Today, as from the beginning of the institution, research is a vital and integral part of Clemson University’s mission. As a man of science, University founder Thomas Green Clemson understood that research is the key to finding solutions to social and economic problems and harnessed that brainpower to improve the lives of South Carolinians. Throughout the state’s history, Clemson researchers have continued to expand the boundaries of knowledge in areas ranging far beyond what Mr. Clemson might have imagined. In engineering and science, business, architecture, health care, virtually every aspect of our lives, Clemson researchers are finding solutions to problems ranging from the tiniest microscopic nanoparticles to the vast reaches of the universe. Our faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduates are working together on campus and with colleagues from Egypt to Antarctica to add to the body of knowledge and improve the quality of life not just in South Carolina but everywhere. Our research program focuses on eight critical areas where the University’s missions of teaching, research and public service intersect. These Emphasis Areas share common elements that point to success — existing faculty research strengths and infrastructure, correlation with the state’s existing or emerging industry clusters, and significant potential for external funding. We are further refining this Emphasis Area approach by identifying and targeting niche areas of research in which Clemson is nationally competitive.

In only eight years since the creation of this focused approach, Clemson has seen its research program more than double, from $69 million to more than $150 million in sponsored research. With an insurgence of 330 new faculty over the past five years, statewide initiatives such as the Centers of Economic Excellence, which provides funding to match industry investment in research, and a long-standing tradition of moving research from the laboratory to the marketplace, Clemson’s research program is moving forward at incredible speed.

Research at Clemson is 24/7. It can be dirty and tedious, exhausting and frustrating. But it’s also collaborative and creative, challenging and exhilarating. Just ask professor Ted Bateman, whose experiment on bone loss took a ride on NASA’s Endeavor space shuttle. Or postdoctoral fellow Kristen Gaworecki, whose research on prescription drugs in U.S. water supplies was featured in Scientific American. Or the undergraduate students whose class project on the “5-second rule,” led by professor Paul Dawson, made “The Tonight Show” and The New York Times.

Research can change the world, even in small steps: At least two states have made texting while driving illegal, based on research findings of the team led by faculty Johnell Brooks and Jennifer Ogle.

Stereotypes of ivory towers and aloof researchers were not created at Clemson! In this community of scholars, collaboration is more often the research model than solitude.

Perhaps that’s why for two of the past three years, The Scientist magazine named Clemson the “Best Place to Work in Academia” based on faculty surveys.

But don’t take our word for it. As we continue to pursue our goal of making Clemson a major research university, we invite you to visit our laboratories, meet our outstanding researchers and celebrate these visionary thinkers who explore the world in more ways than we can note here; who engage and prepare the next generation to continue to push the envelope of knowledge; and who, along with our graduate and undergraduate students, work without ceasing to move Clemson, our state and the world to even greater heights of understanding and quality of life for us all.

Christian E.G. Przirembel
Vice President for Research & Economic Development
(For biographical information click on the above link)