Month: January 2024

Clemson faculty from any department and discipline are invited to apply for the Robert H. Brooks Sports Science Institute’s seed grant program for the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Due in InfoEd by March 29, proposals should aim to accelerate Clemson faculty members’ ability to address significant scientific and societal problems associated with and improve the human condition through sports, broadly defined. The ideal outcome is to achieve nationally and internationally recognized research programs with external funding, significant awards, or scientific products. These efforts should support key areas that align with the Clemson Elevate strategic plan.

RHBSSI seed grant funding is intended to serve as a catalyst to move selected projects to a point that makes them highly competitive submissions for future external funding and impact. By the nature of the targeted funding, successful proposals will likely include multiple faculty members and/or students, multiple disciplines, and perhaps researchers and participants from other institutions, as long as the principal investigator is from Clemson.

Faculty must work with their college-sponsored programs support center to submit their proposals of $30,000 or less through the InfoEd portal in accordance with college-sponsored programs support center procedures. Click here to learn more about the requirements and application process.

After launching the inaugural internship program at the start of the fall 2023 semester, the Robert H. Brooks Science Institute is excited to introduce its two new student interns for the spring 2024 semester. 

The institute had a competitive application process for the internship positions, but these two candidates stuck out based on their experience, work ethic and abilities. 

Justin Robertson

Justin Robertson, a senior sports communication major from Dayton, Maryland, is the institute’s marketing and communications intern this semester. He will monitor sports-related content on campus, interview students and faculty for content and help oversee the institute’s social media presence and Sports Insights blog. 

“I am thrilled to begin this new position and help the institute grow,” Robertson said. “The research and work that the institute’s legacy professors and fellows carry out on a daily basis is nothing short of exceptional. I can’t wait to help share their work with the public and inform people about the impact that the institute has in the sports science landscape.”

Robertson currently serves as the Associate Editor of Clemson University’s student newspaper, The Tiger, where he has gained extensive experience writing and reporting on sports-related content that he hopes will contribute to the institute’s mission. 

Lauren Crumley

Lauren Crumley, a senior sports communication major from Haddonfield, New Jersey, is the institute’s events intern this semester. She will aid in event planning and setup, coordinate event operations for the institute’s lecture series and work with faculty on special projects. 

“I’m super excited to be working as the events intern for the Robert H. Brooks Sports Science Institute this semester,” Crumley said. “I’ve learned a lot from my previous experiences in the areas of event planning and operations and am looking forward to continuing that with the institute. I look forward to displaying the mission of the institute through the lecture series and more!”

Crumley is a member of Clemson’s rowing team and recently accepted a postgraduate internship in championships operations at the NCAA. 

One of the Robert H. Brooks Sports Science Institute’s dedicated faculty fellows has been named as the Mark Brooks Legacy Professor in Sports Management.

Following the retirement of Sheila Backman from the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, the department named Gregory Ramshaw, Ph.D., to the legacy professor position this month. Ramshaw has been a valued member of the institute since 2017 and now takes on a legacy role in the name of Robert H. Brooks’ son, Mark Brooks, who tragically passed away in a 1993 plane crash along with three other colleagues.

Ramshaw is a professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management. His research explores the social construction and cultural production of heritage, with a particular interest in sport-based heritage. Through fellowship professional development funds, the institute supported Ramshaw’s 2018 research project on harnessing the power of Clemson Football memories to improve the cognitive functioning of South Carolinians with dementia, and the publishing of two recent books that he wrote and co-edited: Heritage and Sport: An Introduction (Channel View, 2020) and Baseball and Cultural Heritage (University Press of Florida, 2022). Ramshaw is currently working on a project that examines the factors that lead to larger soccer teams becoming tourist attractions.

As a legacy professor, Ramshaw will look to build a more in-depth program of study in his discipline by recruiting and encouraging other faculty and students to contribute to the institute’s mission, as well as carrying on the legacy of Robert and Mark Brooks. 

Visit Clemson.edu/Brooks-Sports to learn more about our legacy professors and the many faculty engaged in our institution. 

Two Robert H. Brooks Sports Science Institute faculty fellows were recently featured on Clemson University Research Foundation’s (CURF’s) social media accounts for their valuable research and work in the Clemson Headgear Impact Performance (CHIP) Laboratory.

John DesJardins, a bioengineering professor, and Greg Batt, a food, nutrition, and packaging sciences associate professor, have worked in the CHIP lab for several years, aiming to assess the faceguards on headgear in sports and improve their effectiveness and safety.

Under Batt and DesJardins’ leadership, the CHIP lab offers unique opportunities for students interested in researching the effects of impacts on the head and neck in sports. Last year, the institute spotlighted the work of Bianca Henline, a then-senior bioengineering student who researched the effectiveness of commonly worn bull riding helmets. 

The institute is proud to financially support much of the work performed in the CHIP lab as DesJardins and Batt continue to lead a team of innovative students and groundbreaking research.