, the allocated funds must be matched by private-sector funds.

Clemson has multiple strengths in advanced materials research, including a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center in Advanced Fibers and Films, strong academic and administrative leadership, the necessary space and equipment to support the chair, strong industry support and the ability to provide an integrated solution to advanced materials research from the polymer to the fiber. A gift from the J.E. Sirrine Textile Foundation provides $2.8 million of the $4 million required private matching funds.

The nutrigenomics endowed chair will address the effects of plant foods and dietary supplements on gene expression in obesity. The chair holder will lead a research initiative focusing on the fundamental mechanisms through which macro- and micro-nutrients interact with the human genome to promote wellness and prevent disease.

The review board also reaffirmed its support for the Clemson University Restoration Institute in the S.C. Lowcountry. The program has received support for two endowed chairs and $10.3 million in research infrastructure funding. The institute will have facilities in North Charleston and downtown Charleston.

Simply the Best

Architecture fellow

Janice C. Schach, dean of the University’s College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities, has been inducted into the first Academy of Fellows of an international society of landscape architecture educators. The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Academy of Fellows honors a faculty member’s lifetime accomplishments in teaching, scholarship, creative activity and service. Schach has served as dean since 2000. She’s also director of the Clemson University Restoration Institute.

Engineering fellows

Three Clemson researchers have been elected Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Bioengineering professor and chair Martine LaBerge, Hunter Endowed Chair and bioengineering professor Karen Burg and Dow Chemical Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Anthony Guiseppi-Elie were elected for outstanding achievements in medical and biological engineering. The College of Fellows leads the way in technological advancement, advocates for public policies and prepares young scientists and engineers to build on that progress.

Motorsports industry

Clemson motorsports continues to make news. The Houston Chronicle (May 24) described Clemson as being one of two universities to lead the way in offering motorsports programs in the mid-1990s, now a burgeoning area of study across the nation and world. Clemson was also mentioned in AutoWeek (April 24) in regard to a father and son’s college tour. For more on Clemson’s programs, go to Brooks Institute for Sports Science at www.clemson.edu/centers/brooks/racing.

A+ architecture

In the 2006 survey of Design Intelligence, a Washington, D.C.-based professional journal for architects, Clemson’s School of Architecture’s graduate program ranked 13th in the nation. It tied for this position with the University of California, Berkeley, just ahead of Princeton University. In addition, Clemson’s architecture faculty is third in the nation in Architecture Schools with Most Faculty Awards.

Bilingual health project

English professor Barbara Heifferon received the International Conference on College Teaching and Learning Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology 2005-2006. Heifferon used various computer applications to create a bilingual health project that allows non-Spanish-speaking health workers to triage Spanish-speaking patients with fewer translators. Heifferon established test sites with her graduate students and developed touch screen technology and a monitoring device for tracking patients.

International writers

Educators and researchers from four continents and across the nation came to Clemson to exchange ideas on how to make better writers out of future engineers, accountants, scientists and others during the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference. Clemson hosted the 2006 annual conference where innovative teaching ideas, new program developments and the latest research are discussed. Clemson University was TIME/Princeton Review’s public college of the year for 2001 based on the strength of its writing and communication programs. The University has been cited by U.S.News & World Report each year since 2000 as one of the nation’s most distinguished programs on writing in the disciplines.

Great E&S grad programs

Four graduate programs in Clemson’s College of Engineering and Science are among the nation’s 50 best, according to the latest edition of U.S.News & World Report’s guidebook of graduate programs. Each was ranked against similar ones at all national doctoral-granting universities, public or private. Clemson’s environmental engineering and science program is 20th in the nation. Industrial/manufacturing engineering earned a spot at No. 30 in its category, up three places from last year. The biomedical/bioengineering program is ranked 42nd, compared to 46th last year, and civil engineering ranks 48th.

Eudora Welty Prize

English professor and prolific author Keith Morris has been awarded the Eudora Welty Prize in fiction by The Southern Review, the prestigious literary journal published at Louisiana State University. Morris was awarded for his short story “The Culvert.” Morris is the author of the novel The Greyhound God and the fiction collection The Best Seats in the House (University of Nevada Press). His stories have appeared in The Georgia Review, New England Review, The Cincinnati Review and The Sun.